Iran bans broadcast of Egyptian series about medieval Shia sect

Iran has banned an Egyptian television series inspired by the history of the medieval Shia Muslim sect, condemning historical “distortions”, state media said on Sunday.
The series follows the story of Hasan Ibn Assabbah, originally from Persia, who in the 11th century founded the El-hashashin sect, also known as the “sect of the killers”, of the Nizari Ismaili Shiites who form a very minority branch of Islam.
The 30-episode series, which first aired in March during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, was a hit in the Middle East and quickly became one of the most watched series among Iranians.
Iran, however, decided to ban its broadcast on “all local platforms”, considering that it contains “numerous historical distortions and appears to have been produced with a biased political approach”, the Irna news agency quoted Mehdi Seifi, the television executive, as saying.
The series presents a “false image of Iranians,” says IRNA, which quotes experts who say the soap opera sought to link Iranians to “the birth of terrorism.”
Leaving Egypt in the early 1090s, Hasan Ibn Assabbah settled in the fortress of Alamut, now a tourist destination in northern Iran, where he trained fighters who carried out several bloody political assassinations, including between the 11th and 12th centuries.