Christians [riot] Over "The Da Vinci Code"

The peaceful Christians, indeed. How come they now demonstrate all over the world? I thought only the Muslims are the "intolerant" ones, huh? Folks, please, read the following and, see how hypocritical the Christians are:

"CANNES, France - Anger over "The Da Vinci Code," premiering Wednesday at the Cannes Film Festival, escalated Tuesday as Christian groups from South Korea, Thailand, Greece and India planned boycotts, a hunger strike and attempts to block or shorten screenings.

The plot of the movie, adapted by Ron Howard from Dan Brown's worldwide best seller, makes the case that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her.

In India, the government Tuesday put a temporary hold on the movie's release because of complaints.

In South Korea, which has 13 million Protestants and 4.6 million Roman Catholics, a court ruled Tuesday that a Christian group's request for an injunction to block screenings lacked merit.

"As it is clear that the novel and movie are all fiction , there is no probability that the movie can make viewers mistakenly believe the contents of the movie are facts," chief judge Song Jin-hyun said in his ruling.

The Christian Council of Korea, an umbrella group of 63 South Korean Protestant denominations, said it respected the ruling but would lead a boycott of the movie, which it said defiles the sanctity of Jesus Christ and distorts facts.

In Thailand, Christian groups demanded that government censors cut the film's final 15 minutes, fix subtitles that are supposedly disrespectful to Jesus and screen messages before and after the movie saying the content is fictional.

"If they are going to screen this, we asked that they cut out the conclusion of the movie that Jesus still has heirs alive today," said spokesman Manoch Jangmook, of the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand.

The censor board has not yet replied to the request. The movie is scheduled to start running Thursday in Thai theaters.

In mostly Hindu India, which is also home to 18 million Roman Catholics, Joseph Dias, head of the Catholic Secular Forum, began a hunger strike in downtown Bombay and said other people were joining him.

"We want the movie to be banned," he said.

The film had been set for release in India on Friday and had already been cleared by the national censor board. But Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi said he put a temporary hold on the movie after receiving more than 200 complaints.

"We are a secular country. On any sensitive issue, we should take action after we examine every aspect," Dasmunshi told reporters.

In Athens, Greece, some 200 religious protesters, waving crucifixes and Greek flags, demonstrated Tuesday in protest of the film. The protesters _ including Orthodox monks and nuns _ later marched peacefully to parliament.

"All religions merit respect, so why don't they show respect in this case instead of attacking all that we hold sacred?" said Athanasios Papageorgiou, president of St. John the Theologian group in Peania, east of Athens.

"I've read the book. It's despicable," he added. "The Muslims for one cartoon burnt anything, so what should we do?"

Greece's powerful Orthodox Church has blasted the "ridiculous content" of the movie but stopped short of calling for its boycott.

Philippine censors approved an adult rating for the movie but stopped short of rating it "X" because "it does not constitute a clear, express or direct attack on the Catholic church or religion" and does not libel or defame any person.

The movie-review panel's chairwoman, Marissa Laguardia, told The Associated Press that the movie would be a "test of faith" for many people in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines.

"Those groups, like the conservatives who want it banned, maybe they can tell their friends, discourage their friends from watching it," she said. "But it has to be shown. Otherwise we will be the only country that will not show this film. Thirty-six countries have already reviewed this film and they have not banned it. So are we just out of the Stone Age?"

The National Council of Churches in Singapore, which also had requested a ban, planned lectures to refute aspects of the film and the book on which it is based. The censorship board gave the movie an NC16 rating, barring viewers under 16, arguing that "only a mature audience will be able to discern and differentiate between fact and fiction."

Also, while not planning a protest or boycott, members of the National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation expressed unhappiness with the film's heavy, a monk-assassin, being an albino, as described in the book.

Michael McGowan, an albino who heads the organization, said "The Da Vinci Code" will be the 68th movie since 1960 to feature an evil albino.

The "Da Vinci" character "is just the latest in a long string," McGowan said. "The problem is there has been no balance. There are no realistic, sympathetic or heroic characters with albinism that you can find in movies or popular culture."

He said the group aims to use the movie's popularity to raise awareness about the realities of albinism. People with albinism have little or no pigmentation in their skin, eyes and hair."

SOURCE: Comcast Home Page. http://www.comcast.net

People are stupid, I really dislike people. I'm going to bed.

@ Ajisafe,

You may wonder at the anger and protests over the DVC from Christians, especially when its content is not only despicably anti-Christian but also purports to be based on 'historical facts' which historians have shamed as quite to the contrary. Now, you don't mean to trump up sympathy for your snivelling by equating these protests with Muslim reactions to the Mohammed cartoons, or to the murders that followed the people connected with Salman Rushdie's despicable work, The Satanic Verses, besides Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's fatwa on Rushdie.

In the Ayatollah's own words in a broadcast on Iranian radio, February 14, 1989: "I inform the proud Muslim people of the world that the author of the Satanic Verses book, which is against Islam, the Prophet and the Qur'an, and all those involved in its publication who are aware of its content are sentenced to death." Following this, Hitoshi Igarashi, the Japanese translator of Rushdie's book was stabbed to death in July 1991; Ettore Capriolo, the Italian translator, was seriously injured in a stabbing the same month, and William Nygaard, the publisher in Norway, survived an attempted assassination in Oslo in October 1991. On February 14, 2006, the Iranian state news agency reported that the fatwa will remain in place permanently. Khomeini offered a $6 million reward to anyone who killed Rushdie, forcing the novelist into hiding for many years.

How do these match the reactions of the "hypocrital" Christians to the DVC? I don't have all the details of the latest protests, but has anyone called for a death sentence on Dan Brown and his publishers and translators? What is even seriously disturbing is that the DVC crew seem to have lost all sense of propriety with regards to the sensitivities of other people, so that albinos are presented in bad light.

If Christians are protesting without calling for a reaction as violent as the Muslim reaction to Rushdie's fictional work, where do you get your passion for this noise making about the complaint that "they now demonstrate all over the world?" When someone is calling fiction 'fact', and seeks to calumniate the faith of other people, does it become a crime to protest against the calumny? What should be of more concern to you is the level to which the reaction or protest is taken; and when it is often one that pronounces a "fatwa" on people, something is suspect.

Personally, I wouldn't support the idea of unnecessary outbursts calling for a boycott or overreactions to the DVC. Loads of criticism against the Christian faith abound in several media - books, films, periodicals, and web articles - and they are not recent. I'd even be more sorry for those who base their consciences on fictional works as "historically accurate facts" (as Dan Brown says of his book). More than that, I don't take kindly to the ridicle of people-groups as sub-human simply because they happen to be albinos and deemed to be fit for nothing better than their unbalanced portrayal in cinematography.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with any group of people protesting over a perceived wrong. Muslims and Christians alike have a right to air their grievances as part of the society. What I am against is violence. Reverend Martin Luther King was a Christian and he showed us the way to protest without violence, same thing with Nelson Mandela. These two men are role models in this wise.

That being said, I see no similarities between what Christians are doing now and the violent protests we've seen in Islam. Moslems go way overboard trying to express their grievances. They have shown no respect to the laws and sovereingty of the lands that have most times, accepted them when their Islamic countries have had nothing to offer them (a case of biting the hands that feeds you). They burn the flags of these nations and chant death to them! That is totally unacceptable.

During the cartoon protest, one of the things they did was to boycot Danish goods. This I think is acceptable and should have been enough, more innovative ways of protesting should be encouraged. But no, they must call for the head of the cartoonists and burn embassies. These are things that will infuriate them if done to them.

Personally, I have often wondered why they go to such an extent to protest. I ask my self, if their Allah is alive and well, and if he is all powerful as they proclaim, can't he fight his battles himself? Must he use men to do his dirty work? Why the uproar when Mohammed's name is mentioed? Wasn't he flesh and blood like the rest of us? Or did he receive the Holy Spirit more than Jesus and so should be worthy of such reverence? It all just doesn't make sense.

Ajisafe did they protest with violence, or was it a peaceful protest? if the latter was the case, then i must say i don't see anything wrong in that.

There has been no riot or public demonstration. The original title was misleading. <<snip>>

@Ajisafe, easy. Don't be so embarrased and upset. I don't support the use of impolite language in addressing issues, but let this last one fall on me. I apologise on behalf of myself for the way you've felt unfairly treated by Christians engaging discussions with you. I also apologise to all Christians for the hurts that you've felt from Muslims unfairly treating you. Now I'd like to ask that we all address issues rather than descend to heated exchanges. God bless to everyone.

Oh, great. The replies have been modified.

All:

There's absolutely nothing misleading about the heading: 'Christians [Riot] Over "The Da Vinci Code." That's why I had it in brackets [](US) or parentheses [] (UK/NGR), which simply denoted the way I saw and interpreted the story itself. And if that was not being intellectually rich I don't know what is. Honestly, I was so shocked to see a story about the "peaceful" christians now calling for a movie to be censored or banned; some of them were even planning to disrupt the theatrical showings. Afterall, the christians parade themselves as the epitome of the peace-loving, "christ-like" do-gooders. Right?

@everyone: leave Ajisafe be, this thread of his was nothing more than a calculated attempt to undermine Christianity, nothing more. not only was his post misleading, it was also filled with hate and contempt for another religion that seemingly opposes his, or ideals that seemingly opposes his.

@Ajisafe: it's high time you stop looking at Christianity particularly (or any other religiion) as competition or something. every word you say concerning Christianity is always anti/negative. learn to be proactive son.

LOL! But you were right in a way, though. The christians think of the Muslims as their competitors. Far-removed from being your competitors, we are only here to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.

Am I really "old" enough to be your son? LOL!

Ajisafe:

LOL! But you were right in a way, though. The christians think of the Muslims as their competitors. Far-removed from being your competitors, we are only here to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.

Am I really "old" enough to be your son? LOL!

Ajisafe, actually it's the other way round. The MUSLIMS think of Christians as their competitors. nothing more. if not so, why are there threads like, "Jesus foretold Islam", "Paul an aniti-Christ", "Jesus paves way for Mohammed" and so on and so forth? it's not as if those threads were being put up to enlighten, that all the superficial BS* attached to it. they are all calculated schemes to undermine Christianity.

*BS-go learn ya acronyms

e don happun

People should be happy that the truth is coming out , instead of protesting. Do these so-called Christians who were protesting want to live a lie all their lives. It's bad enough their Parent and grand parents had to live this lie.

When will people start to wake up and smell the Palm wine?

@Kuns,

You should also be happy that we have been helping you come out of your lie. How long will you continue enslaving yourself under the black clan theory that hasn't helped you out of your phobia?

its ok for any religious body to protest. as long as its not violent or theres no attacks or assault on anyone.

If boycotting a movie, planning a hunger strike and requesting for the screening of a movie is Ajisafe's definition of VIOLENT RIOTS then how i wish the muslims will adopt such a method of violence. no one would give them a second look!

davidylan:

If boycotting a movie, planning a hunger strike and requesting for the screening of a movie is Ajisafe's definition of VIOLENT RIOTS then how i wish the muslims will adopt such a method of violence. no one would give them a second look!

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Ajisafe is quick to say the christians "rioted". I did not see them murdering anyone or passing deathsentences or bombing or burning people and property. No one has said that moslems should not express their grievances in a peaceful, legal orderly fashion. It's the violence that characterises almost every Islamic protest that everyone is against.

Even the pope giving a lecture and reading from an ancient work that is centuries old caused the normal violent reaction from muslims.

i think the protest did more for the film in terms of sale, the movie just doesnt make sense, its pure fiction