Censorship in Islamic societies: Difference between revisions

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Islamic teachings and argument have been used to censor opinions and writings throughout history, up to and including the modern era, and thus there are many cases of censorship in Islamic societies. One example is the fatwa (religious judgment) against The Satanic Verses (a novel), ordering that the author be executed for blasphemy. Depictions of Muhammad have inspired considerable controversy and censorship. Some Islamic societies have religious police, who enforce the application of Islamic Sharia law. In non-Islamic countries, Islam has often been cited as a reason for self-censorship. Sometimes this self-censorship is because of threats of violence.

Censorship measures in the Islamic world

Afghanistan

The Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan after the early-1990s, had the most strict, deeply enforced Islamic censorship of any other government in the Muslim World. They enforced and imposed a blanket ban on all films and videos. The Taliban fully fell in 2002 and Afghani President Hamid Karzai's administration began, with expectations of a move twoards more secular policies.

However, Karzai has worked with members of the Islamic Council of Scholars to censor television programs regarded as sinful, particularly those created by the Indian entertainment industry (many Afghani Islamists often euphemistically refer to Hindus in said industry as "worshipers of graven idols"). One of Afghanistan's most popular television soap operas, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, has faced threats of a total banning from the country unless the shows were heavily modified.

Azim Roboti, director of the Kabul company 'Caravan Film', has remarked about Islamic censorship, "The Taliban are on the offensive and terrorism continues unabated. Ordinary Afghans view foreign troops with growing suspicion and now we have a sort of restoration. It's hardly surprising that Karzai should listen first to religious leaders, even if it means blocking social and cultural development."

Egypt

Hosni Mubarak implemented Islamic censorship as part of his outreach to anti-regime Islamists in the 1980s.

See also: Internet in Egypt § Censorship

The government of Egypt, during the modern era, used a fundamentally secular legal code that went back decades. In 1985, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and the National Assembly revised that code in order to try and take some of the heat off of Islamist anti-regime activists such as those in the Muslim Brotherhood by co-opting some of the Islamists' demands. Systematic Islamic censorship on the nation's media began at the same time as the imposition of religious education in state schools.

The government's Ministry of Culture typically worked with the Islamic Research Council, based out of Al-Azhar University, to implement Islamic censorship of the nation's film industry. For example, Youssef Chahine, one of the most popular Egyptian filmmakers in history, had the distribution of his successful 1994 work The Emigrant ended when the Council objected to a character's portrayal of the religious figure Joseph. Chahine sued and won, ensuring further showings of his film and showing the sometimes inconsistent nature of Egyptian censorship.

Egyptian films of the nation's classic cinema period often depict all sorts of physical affection such as kisses and hugging, and said films receive frequent play on the state-owned Egyptian Television Network. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring toppling of Mubarak's government, some conservative Islamists in Egypt's parliament have worked for a comprehensive censorship law banning such displays. Many Egyptians have expressed concerns about increasing Islamic censorship harming the nation's entertainment industries.

Although both secular and Islamic censorship has existed, widespread use of the internet, physical distribution of DVDs, and so on has broadly allowed a large variety of arts and media access. Those measures have not kept Cairo from being regarded as the largest arts and media publishing hub in the Middle East.

Iran

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has tightened Islamic censorship of his nation's media since his election.

See also: Censorship in Iran

See also: Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (Iran)

The Shah's government eschewed Islamic censorship, with popular commercial films featuring frank sexual themes and even nudity. The regime largely concerned itself with fostering feelings of legitimacy and making sure that films always portrayed it in a positive light. The Shah personally intervened in a 1934 film biopic to make sure that the protagonist, the poet Firdawsi, viewed the ruler character as a patron of the arts.

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, members of the 1979 Revolution sought to use film and other measures to shift public opinion's against the Shah's regime and, upon taking power, utilized filmmakers for ideological support. In some circumstances, this meant more rights than under the Shah such as use of minority dialects by characters. However, the Islamic government has strictly regulated films in order to suppress messages perceived as un-Islamic, using religious bureaucracies such as the Council of Screenplay Inspection and the Council of Film Reviewing to alter and delete specific lines and scenes against filmmaker's wishes.

In particular, the government forbids the depiction of women either singing, dancing, or both. Actresses also must conceal their hair at all times, even in moments when the characters are shone alone in their own homes. Censors suppress the showing of direct physical contact between members of the opposite sex. Despite this tradition of censorship, some officials have relaxed implementation of Islamic standards, particularly since the death of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 (which resulted in the film Two Women by Tahmineh Milani being un-banned before receiving widespread public acclaim).

Iran's government, through the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, reviews written works before allowing authors to be published. This process tends to involve having three separate officials inspect works for offending words and phrases, which can take several months to years before approval is granted. Authors with banned works include Plato, Louis-Ferdinand Céline, James Joyce, Kurt Vonnegut, and Paulo Coelho. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publicly attacked the impact of "harmful books" on his nation, analogizing them with "poisonous" drugs.

Iranian censorship of books grew stricter after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration began in 2005. His government authorized booksellers to distribute Memoria de mis putas tristes by Nobel-prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which had the five-thousand first edition sell out in short notice, but it reversed course and banned further reprinting. Muslim religious conservatives objected to the story's plot, which describes an isolated ninety-year-old man seeking a night of "wild love" with an adolescent prostitute.

Iraq

Censorship for both socio-political and religious justifications, intertwined, was widespread in Iraq's government in the 20th century. In particular, the The Iraqi Law on the Censorship of Foreign Films of 1973 banned the showing of anything with "the propagation of reactionary, chauvinistic, populistic, racialist or regionist ideas, of favouring the spirit of defeatism, serving imperialism and Zionism", prohibiting as well anything "defaming the Arab nation and its goals". Iraq's government effectively had the ability to ban any film for any reason whatsoever at any notice.

Malaysia

Malaysia's administration by British colonial authorities in the early modern era meant that effective free expression in the media did not exist, with films and other methods of communication considered as mere arms of the government. With independence, widespread censorship has continued, various films facing alterations or outright bans from perceived glorification of socialism, displays of excessive violence, subversiveness to government policy, or other such reasons. Popular movies deviating from Islamic teaching such as Fantasi, a work made in 1992 but not released until 1994 due to the central theme of reincarnation, and Amok, a controversial 1995 film with frank sexual and violent content, both faced bans. In response to government pressure, filmmakers have tended twoards perceived middle-of-the-road stories such as teen comedy.

Pakistan

See also: Censorship in Pakistan

The government of Pakistan maintains strict censorship of its citizens' access to the internet, with the Ministry of Information Technology's sub-agency the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority monitoring and filtering a variety of websites accused of playing host to perceived anti-Islamic content. Examples of cautioned websites include Google, Yahoo, Bing, YouTube, Hotmail, MSN, and Amazon. The government banned access to Facebook outright for two months in mid-2010 after the controversial page titled "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" received public attention.

These measures have partially contributed to underlying tensions between the Pakistani government and the U.S. government, with many of the aforementioned websites being American-owned.

Saudi Arabia

See also: Censorship in Saudi Arabia

See also: Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, in the words of the International Business Times, "resorted to drastic measures to limit free communication within its own borders." The administration blocks hundreds of thousands of websites for having content perceived as immoral. Censorship has grown more strict since the 'Arab Spring' revolutions began in early 2011.

Tunisia

In one well-publicized instance of Islamic censorship, the government of Tunisia fined Nabil Karoui, owner of Tunis-based company Nessma TV, about $1,700 in May 2012 for airing the controversial film Persepolis. Said film includes a scene depicting Allah directly along with other disputed material. The government's ruling blasted Karoui for what it viewed as "broadcasting a film that disturbs public order and threatens proper morals".

Uzbekistan

See also: Human rights in Uzbekistan

Islam Karimov, the President of Uzbekistan, has implemented a degree of Islamic censorship over the nation's media, such as banning advertisements for alcohol or tobacco products. Those measures have been a part of a general plan of religious administration that has included running religious programming on state television, federally funding the building of mosques and the restorations of shrines, and the promotion of the official government muftiyat to smooth connections between the state and Islamic believers.

Censorship in non-Islamic countries

A page from a 15th-century illustrated copy of a book by Al-Bīrūnī, depicting Muhammad at the Farewell Pilgrimage. This image was the subject of a 2008 petition to have it removed from Wikipedia.

Several examples exist of incidences of self-censorship in non-Islamic countries. For example, the makers of the television series South Park were mired in controversy for satirizing issues surrounding the depiction of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad. The website for the organization Revolution Muslim, a New York-based radical Muslim organization, posted an entry that included a warning to creators Parker and Stone that they risk violent retribution for their depictions of Muhammad. It said that they "will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show." (Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh was murdered in 2004 by an Islamic radical in retribution for making a revealing film about Islamic women.) This caused Comedy Central to censor the episodes.

See also

• Censorship by religion

External links

• Intellectual Freedom, Censorship and the Spirit of Islam by Muhammed Reza Tajri
• BBC News - Viewpoints: Anti-Islam film and self-censorship