It’s not uncommon for religiously charged movies to give the groups they are depicting or possibly offending a chance to view the movie in advance. The Catholic church gets to screen some of the best movies that way, from The Passion of the Christ to The Da Vinci Code. It’s an understandable move, however. If the potentially offending group can offer their endorsement, it gets rid of a world of trouble and opens a film for a wider audience.

I don’t think anyone ever expected to see Mike Myers on the same list as Mel Gibson’s Passion or Ron Howard’s Da Vinci, but somehow he is. His upcoming film The Love Guru has been targeted by the Universal Society of Hinduism, who have put forth the demand that the movie be shown to Hindu leaders and organizations before its release.

The request comes from a fear that the movie appears to be lampooning Hinduism while tossing about Hindu terminology frivolously, according to a press release issued by the group. President of the Society, Rajan Zed, stated that Hinduism should not be taken lightly, as the oldest and third largest religion in the world. Here’s the question though Zed: if people haven’t been too worried about lampooning the largest religion in the world, what makes you think the third largest has a shot?

I’m not condoning Mike Myers or his movie. I actually don’t have much interest in The Love Guru at all. I have this nagging suspicion that it’s going to be full of many of the same jokes that showed up in Austin Powers, which in turn were used previously in Wayne’s World. Don’t get me wrong – I laughed at them in both franchises, but I’m not sure I’d find humor in the same punchlines a third time.