Censorship by religion is one of the forms of censorship that controls freedom of expression through religious authority or on the teaching base of the religion. Censorship by religion has a long history of its practice and existence in many religions and societies such as few books those were prohibited from the list of books were Index Librorum Prohibitorum and Edict of Compiegne. In Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader, contaminated a novel called as The Satanic Verses, which was written by Salman Rushdie.

Sometimes, the definition of religious censorship acts suppresses the views those are contrary for the organized religion. This censorship is normally based on the grounds of heresy, blasphemy, sacrilege impiety, obscene, dogma challenge or violation of a religious taboo. Defending these charges is very difficult as the traditions permits clergy (the religious authorities) to interpret doctrine and is followed by dogmatic interpretation. For instance, hundreds of books were banned by Catholic Church, on such grounds. Most of them contained writing the church considered dangerous, until the existence of Index’s abolishment in the year 1965. Few books contradicted the official stance of the Church in particular issues.

There are many cases in the past since 1440, after the invention of printing press that changed the format of book publication. In 16th century, the print media was attempted to regulated and control by the government and the Church. In European countries, the government controlled publication by providing them official trade and licenses to produce books. Later, in France an act was provisioned which included unpacking and inspecting all the books those are imported into France.

Religion directly or indirectly plays vital role in few countries in terms of media content. No matter what so ever the religion may be, religious content are always sensitive and troublesome to the government.