Egypt and Morocco Ban Scott Ridley's "Exodus"

Egypt has followed in the footsteps of Morocco in banning Scott Ridley's Hollywood epic movie "Exodus: Gods and Kings."  The film has been banned due to the movie's historical inaccuracies.  

The film, directed by Scott Ridley and starring Christian Bale, tells the Biblical account of how Moses led the people of Israel out of slavery and Egypt.  However, Egypt's culture minister, Gaber Asfour, has said that the movie is rifled with mistakes.

First, the film depicts the Hebrew people building pyramids but the Egyptians had already built their pyramids a thousand years before Moses' time.  Second, the scene showing the parting of the Red Sea in which Moses - a prophet revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike - is seen holding a sword like a warrior, instead of a staff.

"This totally contradicts proven historical facts," Asfour said. "It is a Zionist film," he said. "It gives a Zionist view of history and contains historical inaccuracies and that's why we have decided to ban it."

The ban was decided by a committee comprising the head of the supreme council for culture, Mohammed Afifi, the head of the censorship committee and two history professors, Asfour said.

Afifi said he took issue with  Furthermore, he said, the parting of the Red Sea was explained in the movie as a "tidal phenomenon" rather than a divine miracle.

Morocco has also banned the film, despite it having been approved by the state-run Moroccan Cinema Centre, media reported on Thursday, quoting theatre managers. Hassan Belkady, who runs Cinema Rif in Casablanca, told media24 news website that he had been threatened with the closure of his business if he ignored the ban.

"They phoned and threatened they would shut down the theatre if I did not take the film off the schedule," Belkady said.

 

 

 

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