05-29-2006, 06:47 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Poles are amused at ruckus</b>
- By Surender Bhutani
Warsaw, May 18: In Poland, where 95 per cent of the population is
Catholic and three ultra-rightist Catholic parties are part of the
ruling coalition, people are amused at the demand in India to ban The
Da Vinci Code.
"This film is going to be shown on Friday throughout Poland and the
Pope is going to visit Poland next Thursday. Still there are no
protests to ban the film here," Jerzy Zdanowski, director of Non-
European Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, said.
"When my wife heard this news on Polish Radio and told me on phone
that Christians and Muslims had come out on the streets in Mumbai to
protest against the release of The Da Vinci Code, I was taken back
and asked myself if I was not a good Christian?"
Christian leaders in India â where just over <b>two per cent </b>of the
population of over a billion is Christian but at 26 million still has
a <b>significant political say in some states </b>â say the film presents a
distorted picture of their faith and would hurt religious sentiments.
<b>But Poles are wondering what the fuss is all about.</b>
Mr Zdanowski's colleague Stanslaw Tokarski quipped: "Perhaps converts
are better Christians than we the originals.
<b>"It will be a sad day if the Indian government plays into the hands
of narrow-minded people,</b> the way they did it in the past when they
banned Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, which also caused religious
frenzy in the whole of the Middle East."
The media here is also debating the Indian response to the film.
"The fact of the matter is, when the book written by Dan Brown was
not banned, why should the film version be banned? It is freedom of
expression, let people decide whether it is blasphemous or not," said
Krzyzstof Mrzozwicz, a senior journalist, in Polityka weekly. He the
Polish ambassador to India from 1996 to 2001.
"<b>The Vatican has not taken any stand on banning or censoring the
film. Why are the Indian authorities seeing the whole issue with
tinted glasses?</b>
"In a country like the Philippines, where <b>80 per cent people are
Catholics, the Cardinal of Manila has not proposed any ban on the
movie</b>," he added.
There is a tremendous buildup for the movie all around Poland. Metro
wagons, trams and buses have been painted with scenes of the film.
The international controversy has also boosted ticket sales for the
film. According to its distributors, more than two million Poles are
likely to watch the movie.
(IANS)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
- By Surender Bhutani
Warsaw, May 18: In Poland, where 95 per cent of the population is
Catholic and three ultra-rightist Catholic parties are part of the
ruling coalition, people are amused at the demand in India to ban The
Da Vinci Code.
"This film is going to be shown on Friday throughout Poland and the
Pope is going to visit Poland next Thursday. Still there are no
protests to ban the film here," Jerzy Zdanowski, director of Non-
European Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, said.
"When my wife heard this news on Polish Radio and told me on phone
that Christians and Muslims had come out on the streets in Mumbai to
protest against the release of The Da Vinci Code, I was taken back
and asked myself if I was not a good Christian?"
Christian leaders in India â where just over <b>two per cent </b>of the
population of over a billion is Christian but at 26 million still has
a <b>significant political say in some states </b>â say the film presents a
distorted picture of their faith and would hurt religious sentiments.
<b>But Poles are wondering what the fuss is all about.</b>
Mr Zdanowski's colleague Stanslaw Tokarski quipped: "Perhaps converts
are better Christians than we the originals.
<b>"It will be a sad day if the Indian government plays into the hands
of narrow-minded people,</b> the way they did it in the past when they
banned Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses, which also caused religious
frenzy in the whole of the Middle East."
The media here is also debating the Indian response to the film.
"The fact of the matter is, when the book written by Dan Brown was
not banned, why should the film version be banned? It is freedom of
expression, let people decide whether it is blasphemous or not," said
Krzyzstof Mrzozwicz, a senior journalist, in Polityka weekly. He the
Polish ambassador to India from 1996 to 2001.
"<b>The Vatican has not taken any stand on banning or censoring the
film. Why are the Indian authorities seeing the whole issue with
tinted glasses?</b>
"In a country like the Philippines, where <b>80 per cent people are
Catholics, the Cardinal of Manila has not proposed any ban on the
movie</b>," he added.
There is a tremendous buildup for the movie all around Poland. Metro
wagons, trams and buses have been painted with scenes of the film.
The international controversy has also boosted ticket sales for the
film. According to its distributors, more than two million Poles are
likely to watch the movie.
(IANS)
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->