Catholic Forum Launches Nationwide Protest Against Anti-Christian Facebook Pages
MUMBAI, Maharashtra (SAR NEWS) – Catholic Secular Forum (CSF), a Mumbai-based national activist community non-governmental organization, has launched a countrywide protest against Facebook and called upon the government of India to ensure that blasphemous pages of any and all religions are taken off the website.
In a press release here May 24, CSF general secretary Joseph Dias said a research by the forum had shown a number of pages on the social networking site Facebook, especially in the ‘F***’ series, were worse than the ‘Draw the Prophet’ pages, which were being protested by Muslims throughout the world.
“These pages hurt the sensibilities of the followers of various faiths and must be taken off forthwith. CSF joins the protesting Muslims, especially since Jesus Christ is also considered a prophet in Islam and respect the desire of Muslims not to have a depiction of their prophet, as per the tenets of their faith,” Dias stated.
Facebook has a number of venerable figures and religions ridiculed, saying religion is not above criticism.
Links for these sites available with the CSF have been forwarded to the Union government for immediate action of getting the same removed from the website.
“These web pages are highly offensive to religious sentiments and hence the call for action,” the CSF release said.
The forum also called upon Facebook to tender an unconditional apology to the world for hurting the religious sentiments of millions of followers of different faiths.
It urged Sonia Gandhi, the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance that heads the government at the Centre, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the issue by blocking the website.
“CSF is not for banning Facebook or its related websites, as it would adversely affect the interests of millions, many of whom are dependent on the Internet for their living, business, networking, etc. Sites like this must, however, be held responsible for objectionable content to prevent the potential disastrous consequences of their actions,” the release said.
