Jim Caviezel, best known for playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ, says a film he made about the stoning of an Iranian woman put his life at risk. In an interview clip shared by podcast host Benny Johnson on Nov. 11, the actor claimed that a fatwa had been issued against him because of his role in The Stoning of Soraya M.
"I have a fatwa on me," Caviezel told Johnson. He linked the alleged threat to the 2009 drama and said he believed it put him in danger. In the excerpt reported by LifeSiteNews, Caviezel did not identify who allegedly issued the fatwa or when. The alleged fatwa and its contents could not be independently verified.
A fatwa is an opinion issued by a qualified Islamic scholar on a question of religious law. Its significance depends on who issued it and what it says. Caviezel also used the interview to voice concern about Sharia law in the United States.
Directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on a book by journalist Freidoune Sahebjam. Caviezel plays the journalist, who becomes stranded in a remote Iranian village. There, a woman named Zahra, played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, tells him what happened to her niece Soraya. The film follows how Soraya's husband fabricates an accusation of adultery that leads to a sham trial and her execution by stoning.
Caviezel's comments came in the same week he revisited another defining role in a separate interview with Sean Hannity. In that conversation, the actor said he believes Jesus appeared to him while he was weighing whether to take the lead in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
