Beirut, Aug 13 (DPA) The final episode of an Iranian television series called “The Messiah” was banned Friday in Lebanon, after a complaint from Catholics.
The series, based on the Koran’s version of the story of Jesus, had been shown daily on two channels loyal to the Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah since Tuesday, the first day of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

In a joint statement, the al Manar and NBN television stations said they would abide by the decision of the Security General’s office and would stop airing the series to “avoid any negative sentiments in the country”.

The broadcasts were banned because “it caused anger and dismay among the respected Christian community in Lebanon”, a government source said.

“We are happy with the decision to stop the series,” Bishop Beshara al Raai, spokesperson for the Christian Catholic centre in Beirut, said.

All the events in the television series contained “distortion to the Christian ideology”, he said.

“The Messiah” is the work of Iranian director Nader Talebzadeh, who is known to share the ideology of Iran’s hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Talebzadeh made the film “to show the Islamic view of Jesus Christ, in a bid to show the common ground between Muslims and Christians”, according to the local press.

In the series, Jesus is depicted as a fair-complexioned man with long hair and a beard. God saves him from crucifixion and takes him straight to heaven.

“It is frankly said in the Koran that the person who was crucified was not Jesus but Judas, one of the 12 Apostles and the one the Bible says betrayed Jesus to the Romans,” Talebzadeh was quoted by the Lebanese press as saying.

In the series, it is Judas who is crucified.

Islam considers Jesus to be one of five great prophets - the others include Noah, Moses and Abraham - sent to earth to announce the coming of Mohammed, the fifth prophet who spread the religion of Islam.

Lebanon has 18 different religious sects. The main two religions are Islam and Christianity.