It is not just Egyptian cleric who criticise Facebook

In early 2010, a cleric in Egypt criticised usage of Facebook as a after a study proved that one out of five divorces in Egypt were caused because of the affairs that started from Facebook. At that time, this opinion was ridiculed as one of the ignorant opinions by a hardliner.

After that, another study in the UK proved that flirtation on Facebook was the reason behind one of three divorces. I read this news some time back, but it was published in TOI again. But, this time, no one criticised the firm of bigotry because the analysis came from secularly learned people in the UK. 

According to the said news report: Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online , said: "Facebook has become the primary method for communicating with friends for many people. People contact ex-partners and the messages start as innocent, but lead to trouble. "If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then it's the easiest place to do it. People need to be careful what they put on Facebook as the courts are now seeing a lot more evidence being introduced from people's walls and posts in disputes over finances and children," he said.

Another report published in TOI last November says: A Classmates Web site survey revealed that 39 percent of their users -- or 14.7 million people -- said they used the site to look up an old love. So whether it's Google, MySpace, Facebook or Twitter, it's easy to let your fingers do the walking to locate old loves. The trend is so prominent, they have a name for digital daters who party in the past: retrosexuals.

Poor clerics, when they voice an opinion which is against the popular emotions, they are branded hardliners. Its true, there are some clerics who would make your life difficult by declaring Al Baik and packed milk to be ‘haraam’ but many times they might be talking something sensible, although they may not use the best words to say what they want to say.