dramatizing the faith's loving, compassionate face through a love story.
"I believe Islam is compassionate," Hanung Bramantyo, the director of "Ayat Ayat Cinta", translating into "Verses of Love," told Reuters on Tuesday, April 1.

"Some people say to struggle for Islam means doing something great, but for me a love story can also carry Islamic messages."

Based on a best-selling Indonesian Islamic novel, the movie features the life of Fahri, a young, handsome Indonesian who wins a scholarship to complete his study at Egypt's esteemed Al Azhar University.

Religious, disciplined and dedicated by nature, he excels in his studies exactly according to pre-determined targets.

Only one goal is left un-attempted for the innocent 27-year-old student who is inarticulate and shy around women: the pursuit of marriage.

Fahri struggles to choose a wife from four distinctly different women who fall in love with him.

He eventually settles on veiled, dark-eyed Aisha, a Turkish-German student.

The film has become one of most popular movies in Indonesia in recent years with more than three million people watching it in nearly four weeks.

Hanung, who has eight silver-screen films under his belts, plans an extended version of Ayat Ayat Cinta for the international market.

Clearing Stereotypes

The movie seeks to dispel many Western stereotypes about Islam through the problems Fahri encounters and his attempts to solve them through Islamic teachings.

Sensitive issues such as Islam's treatment of women and polygamy are taking central stage in the story.

Fahri and Aisha's perfect life is turned upside down when he is falsely accused of rape, imprisoned and threatened with death by hanging.

Desperate to save her husband, Aisha begs him to take Maria, an Egyptian Christian who is the only person who can prove his innocence, as a second wife.

Fahri does so reluctantly and then struggles to be fair to both loves as Islam teaches in practicing polygamy.

In one of the most dramatic scenes, an Egyptian man criticizes a woman who gives her seat on a packed Cairo train to an elderly American tourist, an "infidel" he says, whose nation has waged war against Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But Fahri jumps in, telling the man he is defying the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), who said all foreigners who enter a Muslim country legally should be welcomed with open arms.

Indonesian officials have hailed the film for showing Islam's peaceful message.

A spokesman for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called the film an "antithesis" to "Fitna", an anti-Islam movie by far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders which intersperses images of terror attacks with verses from the Qur'an.

Hanung, the filmmaker, says it was his goal to present Islam's true face and to portray Muslims as modern people who practice tolerance, sincerity and honesty.

"Muslims don't just talk about heaven and hell, or about life in the hereafter," said 32-year-old director.

"They can also talk about love, about falling in love at the first sight."


Source: Islamonline