[TteFAboB]

For fun: The Da Vinci code shouldn't be the only movie to be banned, we'd be better off without 2/3 of all the movies ever released! We should burn the films and cinemas where all this trash is played and spare ourselves from the embarassment.

Now seriously, leave Da Vinci alone. Dan Brown is a "best-sellerer", one who writes junk entertainment stuff instead of literature, and uses the always best-selling conspiracy theme, most of the time stolen from other authors. The book is just another Romance to feed down the throat, the story is interesting and well-written, but is not worth being remembered till the end of times. Buy it, read it, enjoy it or not, then buy the next one.

Let's take an example, should kids be allowed to read Harry Potter or should responsable parents give them something else with less comercialism, hype, and cult, as a member of this board once questioned? I say, it doesn't matter, you can read to entertain yourself, or to fill your spirit (and I don't mean the supernatural ghost thing, just in case). Harry Potter is not literature, like Dan Brown's books, but it's well-written, and intriguing. However, if you want to slowly devour a book, taste the words, feel the scent of the paragraphs, not for entertainment or joy, but for a deeper pleasure, then you'll put a condition, or however else convince your kid that if he wants to read Harry Potter, he'll have to read Hamlet too. Hamlet, a masterpiece, will not entertain your child, but it will teach the kid about the game of political power, and raise an adult better prepared to face the world of cloak and daggers, and have a sharper eye for power-hungry tyrants. Harry Potter will only make him wish magic existed, and dumb him down (compared to the alternative) possibly letting him vote for the same tyrants who have a magical appeal, false magical solutions to the problems of the world (I'm exaggerating to make a joke here, just in case).

The premise to justify the "banning" of the movie is foolish. Assuming Dan Brown is a liar, all his inventions will continue to exist and circle, receiving space in the media, wether the movie is banned or not, so it simply doesn't work anyway or serve any purpose even if you don't like it or believe it. There is also no excuse to infringe the freedom of expression in such a way in a Democracy. Anyone can make their own films against Dan Brown/Da Vinci Code or presenting their own views, as long as it's not criminal (incite to hatred, etc.), where there is freedom of expression there is the freedom of the press, to print books and articles against the movie, if that is the case/necessary/worth it.

It is important, however, that we do not fall into the trap of equating all religions, putting them all in one basket and discarding it. Religions are not equal, if we are not willing to understand Islam, Christianism, Judaism, Bhuddism, or another, and investigate what's particular to them, and why they are not exactly the same, though still share many similarities, we run the risk of failing this mission, never understanding the phenomenons, and alienating ourselves from any person who wants to use his religion against us.

Let's take this event, how many of us know how to answer the calls for banning, boycotts, etc.? How many of you would know how to talk, for example, to someone who doesn't like the movie at all?

"Go to hell, religious nut!"?

That won't cut it. The reality is out there, way too many Christians exist, like so many Muslims, if we ignore the religion and the churches, how do we expect to deal with all these people realistically? Are we better than a terrorist or an inquisitor when all we have to say about it is that by getting rid of each and every one of them the problem would be solved?

I don't want to live in a world where people are separated by their religion. Christians in Concentration Camp 666, Muslims in Disciplinary Virginal School 79, Jews in Golam, and Bhuddists hiding deep inside the Thai jungle.

I have only recently began studying Islam beyond the surface (I knew of the fundamental difference from other religions philosophically but not that it affected the entire structure so significantly), and now I know what a mistake that was. As most of us, I suppose, I was caught with my pants down.

As the saying goes: All it takes for evil (in this case, I suppose religious, hehe) to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.

As long as Christians continue to let Evil men take charge of their churches, we'll find a movie director dead with a cross stuck in his heart someday. Or, as others would prefer, churches burned to the ground with people inside. We've seen this one before, it ended in the Holocaust.