Malaysia Bans 'Noah' Film, Pope Blesses It
S
Malaysia confirmed that it has joined other Islamic countries in banning Hollywood’s biblical epic Noah, starring Russell Crowe, for being irreligious in that it violates Islamic law against depicting prophets. Conservative Christians and Jews also have criticized the controversial film, but the Pope this week gave it a formal blessing.
An official on Saturday confirmed Paramount’s big budget film that’s sparked an outcry among Muslim groups globally, will not be screened in predominantly Muslim Malaysia.
The film also has Christian groups in the United States outraged over Crowe’s portrayal of Noah, regarded as an important figure in Christianity and Islam, AFP reports.
“Yes, I can confirm that it has been banned by the board, the movie can cause quite a lot of anger and distress if it is shown in Malaysia,” said Malaysia’s home ministry’s Film Censorship Board unit chairman Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid, who said the decision was made about two weeks ago.
The main reason for the ban was the portrayal of Noah by Crowe, since Islam forbids visual depictions of any prophet, according to Abdul Halim. Muslims comprise up to 60 percent of multi-ethnic Malaysia’s 30 million population, while Christians account for about nine percent.
Indonesia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates have banned the film due to scenes they say contradict Islam.
Malaysia has censored other movies on religious grounds in the past, including Brokeback Mountain and The Passion of the Christ. It has also prohibited shows by foreigners artists out of fear of angering conservative Muslims.
Conservative Muslims, like many Christians, protest concerts when they promote promiscuity, corrupting young people or offending religious sensitivities.
Three Arab countries ban Noah
Three Arab countries also have banned Noah on religious grounds before its worldwide premiere and several others are expected to follow, a Paramount Pictures representative told Reuters on Saturday. Islam frowns upon representing holy figures in art and depictions of Mohammad in European and North American media have repeatedly sparked deadly protests in some Islamic countries, increasing cultural tensions with the West.
“Censors for Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) officially confirmed the film will not released in their countries,” says a representative of Paramount Pictures, that produced the $125 million film starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins, told Reuters. ”The official statement they offered in confirming this news is because ‘it contradicts teachings of Islam’,” the representative said, adding the studio expected a similar ban in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait.
The film premieres in the United States on March 28.
Noah in the Bible’s Book of Genesis built an ark that saved his family and many pairs of animals from a great flood. Noah is revered by Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Koran devotes a chapter to him.
Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni Islam authority and a main centre of Islamic teaching for over a millennium, issued a fatwa (a religious injunction) against the film Thursday.
“Al-Azhar … renews its objection to any act depicting the messengers and prophets of God and the companions of the Prophet (Mohammad), peace be upon him,” it announced in a statement.
They “provoke the feelings of believers … and are forbidden in Islam and a clear violation of Islamic law,” the fatwa added.
Mel Gibson’s 2004 film “The Passion of the Christ” on Jesus’s crucifixion was screened in the Arab World, despite objections by Muslim clerics. A 2012 Omar, that depicts a seventh century Muslim ruler and companion of the Prophet Mohammad, also managed to defy objections. It aired on a Gulf-based satellite television channel.
Russell Crowe, who plays Noah, met with Pope Francis, who blessed the film. They had a short discussion, according to multi-media entertainment group JustJared.
“it was an incredible privilege to be invited,” Crowe said about his audience with the Pope, ”Given the amount of controversy surrounding this film, and has been surrounding it for a year now, the fact we were invited to the Vatican was extremely kind.”
Noah met with criticism in test screenings with Jewish and Christian faith members and was blocked from being released in Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE.
Source: Voice of Russia, AFP, Reuters
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
The Pope is a Jesuit. Not a surprise he would “bless” such a film.
It makes the fallen angels into good guys. It really craps on the bible.
This pope is a politically correct pope and well suited for the NWO. The movie pushes global warming as well as what you have pointed out.
It is thoroughly anti-biblical as I am a devout reader of scripture. The Jesuits have an evil history and sure that hasn’t changed. Would never trust a Jesuit any more than I would trust any other anti-Christian ne’er-do-well. Something wicked this way comes, folks. Better be prepared for it. The Bible is your best friend. Commit yourself to Christ and pray the Holy Spirit give you wisdom and understanding.
An eighth of a billion dollars to make this movie (and similar amounts for others) is just obscene. We should all boycott big-budget films on the grounds that they suck our wealth into the pockets of the big corporations and the 0.1 percent.
Those billions could be used for movies of real value, education, reforestation, combating global warming, planned parenthood, and ending our reliance on fossil fuels (my personal favorites), instead of further clouding our minds with entertainment (Noah is bad enough, most of it is far worse). But we’re addicted to flickering images, loud noises, sex, violence, religious fervor, whatever the image makers can come up with to distract us (not just relieve us) from realities we urgently need to be dealing with.
But then, we’ve become used to wasting our wealth on consumer goods and the military-industrial-intelligence complex, and now billionaires can spend their billions on electing political prostitutes who will further enrich the 0.1 percent and impoverish the 99 percent.
Between the effects of our cultural environment (zombification, obesity, lowered intelligence) and our physical environment (one new child in 68 now has autism, other neurological and physical disorders are rapidly increasing), soon fully functional people will be outnumbered by largely dysfunctional ones. Maybe that’s true already, and maybe that’s what the 0.1 percent wants. It will bite them in the ass eventually, but only the near future is of interest to them.
I was all with you till I reached that global warming nonsense, and then you mention planned parenthood, you sound like one of those paid sock-puppets. See you speak like us, but you just insert a few things you are pushing for others. If you do this enough times, you think you will drive it into our heads.
Try this for you global warming nonsense:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52Mx0_8YEtg
Thanks for the expected insult. Beats the threats of violence I’ve received on BIN, I suppose.
A large percentage of Americans also don’t accept the fact that evolution is the basis of the entire science of modern biology. They’re wrong, and I’ll keep saying it because I’m a science educator, and it’s important. Scientists like Galileo died for speaking the truth to ignorance, often religious-based.
Family planning beats the alternative. Women deserve the right to determine when to have children and how many. In countries that are already overpopulated, educated women opt for fewer given the chance, and in more affluent countries, most women are opting for smaller families.
Human population reached one billion in 1804, after more than half a million years of expansion. We grew by another billion in just 123 years, and then grew by one billion in successively shorter periods: 33, 14, 13, ad 12 years to 6 billion in 1999, and now we’ve hit 7 billion. This can’t go on.
Our one species uses 40 percent of the world’s resources, leaving only 60% for millions of other species that our ecosystem (including us) depends on. We’re draining the world’s aquifers. Water and food are becoming more scarce, because we’re destroying the cropland faster than we clear new land through deforestation. We’re driving species extinct as fast as the worst mass extinction in Earth’s history. Infinite growth just isn’t possible on a finite planet.
I doubt you’ll be interested, but others might be: Religious leaders support contraceptive access for all, http://www.religiousinstitute.org/faithleaders4bc/.
Interested readers read this small sampling of real news from just the last week: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25504730/southeast-colorado-new-dust-bowl-is-blowing; Hungry monkeys raid farms in north India as forests shrink, http://www.trust.org/item/20140403102617-cv8xn/; http://truth-out.org/news/item/22885-the-perp-in-the-greatest-mass-extinction-on-earth-methane; http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/apr/03/climate-change-battle-food-head-world-bank; http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/03/health-professionals-demand-climate-action-ipcc-report/; http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/smog-expert-worsening-saharan-dust-storms-to-become-an-annual-spring-fixture-as-climate-changes-9236489.html; http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-03/milwaukee-sinks-as-ebbing-groundwater-undermines-its-foundations.html; http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/03/deforestation-sandy-ecosystems-increases-release-co2/; http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/conspiracist-climate-change-study-withdrawn-amid-legal-threats-20140402-35xao.html; ‘Unprecedented’ Ocean Temperatures on Track to Bring Death to Coral Ecosystems, http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/01-1; http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/03/kyrgyzstans-glacial-floods-growing-risk/; http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2014/03/30/horseshoe-crab-endangered/7078287/; http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/03/30/guatemalas-treasured-lake-atitlan-is-dying; http://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2014/mar/31/ipcc-climate-change-impacts-report-history-warnings; http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/business/31-Mar-2014/quest-for-oil-threatens-africa-s-oldest-wildlife-reserve.
You may rationalize all this away, but I hope other readers will take it as seriously as they should.
Why do people have to lie? The Pope never blessed the Noah movie!
https://www.religionnews.com/2014/03/19/russell-crowe-meets-pope-francis-leaves-without-noah-endorsement/
Thanks SO MUCH for directing us to the truth re: the pope and this movie. THANKS THANKS THANKS!!!!
By not coming out against the movie and meeting with the star is tantamount to an outright endorsement.
An illogical spin on it doesn’t make it an endorsement. But short-changed on cognitive skills says a lot why you would think like that. Not saying a negative word means it’s an endorsement – huh? Who even thinks like that? Stupid!
Not quite. It’s called politics – and diplomacy. When the Pope endorses something, he endorses it and says so. Such is not the case here.
Very interesting. This is contrary to all other reports. I very much appreciate this and will make an apology if this is correct. Thank you once again.
Whoa. Who’s lying? The article reports the Pope blessed it – but did not endorse it, right? Two big difference. They only had a short discussion – and Crowe left without an endorsement.
The movie Noah is an atheist movie, with no mention of God. Using Transformers as the role of God, and the Transformers helped Noah design the ark. Maybe you should go watch the movie first, before you comment about it! It is a disgusting move..and I know a few who walked out on it.
I thought Paul VI was the worst Pope in the Catholic Churches history, then I thought, no Pope John Paul II was, now Pope Francis takes the cake; between the three of them they have come close to the ultimate destruction of the Catholic faith, if it wasn’t for the promise of Indefectability the Catholic Church and its faith would be finished.
But then I remember the vision of Pope Leo XIII. While finishing his daily mass, with two Cardinals serving, as he descended the steps of the altar to leave, the Pope turned around, visibly stunned and in horror, motionless for a few moments; he then fell down and the Cardinals testified later that the Pope’s heart appeared to have stopped. The Pope then recovered, got up, left the altar. The Pope then asked the Cardinals if they saw or heard anything, which they said they did not. Pope Leo XIII then told them, as he descended the altar he hear God and Satan in a conversation which he realized the God was letting him hear the conversation without the devils knowledge.
Pope Leo said that Satan was telling God that at that time he had already wounded the Church and given some more time he would completely destroy the Church and the faith. At first Satan asked for 25 more years, then 50, then God demanded how much time do you want and Satan said, given me 100 years and I will destroy your Church and the faith, God then said – You have it.
Understandably, God gives the Church and us the grace to resist that attack, but events since have shown the Satan surely is very near his goal and should be in a frenzy of thinking he is on the verge of victory. Pope Leo XIII, then composed an exorcism prayer to St. Michael the Archangel that was said at the end of all low masses until the Second Vatican Council, when Pope Paul VI eliminated that prayer.
Since the Council the Church has attempted to abandon the 2000 years of Catholic faith for a modern worship of man, a god made by us who is subservient to our passions and desires. The 100 years is up and so shortly we might see something so extraordinary that will horrify the whole world. As many Catholic mystics have warned that both the Church (and the hierarchy up to the TOP) and the world will soon undergo a chastisement so terrible that not a soul alive will not be terrified. God will intervene and save the Church but not before it seems that all is lost and God’s justice (punishment) has been appeased.
This article was about freedom of expression, but I guess people prefer to bicker about the One True Church. No better than the Muslims or other religious people, I guess.
Islam should be banned. Islam is a religion of lies and damnable heresies. All who worship the false god “allah” will burn in Hell forever, unless they repent of MaryMary cannot save anyone! their idolitry and believe on the only begotten Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Btw, the pope is NOT of God. The Pope is closer to Satan than to the liVing God. The Pope will suffer alongside everyone who rejected the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I can understand Jews and Christians banning the Noah movie but for a Muslim nation to do that is truly incredible because they very well understand that those fallen angels had cohabited with not only human-women but animals, birds, reptiles and even sea-creatures and brought forth giants and monsters. As for the pope blessing the Ugghh!! movie, it is perfectly understandable for they do not worship the God of Israel but the “leader” of the fallen angels.
Check this out: The Vatican’s satanic alter – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trtexulIEUc&feature=player_detailpage
… and figure out for yourselves which god it is.
had no bearing on the bible and was merely a science fiction movie.
A simple Google search will confirm that Pope Francis did NOT bless the movie, he didn’t even watch it. He met briefly with Russell Crowe and others and blessed them, not the movie.
lol talk about writing with no research…tut tut tut
Depiciting prophets is banned afaik because when lowly people see something physical to worship that fits the bill they go for it. Missing the point of the spiritual prophet completely.
The Pope is the puppet master behind the media.
I bet they will still be streaming the video in Muslim countries after it is banned.
Its a fictional hollywood movie not worth getting upset over.