Aslan A Representation of Muhammad?

Aslan is the lion symbolising Jesus in the fictitious land of Narnia from a series of children's books written by C.S. Lewis called "The Chronicles Of Narnia. The symbolism is clear and unmistakable.

Liam Neeson, the voice for Aslan in the Narnia movies, however has been quoted as saying that "Aslan symbolises a Christ-like figure but he also symbolizes for me Muhammad...". As if any more proof was needed that good acting does not equate to good theology.

In Neeson's world I'm sure that's how he sees it, and he is perfectly within his right to make for himself any crutch he feels necessary to make sense of his life. Interestingly however, by doing this Neeson reveals that he lives his life in a world more fictitious than that of the talking lion for whom he provides the voice, for Lewis was not silent in this series on Islam.

Who could read "A Horse And His Boy" and not make the connections between the Calamarines and Islam, Tisrok and Mahammad, and Tash and Allah? Interestingly, Lewis almost prophetically anticipates Neeson's sentiments in his concluding book in the series. In "The Last Battle" A deceptive coup takes place in the land of Narnia while the King is away. The would-be new king, an Ape named Shift, is claiming that he is the new chosen spokes"man" for Aslan, and he claims that Alsan has decreed that he and the Tash are One; that in fact the Calamarines and the Narnians have always served the same deity. Much like Neeson in real life, many of the creatures of Narnia believe this and begin to commit abominations against Aslan. Shift, who in reality has no regard for Aslan but only wants to co-opt his authority to create for himself a life of ease, has no problem publicly making these universal and blasphemous claims. The Calamrines on the other hand are clearly not willing to blaspheme their Tash by speaking their agreement out loud in so many words. They simply play along seeing this as an opportunity to infiltrate and subdue Narnia.

While Neeson sees himself as a Catholic, i.e., Christian, but is yet willing to see Aslan as also symbolic of Muhammad, true to form with relativistic Christians, he forgets one important fact. Aslan was murdered. In fact he willingly gave himself over to be murdered. For the Muslim this is an untenable and blasphemous symbolism. They are not willing to join Neeson and his liberal band of brothers in their fantasy land; especially if it means the death of their profit, symbolic or otherwise.

So we clearly have a case here where the fictitious story of Narnia with its Christian symbolism is more real than the Utopian paradise created in the minds of liberal Christians.