AGENCIES-
Three Arab countries have banned the Hollywood film “Noah” on religious grounds before its worldwide premiere and several others are expected to follow suit, a representative of Paramount Pictures told a foreign news agency on Saturday.
“Censors for Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) officially confirmed this week that the film will not release in their countries,” a representative of Paramount Pictures, which produced the $125 million film starring Oscar-winners Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins, told a foreign news agency.
“The official statement they offered in confirming this news is because ‘it contradicts the teachings of Islam’,” the representative said, adding the studio expected a similar ban in Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait.
The film will premiere in the United States on March 28.
Cairo’s Al-Azhar, the highest authority of Sunni Islam and a main center of Islamic teaching for over a millennium, issued a fatwa, or religious injunction, against the film on 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.