Islam's Prophet Motive

By Michael Elliott

Since Sept. 11, 2001, two ideas about Islam have become axiomatic: that Americans need to know more about the religion and that "moderate" Muslims in the U.S. and other Western societies need to reclaim their faith from those who kill and maim in its name. With that background, it might seem churlish to cavil at a serious attempt to address both needs. But there is something about the PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (Dec. 18, 9 p.m. E.T.) that doesn't convince.

Muhammad's life--he lived from 570 to 632--is probably the best documented of any leading religious figure's before modern times, at least partly because he was as much a politician in Arabia as the "founder" of a religion that now has more than 1 billion adherents. With frequent use of the words of Karen Armstrong, Muhammad's biographer, the film tells the story of his life--his birth in Mecca, his rise to prominence as an honest man and a successful merchant, his loving marriage to Khadija--leading up to the moment when, while he was meditating in the hills above Mecca, an angel instructed him to "recite." That was the pivot of Muhammad's life, the event that turned him from a well-to-do businessman into the acknowledged leader of a religious group that established dominance in much of Arabia during his lifetime.

Though the film relies too much on shots of the same few antique paintings and murals, it is often gorgeous to look at. (So it should be: no filmmaker worth his lenses ever shot an ugly scene in the Arabian Desert.) Muhammad cleverly cuts away from incidents in the Prophet's life to scenes in which some modern Muslims--including a New York City fire marshal and a nurse caring for the terminally ill in Dearborn, Mich.--explain how the example of Muhammad's life and work sustains them more than 1,300 years after his death. These stories are often moving and for many Americans will be a revelation. It is right to be reminded of Islam's caring side and the extent to which it gives breath and meaning to a worldwide community.

Still, the film, which was funded partially by a number of Islamic foundations, tries too hard. When the Muslims in Medina murder 700 Jews, up pops a commentator to insist that Muhammad was not anti-Semitic. When the Prophet allows his followers to take up to four wives, the film stresses that he was, for his time, something of a feminist. When Muhammad leads his troops into battle, it is explained that he did so only because there was no alternative.

Fine. But it is bad history and worse public relations to pretend that Islam has always been pacific (it would not have grown so far and so fast had it been so), sensitive to the rights of women and protective of other faiths and people of "the book." Just as the history of Christianity has not always been a testament to the lessons of the God of love, so is Islam's past--and present--speckled with intolerance and bloodshed. What the world needs is not a hagiography of the Prophet or an apologia for Islam but a clear sense that modern Muslims are prepared to engage in an honest debate on the way in which their faith has been perverted by those who kill thousands of innocents. --By Michael Elliott