WASHINGTON, October 16 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The first animated movie on the life of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) will finally be screened in North America on November 14 at the beginning of Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.  

"Muhammad: The Last Prophet," will premiere in theaters in 37 US and Canadian cities for one week, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The 90-minute film that chronicles the early life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was produced for Badr International by RichCrest Animation Studios, the creators of animated classics such as "The King and I" and "The Fox and the Hound."

Film director Richard Rich is a well-known American director who worked for Disney.

No images of Prophet Muhammad appear in the film, given that Islam prohibits the visual representation of the prophets.

"Great Significance"

"Yet it is of great significance for this first animated Islamic movie ever in North America to be screened at the end of the fasting month -- fitting perfectly with the nature of the film," said Oussama Jammal, president of the film's distributing company Fine Media Group.

He said the film was scheduled to be released in the United States around 2002 but was put off because it was just after the 9/11 attacks.

"People were not in the mood to go to the movies," said the 50-year-old Lebanese-born Jammal, who emigrated to the United States in the 1980s and has since become an American citizen.  

He said it was an irony that Americans would be able to watch the US-produced movie after much of the world had already seen it.

Window to Islam  

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, said the movie was an excellent opportunity for parents and children of all faiths "to learn more about an historic figure like Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and events that shaped today's world."

"It addresses the needs of the post 9/11 climate and is a creative and non-political way for the people to know about the history of Islam and the prophet's message," council spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmad told AFP.

Nihad Awad, the council's executive director, urged Muslims to purchase tickets for distribution to their friends and neighbors.

John Voll, the director of Georgetown University's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, said the movie would help provide an "alternative perspective".

"The movie is especially relevant in the current time when so much of the media presentations of Muslims and Muslim life are so negative," he told AFP.  

Policies of the administration of George W. Bush in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks have, in effect, antagonized a large section of the estimated six million Muslim Americans.

Racial profiling, the detention and deportation of an unknown number of young men from Arab and Muslim countries, some for fairly minor immigration violations, and the Justice Department’s crackdown on Muslim charities have all fueled a sense of persecution.

Three quarters of Muslims polled recently said they would vote for Senator John Kerry to just seven percent for Republican Bush ahead of the tightly-contested November 2 presidential polls.

Some 150 of the traditionally Republican-leaning Arab Americans, including businessmen, physicians and lawyers, agreed during a meeting at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on October 3 to give their votes to Kerry.