In 2003, Dan Brown released the Da Vinci Code, which follows the adventure of Professor Robert Langdon, a specialist in symbology. The book investigates and presents a different view to the history of Christianity. The curator of the Louvre is shot by a extreme albino monk, who serves someone called the teacher. Langdon is wrongly suspected of his murder. What starts off as running from the police becomes a quest for the holy grail. They are soon told that the Holy Grail is not a cup, but the body of Mary Magdalene. He also tells them that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a love affair and had a child, then Mary Magdalene escaped to France. This was then supposedly covered up by the organised Christianity, fearing that if the descendants of Jesus were found and made themselves shown with proof, that they would lose all their faith and power.
This was seen as bad by many Christian Denomination, the chief of which is the Roman Catholics. It is looked down upon by many Catholic Leaders, mainly because of Jesus' and Mary Magdalene's, "supposed" love affair. They see it as an insult to Jesus. Manila, India and the Vatican are among which that currently look down upon and ban the book. Because the Vatican has banned it, this shows how seriously they take it. In 2006, they released a movie of it, which was in turn banned by many countries, such as Egypt, Samoa, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Jordan. This shows that the religious leaders were very persuasive with the ban, but the ban never really made it to western countries, such as the UK or the USA, because of the higher Religious freedom there. The film mainly is still banned now in many countries, the main ones are, Egypt, Jordan, China, The Faroe Islands, Samoa, The Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Lebanon. Although it was banned for small periods of time, or cut in other countries, stating that it was only a work of fiction and therefore not offensive.
I believe that the bans and censorships were not very justified, it is ok to state that it is just a work of fiction, but to completely ban it goes against the idea of freedom of speech.
References;
This was seen as bad by many Christian Denomination, the chief of which is the Roman Catholics. It is looked down upon by many Catholic Leaders, mainly because of Jesus' and Mary Magdalene's, "supposed" love affair. They see it as an insult to Jesus. Manila, India and the Vatican are among which that currently look down upon and ban the book. Because the Vatican has banned it, this shows how seriously they take it. In 2006, they released a movie of it, which was in turn banned by many countries, such as Egypt, Samoa, Lebanon, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Jordan. This shows that the religious leaders were very persuasive with the ban, but the ban never really made it to western countries, such as the UK or the USA, because of the higher Religious freedom there. The film mainly is still banned now in many countries, the main ones are, Egypt, Jordan, China, The Faroe Islands, Samoa, The Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Lebanon. Although it was banned for small periods of time, or cut in other countries, stating that it was only a work of fiction and therefore not offensive.
I believe that the bans and censorships were not very justified, it is ok to state that it is just a work of fiction, but to completely ban it goes against the idea of freedom of speech.
References;
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code_(film)#Censorship (Accessed: 28 November 2013)
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Da_Vinci_Code (Accessed: 28 November 2013)
- https://sites.google.com/a/itsco.org/banned-books/the-da-vinci-code (Accessed: 28 November 2013)