Ammon News - AMMONNEWS – Parliament voted by majority on Saturday to ban a televised documentary about the lives of the Prophet of Islam’s grandsons, Hassan and Hussein.

Al-Hassan wa al-Hussein recounts the lives of the Prophet’s two grandsons after his death, from the time of the third Calip Othman Bin Affan to the struggle between the first Umayyad Caliph, Muawiyah Ibn Yazid, and the two brothers.

The struggle ended in Hassan and Hussein’s being killed by Muawiyah’s troops in the Iraqi city of Karbala. The shrines of the two men in the holy city remain one of the Islamic world’s most important centers of pilgrimage outside Mecca.

The historic dispute between the Prophet’s grandsons and the Umayyad Caliph marks the beginning of the split of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam.

Despite claims that both Sunni and Shia sources were drawn upon in its making, the documentary has been slammed by authorities from both sects who condemn its historic inaccuracy, and warn that it could give rise to a fresh wave of sectarian conflict.

The Iraqi Media and Information Commission called on all TV channels not to air a program that would “harm history and the properties that characterize the family of the Prophet Mohammed”.


Baha al-Aaraji, head of the Ahrar bloc, under the umbrella of the Sadr Current led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, told AKnews: “The program twists the truth of Islamic history… It incites sectarian conflict within the Iraqi community”.

The work has also been banned by the ancient al-Azhar institute in Egypt, Sunni Islam’s highest authority.

With a population composed roughly of 65% Shia and 35% Sunni, Iraq lost thousands of civilians as sectarian violence ripped through the country in 2006 and 2007.

As Iraq slowly progresses toward a more stable, united poulation, free from violence, anything that runs the risk of heightening tensions – whether ethnic or sectarian – is likely to be the subject of similar censure.


* Kurdistan News Agency