Fundamentalists afraid to confront their demons
Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey have banned the latest issue of the French bimonthly magazine Historia Thématique, which looks at religious fundamentalism.
The Tunisian authorities announced their ban on January 10th, claiming that it was due to a picture of Muhammed which is “formally forbidden in Islam and could offend the religious feelings of Tunisians.” The picture in question comes from an illustrated copy of the Koran dating from 1583 which can be found in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul.
The January issue of Historia, a monthly produced by the same publishing house, has been on sale without any problem although it has an illustration showing Mohammed in partially animal form (with feathers and the tail of a fish).
Historia editor Pierre Baron told Reporters Without Borders that the reaction to the Historia Thématique issue was indicative of the current climate of intolerance. He pointed out that the issue was also about Christian and Jewish fundamentalism, adding that his staff decided that fundamentalism was an appropriate subject because of the increasing frequency of cases of offence being taken on the grounds of religious sensibilities.
Monday 15 Jan 2007 | Paul | Egypt, Tunisia, Turkey
