Jamia Darul Uloom Karachi has released a fatwa and declared the popular Turkish epic Diriliş: Ertuğrul, and other dramas as unsuitable for a Muslim audience.
Darul Uloom Karachi University shared a copy of the fatwa issued against the Turkish soap.
In the fatwa, they claimed that dramas such as Ertugrul were part of a conspiracy against Islam.
According to the fatwa, “portraying Islam and Islamic personalities or their deeds through dramas or films is tantamount to insulting the dignity of these personalities themselves because the possibility of misrepresentation is huge.”
“Hence calling it an Islamic drama or considering it as a service to Islam by playing the role of high profile personalities in the form of dramas is not right,” the fatwa claimed.
It further added that in such dramas “they attribute their own costumes, dress and speech, which is not, in fact, a service to Islam but part of a conspiracy against Islam, so making, watching and showing such films is a sin”.
The fatwa advised all Muslims to stay away and avoid such dramas.
However, there is a difference of opinions in different religious circles regarding the Turkish drama. Additionally, the younger generation is quite interested in watching the show. It has become one of the most popular show’s in the country with more than 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan said that Ertugrul and such dramas will help show a different side of Islam.
He said that Ertugurl promotes Islamic culture. “Over here we go to Hollywood then Bollywood and back again…a third hand culture gets promoted this way,” he added.
“I want our children and youth to know what is the difference…about our culture. It also has romance, history…,” he said. “[The show] has Islamic values.”
Earlier, Jamia Binoria, a Karachi-based Islamic institute, released a fatwa against Ertugrul as well.
The show is based on Islamic history and portrays the story of the Ottoman Empire.
Ertugrul is one of the highest-rated shows on Netflix and has acquired worldwide appreciation from the film critics for portraying an accurate history of the Ottoman caliphate.
It is rated 7.6 on IMDb and has an average of 100% score from the audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.
