{"id":13121,"date":"2014-03-14T05:30:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-14T05:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/middle-east-ban-for-noah-epic\/"},"modified":"2014-03-14T05:29:58","modified_gmt":"2014-03-14T05:29:58","slug":"middle-east-ban-for-noah-epic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/middle-east-ban-for-noah-epic\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East ban for Noah epic"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UAE, Qatar and Bahrain are among Middle Eastern countries banning Hollywood epic Noah as it breaks Islam’s taboo of depicting a prophet.<\/p>\n

“There are scenes that contradict Islam and the Bible, so we decided not to show it,” Juma Al-Leem from UAE’s National Media Centre said.<\/p>\n

Director Darren Aronofsky’s film stars Russell Crowe as the ark-building Biblical figure.<\/p>\n

Paramount Pictures recently admitted the movie takes “artistic licence”.<\/p>\n

“It is important to respect these religions and not show the film,” Mr Al-Leem told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

A separate statement from Al-Azhar in Egypt, one of Islam’s most revered religious institutions, said it objects to the film because it violates Islamic law and could “provoke the feelings of believers.”<\/p>\n

The film, which is thought to have cost more than its $125m (\u00a378m) to make, received negative reactions following test screenings across the US.<\/p>\n

The movie also prompted controversy among conservative Christians, leading Paramount to add a disclaimer to marketing material that artistic licence had been taken with the retelling of the story.<\/p>\n

There are differences between Biblical and Qu’ranic interpretation of Noah, referred to in Arabic as Nuh, but both mention the flood and his vessel saving a pair of each animal species.<\/p>\n

Many children’s films and cartoons have told the story in Islam without showing his face.<\/p>\n

Other Muslim countries have said it is unlikely censors will approve the Hollywood blockbuster.<\/p>\n

Mohammad Zareef from Pakistan’s Central Board of Film Censors said they tended to steer clear of films with a religious theme, adding: “We haven’t seen it yet, but I don’t think it can go to cinemas in Pakistan.”<\/p>\n

In Tunisia, Culture Ministry spokesman Faisal Rokh said there had not been any requests from local distributors to show the movie, but they did not usually screen films featuring a prophet.<\/p>\n

There were riots and demonstrations in the country in October 2011, after a private television station screened the animated film Persepolis, which includes a portrayal of God.<\/p>\n

The head of the TV station was later fined 1,200 euros after being convicted of an “attack on the sacred”.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia and the Gaza Strip do not have any cinemas, but one theatre manager in the West Bank said it has ordered Noah.<\/p>\n

“The fact that some countries in the region prohibit it makes it the more fun to watch,” said Clack Cinema manager Quds Manasra.<\/p>\n

He added: “The production is magnificent, the story is beautiful.”<\/p>\n

Hollywood’s depiction of religion have provoked controversy before, including Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ, which shows the crucifixion of Jesus.<\/p>\n

It was screened across much of the region, but it was not shown in most cinemas in Israel and parts of the Gulf.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

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The UAE, Qatar and Bahrain are among Middle Eastern countries banning Hollywood epic Noah as it breaks Islam’s taboo of depicting a prophet. “There are scenes that contradict Islam and the Bible, so we decided not to show it,” Juma Al-Leem from UAE’s National Media Centre said. Director Darren Aronofsky’s film stars Russell Crowe as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2000050919,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[101],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-13121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-internationl","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000050919,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton13121.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000050919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13121"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=13121"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=13121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}