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Solo, Central Java. Despite not having seen it, the Surakarta branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulema in Central Java on Tuesday called for a halt in the screening of the disaster film “2012” in a number of theaters, but the call may have the opposite effect the council was hoping for.

“We want the film stopped because we have received reports from the public that the film carries a provocative message relating to faiths,” said Zaenal Abidin, chairman of the Surakarta branch of the council (MUI).

He said in one of its scenes the film advised people to hide in a certain religious house of prayer when the apocalypse arrived.

“This has caused unrest among people with a different religion who watched the film. This is our complaint,” he said.

Zaenal said the MUI was not complaining about the scenes of the disaster, described as signs of the arrival of the end of the world.

“We have not yet issued a fatwa about the film. We will follow the decision of the central MUI,” he said.

To support its call for a ban, Zaenal said the Surakarta branch of the MUI would actually watch the film.

The MUI branch in Malang, East Java, on Monday issued a fatwa on the film, calling it “improper and misleading,” though Amidhan, the chairman of the central MUI, said there was nothing wrong with the movie.

Bambang Rahmad, the manager of the Grand 21 theater in Solo, said fatwas previously issued by several regional MUIs against films actually raised public interest in watching those films.

“Even right now public enthusiasm is increasing, making us open three cinemas instead of the previous two to show the film,” he said. “Every day, about 1,000 people have come to watch the film so far. The number may increase after we open another cinema.”

Helped by a massive advertising budget, the film created a stir before its release when the US space agency NASA set up a Web site to debunk its central myth that the world will end in 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends.

The film, directed by Roland Emmerich, portrays the earth’s destruction following the movement of the magnetic poles and shows various disasters sweeping the globe such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis.