The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority released a list of more
than 1,600 words that it considered to be “vulgar, obscene or harmful”
and ordered phone companies to block text messages containing those
words.
However, an official from the authority told Agence France-Presse that it would review and shorten the list before issuing the ban. It did not list a time frame.
Included in the list of “vulgar, obscene, or harmful” words were the words “Jesus Christ.”
“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,” said Father Nadeem John Shakir, secretary of the commission for social communications for the Pakistani Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Article 19 of the 1973 constitution of Pakistan states:
Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, or incitement to an offense.
Apparently, the words “Jesus Christ” are not considered “in the interest of the glory of Islam,” although the Koran mentions Jesus twenty-five times, more often, by name, than Muhammad.
Jesus is considered to have been a Muslim (i.e., one who submits to the will of God), as he preached that his followers should adopt the “straight path” as commanded by God. Islam rejects the Christian view that Jesus was God, or that he died on the cross and was resurrected from the dead. Judas Iscariot is given the role of having been crucified. The Koran emphasizes that Jesus was a mortal human being who, like all other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God’s message.
Muslims believe that Jesus (Isa) will return at a time close to the end of the world. According to Islamic tradition which describes this graphically, Jesus’ descent will be in the midst of wars fought by the Mahdi (lit. “the rightly guided one”) against the Antichrist (al-Masīh ad-Dajjāl,and his followers. Jesus will join the Mahdi in his war against the Antichrist. Eventually, Jesus will slay the Antichrist, and then everyone from the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb, referring to Jews and Christians) will believe in him. Thus, there will be one community, that of Islam.
After the death of the Mahdi, Jesus will assume leadership. This is a time associated in Islamic narrative with universal peace and justice. Jesus’ rule is said to be around forty years, after which he will die. Muslims believe that God will hold every human, Muslim and non-Muslim, accountable for his or her deeds at a preordained time unknown to man, but apparently at the death of Jesus in the end times. Traditions say Muhammad will be the first to be brought back to life. Presumably Jesus will be raised from the dead a second time, since the Koran emphasizes the inevitability of resurrection, judgment, and the eternal division of the righteous and the wicked.
Islam is the state religion of Pakistan and about 95-98% of Pakistanis are Muslims. Sunnis comprise 80-95% of the Muslim population, while Shias the remaining 5-15%.
The Mahdi doctrine is common to both Sunnis and Shias.
The U.S. government has had a tenuous relationship with Pakistan, strained recently by the revelation that Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabod, only about 40 mi from Rawalpindi, military headquarters in Pakistan.
Although there is a political mending of fences between the U.S. and Pakistan, I suggest there is an irreconcilably deep divide between Christianity and Islam…certainly in each’s eschatology.
However, an official from the authority told Agence France-Presse that it would review and shorten the list before issuing the ban. It did not list a time frame.
Included in the list of “vulgar, obscene, or harmful” words were the words “Jesus Christ.”
“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,” said Father Nadeem John Shakir, secretary of the commission for social communications for the Pakistani Catholic Bishops’ Conference.
Article 19 of the 1973 constitution of Pakistan states:
Every citizen shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression, and there shall be freedom of the press, subject to any reasonable restrictions imposed by law in the interest of the glory of Islam or the integrity, security or defense of Pakistan or any part thereof, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, or incitement to an offense.
Apparently, the words “Jesus Christ” are not considered “in the interest of the glory of Islam,” although the Koran mentions Jesus twenty-five times, more often, by name, than Muhammad.
Jesus is considered to have been a Muslim (i.e., one who submits to the will of God), as he preached that his followers should adopt the “straight path” as commanded by God. Islam rejects the Christian view that Jesus was God, or that he died on the cross and was resurrected from the dead. Judas Iscariot is given the role of having been crucified. The Koran emphasizes that Jesus was a mortal human being who, like all other prophets, had been divinely chosen to spread God’s message.
Muslims believe that Jesus (Isa) will return at a time close to the end of the world. According to Islamic tradition which describes this graphically, Jesus’ descent will be in the midst of wars fought by the Mahdi (lit. “the rightly guided one”) against the Antichrist (al-Masīh ad-Dajjāl,and his followers. Jesus will join the Mahdi in his war against the Antichrist. Eventually, Jesus will slay the Antichrist, and then everyone from the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb, referring to Jews and Christians) will believe in him. Thus, there will be one community, that of Islam.
After the death of the Mahdi, Jesus will assume leadership. This is a time associated in Islamic narrative with universal peace and justice. Jesus’ rule is said to be around forty years, after which he will die. Muslims believe that God will hold every human, Muslim and non-Muslim, accountable for his or her deeds at a preordained time unknown to man, but apparently at the death of Jesus in the end times. Traditions say Muhammad will be the first to be brought back to life. Presumably Jesus will be raised from the dead a second time, since the Koran emphasizes the inevitability of resurrection, judgment, and the eternal division of the righteous and the wicked.
Islam is the state religion of Pakistan and about 95-98% of Pakistanis are Muslims. Sunnis comprise 80-95% of the Muslim population, while Shias the remaining 5-15%.
The Mahdi doctrine is common to both Sunnis and Shias.
The U.S. government has had a tenuous relationship with Pakistan, strained recently by the revelation that Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabod, only about 40 mi from Rawalpindi, military headquarters in Pakistan.
Although there is a political mending of fences between the U.S. and Pakistan, I suggest there is an irreconcilably deep divide between Christianity and Islam…certainly in each’s eschatology.
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