New Delhi: Vishwa Hindu Parishad spokesperson Vinod Bansal Friday lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police and Mumbai Police against Twitter India for allowing Iranian-Canadian author and podcaster Armin Navabi to post derogatory comments on Hindu Goddess Kali.
The VHP leader’s complaint hits out at Twitter for allowing “such posts” and “not taking action” against such account holders. In his tweet, which included a photo of the complaint, Bansal tagged the accounts of both the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
“He used derogatory words with posting image of Goddess Kali which deeply hurts my religious sentiments…. His posting on Twitter account is not acceptable at all as his posting has deeply hurt Hindus spiritual sentiments around the world including Hindus residing in India,” Bansal’s complaint read.
“We request you to arrange to book Twitter India for allowing such posts and not taking action against such account holders. Also, Twitter must have a policy of filtering the messages which are against religion and a state,” the complaint further stated.
Navabi’s ‘love’ for Hinduism
Armin Navabi, is an atheist who is the founder of an online free-thought community Atheist Republic, a Canada-based non-profit organisation. He also authored a book, titled ‘Why there is no God’.
On Thursday, Navabi had posted the picture of Goddess Kali and written: “Okay! I’m in love with Hinduism. I never knew you had sexy goddesses like these. Why would anyone pick any other religion?”.
His post triggered several reactions on the microblogging site, including from actor Kangana Ranaut‘s official Twitter handle. Navabi subsequently posted responses to the reactions, saying, “How is ‘sexy’ an insult?”
Yr attack on Hinduism; mocking #Hindu Goddeses as ‘Sexy’ is racist. I doubt if u as an Iranian r acquainted with the civilization of #Bharat. Please stick to raking your own people who r drenched in hydrogen peroxide as fake blondes and reconstructed nose lines.
cc @KanganaTeam https://t.co/5d2LDXnTVJ— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) September 4, 2020
For you, a woman is nothing more than a vagina and the mythical virgins-in-paradise are mere vagina-robots. That is why you have to put your women in tents.
Problem is in your conditioning, not in the beauty of our Gods and Goddesses., who are as fearsome as they are handsome https://t.co/NDpnaXEfFz
— विनोद शर्मा ?? (@vinod_sharma) September 4, 2020
As the comments poured in, including calls to ban his account, Navabi posted:
After all these report campaigns, I'm surprised my Twitter account is still standing. Thank you Twitter! https://t.co/2ZZZLgtLLa
— Armin Navabi (@ArminNavabi) September 5, 2020
The author-podcaster had recently started a Twitter video campaign with the hashtag #DesecrateTheQuran. In the video, Navabi can be seen spitting on the pages of the Holy book and then tearing them.