A gay Muslim film-maker has said he has received numerous death threats and online abuse before his latest film, A Sinner in Mecca, premiered at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto on 29 April.
Parvez Sharma – an award-winning documentary-maker and LBGT activist, born in India but now based in New York – filmed his experience of undertaking the hajj, the devotional pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that Muslims are required to go on at least once in their lifetimes. Homosexuality is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia, and photography, even with cameraphones, is frowned upon, if not officially banned.
A Sinner in Mecca was well received at Hot Docs, with critics praising Sharma’s deeply felt attempt to reconcile his sexuality with his faith, as well as his critique of the Saudis’ custodianship of holy sites. However, Sharma has said he received “a barrage of hate mail” from Muslim countries before the film was even screened, “including direct threats to me”. Some examples are published on the film’s website. One poster writes: “How dare you call yourself a Muslim, while you have commented [sic] the biggest sin ever?” while describing the film as a “peace [sic] of crap”. As a result, the festival took the precaution of increasing security for the screenings.
Sharma describes himself as “a defiant pilgrim”, and his film as “a call to action to all Muslims to change the things that need to change within 21st-century Islam”.
