Kashmir Files faces row in New Zealand. Here’s what former deputy PM says

New Zealand’s former deputy prime minister Winston Peters has come out in support of the release of The Kashmir Files in New Zealand saying that if the movie, which has been released in America, Australia and many other countries around the world, is not released in New Zealand, it will be an attack on the freedom of New Zealanders.

“To censor this film is tantamount to censoring information or images from the March 15th atrocities in New Zealand, or for that matter removing from public knowledge all images of the attack on 9/11. Mainstream Muslims have both in this country and around the world readily and rightly denounced all forms of terrorism on the basis that committing violence in the name of Islam is not Muslim. Neither should steps taken against Islamophobia mistakenly lead to the shielding of terrorists in the name of Islam,” Winston Peters posted on his official Facebook page. Director Vivek Agnihotri thanked him for the support.

What is the controversy The Kashmir Files is facing in New Zealand?

As Vivek Agnihotri claimed on Twitter, there was pressure on the New Zealand Censor Board to ban The Kashmir Files for which the director blamed “some communal groups”. According to reports, the chief censor has not banned the movie but is reviewing the film’s classification after members of the Muslim community have raised concerns. Chief censor David Shanks said members of the Muslim community had approached him that the film could raise anti-Muslim sentiments and potential hatred. “This is a situation where emotions are starting to tick up. [We have] got to engage with that,” he has been quoted as saying by local media.

A petition has also been started for the release of the movie in New Zealand which says, “These graphic and violent elements are based on real events that have been documented. The film is a medium to showcase that painful experience to the world.”

“Letters have alleged that the film will lead to a ‘rise in Islamophobia in New Zealand and hate toward Muslims in Aotearoa’. We reject this accusation due to responses from millions of people who have watched this film across the world and we can substantiate this by evidence that not a single incident has happened following the film,” the online petition said.