MADRAS, India -- The recent anger against director Ron Howard's latest film, "The Da Vinci Code," reminds us that intolerance against artistic freedom is growing in a world that we thought was past caring about such issues.
The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu has banned this work, fearing a backlash from the minority Christian community.
Adapted almost faithfully from Dan Brown's best-seller, also called "The Da Vinci Code," Howard's movie says that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene, had a daughter and her descendants survive till this day. Nobody knows whether this is borne out by facts, but Brown and Howard have been emphasizing that this is pure fiction, although it is based on a few pillars of facts. Organizations such as the Opus Dei and Priory of Sion, which are part of the novel and the film, exist or once existed. And, well, of course, the Louvre is real, so too the Mona Lisa. A good part of Howard's work has been shot inside the renowned Parisian museum, although the crew was not permitted to film Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece and had to make do with copies.