Why should Muslims be offended over this movie?

They were probably offended the blatant homosexual undertones expressed by the portrayal of Leonidas and his men. After all, it wasn't just the Athenians who were "boy lovers" as Leonidas falsely declares in a certain scene. Greek men often had childhood "boyfriends"

I remember some of the controversy when this was released. Didn't even know it was based on real historical events/people.

I thought it was just a brainless action flick with a ton of slow-mo and CGI that just happened to be set in ancient Greece.

I personally never really saw anything offensive about it, but this was before the PC/SJW culture wars, so any controversy it might have had probably faded off rather quickly.

They wernt

Muslims are offended by just about everything. That's why they and liberals are such fast friends.

They shouldn't. It's an action movie.

The people who were offended by the film would complain about how the Persians were depicted as monstrous (literally and figuratively) people who practice slavery and are, generally, evil. They would also point out that the Spartans were depicted as freedom-loving people who fit a lot of American self-image stereotypes, despite the Spartans of that era also having slaves (Helots) and being just as "boy-lovey" as the Athenians.

Given that it was released in the Bush administration, it's not hard to see that they are perceiving the film as painting the Greeks (West/Americans) as patriotic badasses and leaving the Persians (East/Iran/Arab-Muslim World) to be the bad guys. The film has little "grey area", so it's not like the politics are painted as nuanced.

I think it's clear that the movie isn't trying to be historically accurate, and I think it's main goal is to be "cool" and have a lot of testosterone-driven sword-and-spear fights. Accusing the film of racism or "Islamophobia" is, in my opinion, being over-sensitive. At worst, it's in the same category as movies like The Patriot, where you roll your eyes a little at the too-good image of the Colonials vs. the too-bad image of the British, but you just enjoy the film for what it is and you move on.

I still want 2 meet the spartans .

This movie was great but wasn't history.

The guy who wrote the graphic novel alluded to the dangers of Islam at the movie premiere, so the association was started with him.