Religious censorship

Protests by religious groups against films they regard as blasphemous are not new. Monty Python’s Life of Brian was picketed when it was released in 1979, and several councils banned it, including some that had no cinemas and whose members had not seen it. But it was widely shown, and many consider it a comic masterpiece.

While some objected, the very idea that it should have been removed from sight is inimical to the notion of free speech. Yet this is what is happening with another film, The Lady of Heaven, a religious epic set at the time of the Prophet Mohammed and depicting the life of his daughter, Lady Fatima.

Theatres in Birmingham, Bolton, Sheffield and Bradford have cancelled screenings after demonstrations. Petitions demanding its withdrawal from public viewing are circulating in Muslim communities. The film is sensitive because of the sectarian divisions in Islam between Shia, for whom Fatima is the Prophet’s only biological daughter, and Sunni. But this is irrelevant to whether the film can be seen by those who want to see it and ignored by those who might be offended.

This is supposedly a free country yet, increasingly, anyone who makes enough noise can force people to be sacked, censured or “cancelled” for holding opinions they do not like. As Dame Sara Khan, the Government’s social cohesion adviser, wrote in this newspaper yesterday, such episodes undermine ties between different communities.

She criticised politicians for failing to stand up for free expression. But it is incumbent on cinema managers to face down the intimidation and keep showing the film, with the police ensuring order is kept on the streets outside. The alternative is a slippery slope to religious censorship.