Muslim outfits protest against Kamal Hassan's Vishwaroopam

Madurai, Jan 24: Muslim outfits here have decided to hold siege of all five theatres where Kamal Hassan's Vishwaroopam is set be screened on Friday. Speaking to journalists, H Shahul, district president of Tamil Nadu Thouheed Jamaath (TNTJ) said the siege will not be just a token protest against a single screening but they will stop the theatres from screening all the shows for the entire day. The Tamil Nadu government imposed a two-week ban on the film on Wednesday night.

He said the movie had degraded their community to an extreme low and the decision to protest was taken after the Muslim outfits saw a preview of the film on Jan 21. According to Shahul, the film shows Islam and Muslims as terrorists and that they are fed extremism right from the womb.

The protesters were also taking legal measures to halt the screening by approaching the court and the administration. A petition has also been submitted to the deputy commissioner, law and order, R Thirunavukkarasu, in this regard. The siege will be the initial step to express agitation and more steps will be taken to protest the film.

The TNTJ leader said the Muslims were being targetted by the film industry ever since Bombay was released in the mid 1990s. He said the Muslims are being repeatedly projected as terrorists in films and it was leaving an adverse effect on the community's sentiments. He said despite the negative depiction, they were protesting in a democratic way, adding that other Muslim outfits were also supporting their protest.

The outfit also sought court's help to stop DTH screening of the film, sources said.

Meanwhile, sources said that the proposed screening of Vishwaroopam in Dubai, Bahrain, Oman and other parts of the UAE was also cancelled.

Later, Hassan issued a statement saying he was shocked to see how the film was projected to be against the Muslims. He said it was a case of cultural terrorism.

OneIndia News