Oh boy.
(CNN) – On Monday, the UK government formally announced that “Star Wars, Episode VIII,” would begin shooting at Pinewood Studios.
Being May 4th, it was “Star Wars Day.” But May 4th, 2015, was also the 15th of Rajab, 1436 — and Rajab is one of the most noted months in the Islamic calendar, with the middle of the month being a particularly auspicious occasion.
Indeed, the 15th of Rajab is also the anniversary of the birth of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, a deeply significant spiritual figure for Muslims. The confluence of these days should not be underestimated — as “Star Wars” is discreetly, very Islamic. (OK, kind of.)
A recent article by Graeme Wood argued that ISIS “is Islamic — very Islamic” — but actually, the “Star Wars” epic of films is at least as Islamic as the radical extremist group, if not more so. Of course, unlike ISIS, the films’ creator George Lucas doesn’t actually cite Islamic vocabulary, which makes the connections between the world of Jedis and Islam rather inconspicuous.
This probably serves to protect Lucas — who sold production company Lucasfilm to Disney and is not himself overseeing the new “Star Wars” movie — from claims of #CreepingShariah. More than that, “Star Wars” gets something very right — the notion of religious authority in Islam.
Take Obi Wan Kenobi, for example, and his relationship with Luke Skywalker — as well as Skywalker’s relationship with Yoda. (Ignore, if you must, the filming of the most pertinent Jedi scenes in Tunisia, an Arab-Muslim country with a very long tradition of Islamic spirituality, or Sufism). The notion of the “Jedi Knights” is built very much on the quintessentially Muslim phenomenon of tariqah Sufism — or the spirituality of the Sufi order.