Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Pakistan’s Telecommunications Authority recently established a measure that orders mobile-phone companies to block text messages that contain certain words considered vulgar, obscene, or harmful, especially those of a sexual nature. But Pakistani Christians are troubled because among the more than 1,600 banned words are “Jesus Christ” and “Satan,” reports Agenzia Fides (Nov. 21). Fr. John Shakir Nadeem, secretary of the Commission for Social Communications of the Pakistan Episcopal Conference, said, “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?” Fr. Nadeem said that the ban not only “hurts the feelings of Christians,” but is a violation of Pakistan’s Constitution. The Telecommunications Authority justified its action by saying that the freedom of Pakistanis is “subject to the limitations provided by the law, in the interest of the glory of Islam.”
