Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Is "Jesus Christ" an obscene word? In Pakistan it is

You find a lot of things in the West that reject Jesus Christ as the reason for the season (sorry for the cliche, but it is necessary). But if you think we as Christians have it hard in the West against, take a look at the Christians in Pakistan, what they have to endure. They are not allowed to mention "Jesus Christ" in their sms texts that they write to each others.
The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has banned “Jesus Christ” from use in text messages, among a list of terms deemed “false, fabricated, indecent or obscene”.
So now, just writting the name of Jesus, and his title, Christ (anointed) has become a source of punishment.  So, from where did they take this great idea? Well, their own law allows them to carry on with such discrimination:
Telecommunication Act (1996), which prohibits people from transmitting messages that are “false, fabricated, indecent or obscene”. It also stated that free speech can be restricted “in the interest of the glory of Islam”.
So in the interest of the glory of Islam, they should also ban the name of Issa (Jesus in the Koran) from their sacred text, but they won't do it. Do you see the idiocy of such a proposal? It's not consistent with their own practices.

Thankfully, Christians in Asia are not like Christians in the West, who always stay put when ever their faith is attacked:

Christians have reacted angrily to the inclusion of “Jesus Christ” on the list, which features obscenities and sexual references.
Joseph Dias, general secretary of a South Asian Christian human rights group, said:
One wonders why gods of other religions have not been mentioned in the list and Christians, who are already facing persecution in Pakistan, have been singled out for such treatment.
Apart from being an idiotic move from the Pakistan government, it is also a hypocritical one, as an advocacy agency has noticed:
The Pakistani campaign group Bytes For All (BFA) said that it will challenge the PTA’s order in court, describing it as “a new, ruthless wave of moral policing” that violated rights to free speech and privacy.
The BFA also said:
If such a thing happened in any other country, there would be an outrage already and if it was directed (mistakenly or intentionally) towards Muslims, the amount of outrage would be uncontrollable. 
Yes, it such a thing would take place here in Australia, they would torch Telstra, and destroy other things around the world until such an "injustice" is corrected.

These are our allies in the war against terrorism? I hope that the alliance between the USA, Australia and Pakistan brakes down for good, and then, we will know how much committed that country is for freedom.

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