SRINAGAR, Feb 6, (1993) – Moslem militants in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state said on Saturday they had declared war on a television serial because it depicts characters from the Bible.
They charged that “Stories from the Bible”, shown on Sundays by state-run Doordarshan television, was blasphemous to Islam.
“All prophets including Jesus Christ and Moses are held in equal reverence by the Moslems and no mortal can play their character,” the underground Islamic group Jamait-ul-Mujahedin, said in a statement.
The group said it would strike at government installations in the northern state if the next broadcast was not stopped.
The fundamentalist Jamiat-e-Ahle Hadith group said the Bible serial “hurts our religious sentiment. We cannot tolerate it”.
Moslems regard Jesus as a prophet. Islam also shares prophets such as Abraham and Moses with Jewish and Christian traditions.
Moslem militants are fighting for independence from Indian rule in Kashmir, the country’s only Moslem-majority state.
About 100 million of India’s 850 million people are Moslems. Most of the remainder are Hindus.
Film star Kabir Bedi plays Abraham in the serial, which has also been criticised by some Christian groups. They object because it begins with the story of Adam and Eve rather than God’s creation of the universe.
