Muslim communication academicians and writers had been calling for portraying Islam in drama. This call has been answered by some directors and producers who attempted to produce drama about Islam. However, these attempts are facing criticism due to misportrayal of the original characters in the drama produced. The objectives of this study are to identify the main characters of The Message and to test the authenticity of the portrayal of the characters of The Message. The main finding of the study is that the characters of The Message were misportrayed. The misportrayal took place on the psychological dimension of the characters. Some of the Muslim characters were degraded, while some non-Muslim characters were elevated. The misportrayal of the characters lies in their voice tone that shows Muslims as barbaric and hegemonic on the first hand, while on the other hand non-Muslims are portrayed as wise and logical people.

Film is a medium that depicts human activities. It visually portrays ideology and culture as well as empowers knowledge and the understanding of civilisation. The most concern is about the misrepresentation of media content, particularly concerning Islam and Muslims in films. The Message (1977, dir. Moustapha al-Akkad) is one of many made-in–Hollywood films that portray Islam and Muslims livelihood in Mecca during the revelation era of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and His migration from Mecca to Madinah. This paper intends to focus on how Islam is being represented in this film and how it portrays Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions. The main question that this paper attempts to answer is: are the actions and incidents of The Message film authentically portrayed? Identification of scenes containing actions and key incidents were done through the lens of content analysis. Based on the analysis of key incidents, findings indicate that the film supports the propaganda against Islam that Islam is a terrorist religion and Muslims are aggressors.