Reuters reports:
A powerful organization of Indian Islamic clerics promised on Monday to help Christian groups launch protests if the authorities did not ban the screening of the controversial film, “The Da Vinci Code.”
Protest in India against the film have so far been low key, but several Catholic groups have threatened to stage street demonstrations and even to shut down cinema halls screening it. . . .
In India, leaders of the two communities met politicians and police in the western city of Mumbai on Saturday, urging the authorities to stop the screening of the film.
“If the government doesn’t do anything, we will try our own ways of stopping the film from being shown,” said Syed Noori, president of Mumbai-based Raza Academy, a Muslim cultural organization that often organizes protests on issues concerning Islam. “We are prepared for violent protests in India if needed.”
Oh joy.
And it’s not just the book’s heretical content that has the guys at Raza so upset. A press release at their own website says:
The Sony Entertainment Television is slated to release a picture titled “Da Vinci Code” on the 17th of May 2006. AS you are aware Islam prohibits any time of photography and to make a film of the Prophets is totally unacceptable to us.
So we’re back to that old debate.
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