Film showing Satan in mosque sparks backlash as rights group defends artistic freedom

A Moroccan human rights association pushed back Wednesday against calls to ban a film called “Thank You Satan,” arguing that critics were demanding censorship of a work they had never seen in full, as a widening legal battle over the provocative film laid bare deep tensions between artistic freedom and religious sensitivities.

The Mediterranean Cinema and Human Rights Encounters Association expressed “deep astonishment” at demands to pull “Thank You Satan” known in Arabic as “Al-Matrud min Rahmat Allah” (Cast Out from God’s Mercy), from national cinemas, saying opponents were conflating cinema, media law and criminal law in ways that provided no sound basis for judging artistic work.

“Issuing statements to ban an artistic work that their authors have not seen in its complete form is bewildering,” the group said, citing Articles 25 and 26 of Morocco’s constitution, which guarantee freedom of artistic creation and the right of access to culture.

The film, directed by Hicham Lasri, ignited controversy after its trailer circulated widely on social media ahead of its April 8 cinema release. The clip features scenes inside what appears to be a mosque accompanied by Quranic recitation, intimate footage, and a character portraying Satan,  imagery that critics said amounted to a desecration of Islamic sacred symbols.

The association “Rabia Al-Cinema” filed a complaint that prompted Morocco’s Public Prosecution to refer the trailer to the Attorney General at the Casablanca Court of Appeal on March 24,  the same day the complaint was lodged, over scenes suspected of violating the penal code and a recent Supreme Court ruling criminalising online pornographic content.

The complaint stated that the work includes “grave abuse of the houses of God and the Holy Quran,” through the use of religious symbols within scenes described as “pornographic and immoral,” including a scene in which a person embodies “the devil” within a space that suggests it is a mosque, along with obscene phrases in English.

“The trailer constitutes grave insults to houses of God and the Holy Quran,” the group said, urging the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre to withhold the film’s release licence until the contested scenes were removed.

It warned that clearing the film while it remained under judicial scrutiny could amount to implicit state authorisation of prosecutable material. The association said it was also preparing a letter to the Supreme Religious Council, chaired by King Mohammed VI as Commander of the Faithful, and a complaint to the labour ministry over conditions on set.

Moroccan director Abdelilah Al-Jouhari defended the film as deserving multiple viewings, praising its “bold intellectual discourse” and precise cinematic craft.

The rights association countered that societies are measured by the vitality of their cultural output, and that censorship calls “impoverish public debate and obstruct creative dynamics.”

 “I do not want to give them too much value, especially since we are in an election year, and there are parties trying to appear on our backs and exploit such issues to achieve a certain presence,” Lasri told Hespress.