Muslim cinema and Islamic Cinema are terms defined by Javed Mohammed of MyFavoriteReview that although may sound similar are distinct. The two are defined as follows: “Islamic Cinema is film that conforms to Islamic laws, customs and values.”[1] “Muslim Cinema is a film movement by or about Muslims.” Muslim Cinema also refers collectively to the cinema of Muslim Majority countries which are listed in this page as well as from those where Muslims are a minority. In terms of World Cinema, there are four primary regions where Muslim Cinema emanates from. These are African Cinema, South Asian Cinema, Sout East Asian Cinema, and West Asian Cinema.
The term African cinema refers to film production in Africa, most often referring to Muslim countries in Sub-Saharan Africa following formal independence, which for many countries happened in the 1960s. Some of the countries in North Africa (such as the cinema of Egypt, for example) had developed a national film industry much earlier and are related to West Asian cinema.
The term West Asian Cinema refers to the Middle East and includes the Muslim countries of Iran, and Turkey. By definition, the Middle East covers the film industries of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.
The term South East Asian Cinema refers to the Muslim majority countries of Malaysia, and Indonesia.
The term South Asian Cinema refers to the Muslim countries of Bangladesh, and Pakistan.
The remainder of this page is a country wide breakdown of Muslim majority countries.
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