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“Jesus Christ” can be used again in txt message in Pakistan after the Church, politicians and a digital media group combined their efforts to influence the decision to ban the words.
The Pakistan government withdrew the name of Jesus Christ from a list of censored words compiled on a ‘black list,’ that it identified as obscene, pornographic or with religious reference.
The move is seen as a particular victory for Paul Bhatti, a special advisor to the Pakistani government on religious matters.
Bhatti, along with demonstrations by parliamentarians and activists from the All Pakistan Minority Alliance were all involved in a multi-pronged political attack on the government’s decision.
Fr John Shakir Nadeem, Secretary of the “Commission for Social Communications” of the Episcopal Conference, told Fides on 21 November, “The Catholic Church of Pakistan will make all necessary pressures on the government to eliminate the name of Christ from the prohibited list.”
“We understand the desire to protect the minds of young people, indicating a list of obscene words. But why include the name of Christ? What is obscene? Banning it is a violation of our right to evangelize and hurts the feelings of Christians.”
“If the ban is confirmed, it would be a black page for the country, a further act of discrimination against Christians and an open violation of Pakistan’s Constitution. We hope that the government will make the appropriate corrections”.
Organizations for the defense of human rights and freedom of citizens such as “Bytes For All” also said they will contest the order in court.
“It violates the right to freedom of speech and expression”, Bytes for All said.
“It is an intrusion into the citizens privacy, and is not only oppressive and hegemonic, but also unconstitutional”.
Sources
- Fides
- Asia News
- ucanews.com
- Image: ucanews.com
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News category: World.
