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EOHR Condemns the People's Assembly
Decision to Confiscate the Novel " The Da Vinci Code"
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15/6/2006
EOHR expresses its vehement anxiety concerning the People's Assembly decision to ban the motion picture " The Da Vinci Code" in Egypt, and the Minister of Culture Affairs decision to confiscate the novel on which the film is based on written by Dan Brown.
The Parliament's decision came after a long and hot debate among MP's in which the film and the novel were accused of insulting the Christian belief and the Christian religious symbols.
Its noteworthy that the novel is a fiction and considered a work of art. This situation reminds us of banning the novel " Sons of Gabalawy" by Naguib Mahfoz and also " The Last Temptation of Christ" by the Greek Novelist Nikos Kazantzakis, and its worth mentioning that the two authors were awarded a Nobel Prize for these works.
The Egyptian Organization for Human Rights understands the sensitive relation between art and literature on one hand, and religion and politics on the other. Throughout history, and this intertwining relation constituted a gateway to commit sever violations against philosophers, thinkers and writers, and against political freedoms in general.
EOHR views the trial of artworks and novels according to political or religious standards constitutes a threat of a political and religious guardianship over human thinking, especially that religion and politics are subordinate to those who interpret and dominate them, who are only human after all.
EOHR confirms that banning the film and confiscating the novel constitute a drawback of freedom of opinion and expression and suppression of ideas in a time were its very difficult to confiscate ideas due to the spread of means of communication and the Internet.
EOHR reaffirms its respect to religious beliefs and refuses any violation of these beliefs, however it sees that confiscation is not the perfect solution to counter ideas and artworks that contradict with religions and beliefs. Instead of confiscation, a dialogue should be established, including analysis, criticism and exchange of different ideas, which ultimately benefits the reader or the audience, especially that confiscation of ideas became impossible due technology and IT.
Accordingly, EOHR condemns the decision of banning the film and confiscating the novel, as it constitutes a sever violation to Article 4 of the Egyptian Constitution, which furnishes freedom of expression, and Article 49, which permits freedom of literature and art. We hope this decision to be reviewed according to Egypt's international obligations by ratifying international human rights documents such as ICCPR, which is binding according to Article 151 of the Egyptian Constitution.
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