Why “Jesus” Was Banned From Lebanese TV

This story has all the elements of a Lebanese reality drama: Two stations with largely Muslim audiences have decided, for the occasion of Ramadan, to broadcast a series about Jesus Christ from an Islamic perspective (It was produced in Iran of all places).

Of course, while Muslims believe in the virgin birth and that Jesus was a God-sent prophet, they do not believe that he was crucified and they do not believe in the holy trinity. It was our Muslim version of Jesus that was aired in Almanar’s and NBN’s ‘Christ’ series.

This has scandalized the Christian religious establishment in Lebanon, which lobbied successfully to cut it off the air, “without burning tires” as one Christian bishop, Bshara al Rai slyly put it.

Now while many of us Muslims are tempted to ride on our high horses and cry “freedom of speech”, it would be instructive to imagine a scenario where the opposite happens.

Imagine for a moment, that to mark Christmas, LBC decided to air a series called “Mohammed”, that graphically portrays our beloved prophet as a man with many wives, some of which are very young. Oh and the series would be produced and filmed in the Vatican.

The question in that case will be: Would there be any burning tires?