Maharashtra Govt Asks Centre to Block Release of Controversial Movie on Prophet on Digital Platforms

We fail to understand why time and again the Muslim community is targeted by different ways to instigate it and create problems within the country, said Saeed Noori, General Secretary of Raza Academy

Clarion India

MUMBAI — The Maharashtra government on Wednesday urged the central government to block the release of a controversial film on holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on digital platforms.

After the complaint from prominent Muslim body Raza Academy, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has written a letter to the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology.

“Maharashtra government has received complaint from Raza Academy to ban the movie “Muhammad – The Messenger of God”. The complainant has made serious allegations that the said movie will severely hurt the sentiments and will be considered blasphemous by a particular community. The movie can potentially disturb the religious sentiments of citizens in the country and may cause religious tensions creating law and order problems in the country,” the Maharashtra minister wrote in his letter to the central government.

He has sought blocking/suspension of the digital platforms where the film is scheduled to be released on July 21.

“We hereby request you to block/suspend those digital platforms where the movie would be released on the probable date of 21^st of July 202, under section 69A and the blocking rules of the Information Technology Act, 2000 & Information Technology Act (Amendment), 2008. It’s also requested to issue instructions / directions to all digital platforms like Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat etc to ban the release of the aforesaid movie,” said the Maharashtra government.

A delegation of Raza Academy had met the minister seeking ban on the release of the film.

Th Muslim body has already written to the Don Cinema, reportedly the distributor of the controversial film in Hindi language, to “stop the distribution of the film and its subsequent release before it creates unrest and law and order problems in the city.”

“We fail to understand why time and again the Muslim community is targeted by different ways to instigate it and create problems within the country. The film portrays the Holy Prophet as a child and even the mother and father of the Holy Prophet have been shown in person. The Holy Prophet of Islam can never be picturised and those who have done it have committed blasphemy which is intolerable at any cost,” said Saeed Noori, General Secretary of Raza Academy, in a letter to the film distributor.