Hard on the heels of North Koreas outraged response to The Interview, authorities in Morocco, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have banned Exodus: Gods and Kings, Ridley Scotts latest biblical epic depicting the life of Moses.
Citing historical inaccuracies, all three countries take exception to the movies contention that the Jews built the pyramids and that an earthquake caused the Red Sea to part, allowing Moses to lead his people to safety.
Trouble is, if countries start blocking movies for getting their facts wrong, and leaders who feel insulted do the same, then theatres around the world will soon be half empty. And we could stand on the verge of a cultural war.
Such aggressive responses to humor and narrative imagination have a long history. For example:
1 Cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad
In late September 2005 the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad, most of them in a benign way, but a couple more mockingly: one showed a man with a bomb in his turban and another showed Muhammad urging Muslims not to martyr themselves, saying Stop, weve run out of virgins (referring to the traditional reward for Islamic martyrdom).
Within months, Danish embassies across the Middle East and elsewhere had been attacked, leading to multiple deaths. Riots in Nigeria led to more than 100 killings and both the editor and the cartoonists received death threats. Some countries imposed boycotts on Danish goods.
There was a more modest reaction to the depiction of Muhammad in a teddy bear outfit in an episode of South Park in 2000, in which he was summoned by celebrities to meet them on the grounds that his goo would make them immune to ridicule. Death threats to the shows creators Matt Stone and Troy Parker convinced the broadcaster Comedy Central to censor parts of the episode dealing with the Prophet.
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Censorship Of 'Exodus' Raises Fears of Proxy Media War