KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has barred controversial Bollywood film "Padmaavat" from being screened in theatres, the home ministry said on Friday, citing the movie's negative portrayal of a Muslim ruler.
The film has already attracted protests in India, after groups critical of the project accused its director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, of distorting history by portraying the Muslim ruler as the "lover" of Queen Padmavati of the Hindu Rajput warrior clan.
Last month, India's top court allowed the film to be screened nationwide, despite moves to ban it in two states.
But in Muslim-majority Malaysia, authorities have instead rejected the portrayal of Sultan Alauddin Khilji and banned the film.
"He is portrayed as a Sultan who is arrogant, cruel, inhumane, devious with all kinds of trickery, unreliable and who does not fully practice Islamic teachings," the ministry said in a statement.
Malaysia's Film Censorship Board ruled that the movie was "not approved for screening", while an appeal lodged by the film's distributors was rejected on Tuesday, the ministry said.
Bollywood films are popular in Malaysia, where ethnic Indians make up seven percent of the country's 32 million people.
Malaysia has previously blocked the release of Hollywood movies deemed religiously insensitive, such as 1998's "The Prince of Egypt", which depicted the Biblical story of Moses, and 1995's "Babe", which featured a pig as the main character. Muslims consider pigs unclean.
Last May, the release of Walt Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast" was held up over a "gay moment" in the film.
Malaysia bans Bollywood film over negative portrayal of Muslim ruler
Malaysia bans Bollywood film over negative portrayal of Muslim ruler
Researchers find 10,000-year-old rock art site in Sinai
- The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean
- Some engravings reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities
CAIRO: Archeologists have discovered a 10,000-year-old site with rock art in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said.
The previously unknown site on the Umm Irak Plateau features a 100-meter-long rock formation whose diverse carvings trace the evolution of human artistic expression from prehistoric times to the Islamic era.
The Supreme Council of Antiquities “has uncovered one of the most important new archeological sites, of exceptional historical and artistic value,“the ministry said in a statement.
Its chronological diversity makes it “an open-air natural museum,” according to the council’s secretary-general, Hisham El-Leithy.
The natural rock shelter’s ceiling features numerous red-pigment drawings of animals and symbols, as well as inscriptions in Arabic and Nabataean.
Some engravings “reflect the lifestyles and economic activities of early human communities,” the ministry said.
Inside, animal droppings, stone partitions, and hearth remains confirm that the shelter was used as a refuge for a long time.
These “provide further evidence of the succession of civilizations that have inhabited this important part of Egypt over the millennia,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathi said.
He described the discovery as a “significant addition to the map of Egyptian antiquities.”
The site is located in southern Sinai, where Cairo is undertaking a vast megaproject aimed at attracting mass tourism to the mountain town of Saint Catherine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and home to Bedouin who fear for their ancestral land.
