A Shaikh

A missed opportunity to show how religion and science came together during the Islamic golden age - but in typical Hollywood/Europen style, the film arrogantly portrayed religion as being anti science and did a massive disservice to the likes of Ibn Sina who gave so much to science generally. Sina like many others, was a devout Muslim scholar and a scientist, they existed then and they continue to exist now without any contradiction to the Islamic tradition. Islam doesn't suffer from ignorance to science. I know the story is fictional in the film, but there's no excuse for school boy research of a period that actually existed - for example, Sina is shown to be taught new ways by a fictional character, Rob Cole, who is of course a westerner who manages to enlighten others in the east. The imperialistic undertone is shoved down our throats once again and the audience (most, not all) are oblivious to what's being fed to them quietly. Another example is how Muslims are shown to bow down to leaders in obedience, a classic portrayal of submissive subjects who are often oppressed, when in reality Muslims strictly bow to Allah/God alone ONLY. Sina would never commit suicide being a devout Muslim, Jews weren't mistreated, Christians were part of society and the Seljuks weren't anti science for goodness sakes! I can go on and on with examples. The main thing I want to do, is to call out these film makers who think it's ok to belittle a quarter of the worlds population and feed their hate campaigns under the guise of an innocent looking film. It's far from innocent and it's insulting to the viewers. Had the film been created without the above, it would have been a good film!