(CP) A group of six Christians and a driver were arrested Monday in Paris, France, for riding around in a bus that featured a graphic objecting to the Olympics opening ceremony and demanding an end to attacks on Christians.
Six team members with CitizenGO, a Madrid-based conservative advocacy group that engages in activism primarily by circulating online petitions, were detained and spent the night in jail, the organization said Tuesday.
"Six of our team members were forced to spend the night in jail for simply denouncing the mockery of Christians by having the message 'STOP ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS' written on a bus," CitizenGO tweeted, adding that their bus activism "is not illegal in any way."
The bus also linked to a petition the organization started demanding an apology from the International Olympic Committee for its opening ceremony that mocked the Last Supper with drag queens, exposed male genitalia, and an obese lesbian DJ in the place of Jesus.
"What happens if we stay silent? Our faith, our Christian symbols, will become a permanent parody promoted by queer, LGBTI, and trans lobbies, backed by our globalist leaders and the international left," reads the petition, which has racked up more than 387,000 signatures as of Wednesday.
"This was a deliberate and vicious parody humiliating our most cherished beliefs as Christians — they know we are an easy target," the petition continued. "And until we stop them, they will keep doing it. This is about standing up for our faith and ensuring that such blatant profanity is never repeated."
"We cannot allow them to desecrate our Lord Jesus Christ with such obscenities. If we remain silent, we are sending a message that such disrespect is acceptable."
In what CitizenGO suggested was a display of "anti-Christian political and ideological persecution," the team members were reportedly jailed in "gross" conditions, strip-searched and prohibited from calling their lawyers or having access to water.
According to a press release from CitizenGO founder Ignacio Arsuaga, the bus had been driving around Paris since 9 a.m. without incident until French law enforcement surrounded it and stopped it at gunpoint, arresting the six campaigners and the bus driver at around 7 p.m.
Arsuaga said that his organization plans to file a lawsuit against the French President, a prosecutor and the French police.
"Woke governments are becoming increasingly totalitarian," he said.
CitizenGO's lawyer reportedly secured the release of the campaigners sometime after 4 a.m. the following day and maintained that they did nothing illegal.
"It appears impossible to constitute the crime of failing to communicate a protest because there is no protest in the presence of one unique vehicle," the lawyer said.
CitizenGO also tweeted footage of their bus being escorted by police out of Paris after the arrests.
"They are tyrannical, anti-Christian bullies," CitizenGO said. "It's absurd."
CitizenGo's tweet drew the attention of X CEO Elon Musk, who tweeted two exclamation marks in response.
CitizenGo, though founded in Spain, claims to have team members in 15 cities on three continents and campaigns in 11 languages intended to influence government and organizations in 50 different countries, according to its website.
