Jesus through the eyes of an Iranian...

ABC News reports that in "the award-winning movie, "The Messiah," Jesus is depicted as not being the son of God, and not crucified...
[The] new movie in Iran depicts the life of Jesus from an Islamic perspective. "The Messiah," which some consider as Iran's answer to Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ," won an award at Rome's Religion Today Film Festival for generating interfaith dialogue..."

Here are portions of an interview with the filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh and ABC reporter Lara Setrakian.

"LS: Why did you feel a movie showing Islam's take on Jesus needed to be made?
NT: I've been witnessing what's been going on in Iran for the past 28 years; I've been living here after I lived a decade in America. Everybody knows Jesus, so why not make a film about something everyone relates to? And made in Iran.
LS: What are the key differences between Jesus through Islam's eyes and Jesus through the traditional Christian perspective?
NT: We are talking about the same beautiful man, the same beautiful prophet, the same divine person sent from heaven. In the Koran, it emphasizes maybe three main points: about the birth, about the fact that he was not the son of God, and then, that he was not crucified. The rest is [the same] Jesus ... the sermons, and the miracles, and the political situation.
LS: So, when it comes to Jesus, the message and the reverence are there.
NT: Yes.
LS: But the virgin birth, the crucifixion...
NT: The virgin birth was the same. The difference in the Koran, God says Jesus was saved. Instead of having him hung and crucified, the person who betrayed Jesus was crucified. This is how the Koran sees it, through the Gospel of Barnabas.
LS: There's plenty of news today about Christians being persecuted, or even killed, today, in Muslim countries. So, where does the Muslim reverence for Christians go off-track?
NT: It doesn't go off-track. The Muslim reverence is very high for Jesus and Mary. This is the misunderstanding in the West — especially in America.
LS: So, then, why in your mind do Muslims, in some places, kill Christians?
NT: Well, those are not Muslims. They're murderers. First and foremost, they're murderers, and they dress as Muslims. Today, we have that problem. There is an evil strain in those people. They're, first, evil, and then they find a religion to address that evil, or to explain it, or as an excuse. But that's a minority that is aggrandized, and it's elaborated — it's constant. So, when you hear the word "Islam," you get a shock. Every time you hear "Islam," you get a little shock. What we lack is communication."

Here is more of the interview.

Here is the related news video.

So what do you think?...