Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said today that the screening of the movie "Passion of the Christ" in public cinemas is only for Christians but the government also allowed it to be screened at the premises of parishes following a request from the churches.

"The government was approached by a specific group of people asking if they could view the movie in the premises of their churches and we allowed it by going one step further by giving permission for it to be viewed by Christians in cinemas," he said.

Abdullah told reporters this after addressing participants to the World Council of Churches' Faith and Order Plenary Commission meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

After the prime minister left the function, an aide attempted to clarify his statement on the movie, claiming that it was never banned in the first place.

"The distributors of the movie never submitted the movie for a general screening until there was a request by a church group" he explained.

The aide added that once the movie was submitted to the National Film Censorship Board (Finas) to be scrutinised for violent parts, it was released for Christian audiences who requested for it.

This however is contrary to claims made in a Reuters news report dated July 21 which quoted a Finas spokesperson as saying that the board's decision to bar a general release of the Hollywood movie was because "it might spark off some religious disagreement in this country (Malaysia)."

English subtitles

The same report also stated that the movie distributors had initially not bothered to seek approval to air the movie in Malaysia "assuming the mainly Muslim country will ban it".

Twentieth Century Fox acts as distributors of the movie, director by famed Hollywood actor/director Mel Gibson, which is dialogued in Latin and Aramaic with English subtitles.

Contacted this evening, an official from Twentieth Century Fox Film (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd also revealed a slightly different account of the facts.

"Fox submitted the movie to Finas like what we normally do in order to get a movie released for general screening," said the official, stressing that they requested for it to be aired only in cinemas.

Finas only approved the screening of the movie for Christian viewers, claimed the official, who was puzzled as to why there was still interest in the matter since the movie has been approved for screening .

"Passion of the Christ" which is 126 minutes long had broken box office records in Muslim countries like Egypt, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, according to its distributors.

It will premiere in Malaysian cinemas on Aug 11 and 12.

"A special screening will be held for all heads of churches," Moo Hon Mei, marketing manager of Fox Malaysia told malaysiakini today, adding that they will be briefed on the methods of obtaining tickets for their parishioners.

Tickets for the movie will not be sold over the counter.

Fox will also release the movie on video by Aug 31.