"Da Vinci Code" banned in Pakistan
The government described the film as "blasphemous and offensive". The same decision was taken in Andhra Pradesh, the seventh Indian state to forbid its release.
Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Pakistani government has decided to ban the "Da Vinci Code" from cinemas. The decision was taken because the film, based on a novel with the same name, "is blasphemous and offends the Christian minority".
Culture Minister Ghulam Jamal said: "The film is blasphemous. Islam teaches us to respect all the prophets and Jesus Christ is a prophet much respected by all Muslims. Any attack or degradation against him should be condemned."
The government decision follows protests by the small Christian community, which makes up 2.5% of the total population. At the end of May, the community had called for a "total ban on a work that offends us all, in the name of respect for all religious symbols preached by Islam". The Muttehida Majlas-e-Amal [MMA, alliance of Pakistan's six Islamic parties] joined in the protests.
On Saturday 3 June, the "Code" was also banned in Andhra Pradesh, the seventh Indian state to decide to forbid its release following a statement issued by the Indian censor board on 25 May.
The board left it up to local governments to decide whether to ban the film or not. However it obliged Sony the company that produced and is distributing the film to insert a notice at the beginning of the film to say "the film is a product of fiction without any historical validity".
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