Note: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has ordered Worldcall Telecom to ban this post due to ‘controversial content’. Here is proof: http://i50.tinypic.com/5bnwp5.png.
Oh my, Facebook has been banned in Pakistan. Well, at least it isn’t opening here in Lahore. Not on my server, no sir. Therefore, without wasting time, I must introduce you to the very infamous Tehreek-e-Facebook! No more Facebook for you and you and you! If you think you want to upload your fancy little sheesha party pictures tonight, you’re WRONG! I, Maulana Mehreen Kasana, have issued a fatwa against all you blasphemous social network whores. That’s right, you heard me! No Facebook for you for the next few days. If some of my readers are confused, here’s a link to explain the current issue. Right now, many Pakistani Facebook-users look like this:
Indeed.
Read Statistics and Do the Math:
It’s just ridiculous, to be honest. Banning an entire social network is not going to stop 40,000 caricature-supporters. I’ve been given an argument as well: It’s going to bring down their economy! My very simple refutation consists of primarily one word: No. According to Facebook, the social network will only suffer a loss of $0.15m if Pakistan chooses to continue its ban till May 31, 2010. Not a big deal for Mark Zuckerberg’s creation which has been in controversial crises with China, Vietnam and Iran. Facebook is based on a pay-per-click model and it earns $.03 on each click. Pakistan has nearly $2m Facebook users. If we use our brains (something most of us don’t) the product of your rebel theory states that Facebook only suffers a few meager bucks. Therefore, the ban is useless. It could have been productive if we were still on Facebook and chose to negate their campaign by simple and peaceful dialogue. Stop messaging each other “OMG WE RUINED FACEBOOK!” because no, $0.15m means nothing to the ones living in Calo Palto, California.
Contradiction By LHC and PTA:
What gives the LHC the right to ban a whole networking site based on what some individuals have uploaded? By the logic, shouldn’t they block YouTube as well? How about Google, since it gives you results for all kinds of things? If I choose to waste my time on the internet, that’s not anyone’s concern but mine and no one, not even the LHC should be allowed to take it away. This is by far the most wrong decision taken by any entity in this whole saga. If PTA is so very dedicated to the real preachings of Islam then why on Earth do I see Alexis Texas bouncing in bed with some buffed up porn star? Paradox, anyone?
What To Do:
One of the best opinions on this web-crisis is by Adnan Ali: http://blog.fursid.com/blogged/why-i-will-not-boycott-facebook-on-may-20-2010-how-muslims-should-respond/
I wish PTB realized that there are far more effective ways of protesting and retaliating. Violence and banning Facebook are not options. Peaceful negotiations can help. Better yet – ignore them. We need to start using that thing up in our heads. If the supporters still don’t believe me, answer this question: How exactly does banning Facebook affect Draw Muhammad Day?
Let me know your answers (without calling me kaafir, thank you).
P.S. Don’t you think it’s a little too ironic that popular porn sites like XNXX and YouPorn continue to open without any delay on all servers in Pakistan? After all, PTB is very sensitive about Islam and its preachings.
P.S.S. Massive trolling by PTA supporters. Fun thread below.
P.S.S.S. Like any average Muslim, I’m glad to know that Molly Norris is apologetic for igniting the obscene campaign. Read more about it here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/05/pakistan_orders_blanket_ban_on.html. You can even find more on the inconsiderate fool’s apology and request to cease the campaign here and here. I have a feeling it’ll stop soon. Going to keep my Muslim fingers crossed. Woohoo.
try vtunnel.com
its slow but it gives you undahgarauund facebook ;)
Stupid technically stunted judges, they could have just blocked the URL of the event, not all of facebook! But, OMGZ! WTFZ! BLASPHEMY! HAW HAYE!
As if it’s really going to matter to the creators of the event that facebook’s blocked in Pakistan. Pakistanis always have this tendency to over-react over trivial matters. Pfft. On the otherhand, now I might be able concentrate on my exams, instead of facebooking random people. Yay, me!
My post was better kthxbye. =D
*gasps and points accusing finger* YOU KAAFIR!!
So. I agree. Completely. Totally. This is exactly what I told my friends but NNNOOOOO OF COURSE banning FB is going to make it all go away. No question about it.
Kaafir.
<3
You can still open facebook simply use http://www.unblockf.com. And by the way read xeb’s blog she wrote it very well too!!
By the way even knowing that it can open just skip not opening ;)
It does in the way that people won’t be uploading stuff online atleast we won’t see it and our blood won’t boil. And the order was on country level, so facebook will take some action against it. May be ban such content, so things would make a difference, if not on a large scale but they will!
Very well written. I agree with everything you said.
(I wrote this comment with a gun placed on my head, you have scarred me for life Mehreen)
This banning of Facebook is a typical Pakistani response. Not very well thought out at all. What good will this accomplish anyway? As far as I know, most Muslims weren’t interested in going to that event page anyway. Have people forgotten that there are pro Islamic groups/pages made on Facebook as well? Not to mention the various people/companies whose livelihood is based on products they have launched for Facebook.
People will do what they will. You can’t really stop them. Yes, we can protest, but banning Facebook in our own country is a stupid step. This is exactly the type of response that ‘they’ wanted us to have. Remember what happened the last time? We were burning and destroying our own cities becuase of some dick halfway across the the world.
At the most if they HAD to ban something, they could’ve banned that particular event page, but no, they had to ban an entire social network instead. Stupid doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Bring their economy down? ROFL!!
I had an excellent suggestion: Ban the internet in the Pure Land. This would save the sophisticated people from the offending stuff scattered here and there, which messes with their convoluted sense of religious responsibility every now and then.
Tehreek e nifaaz e shariyat program with guest appearances by the PTA, Rehman Malik and Facebook.
This is a case study for a Viral Marketing Lecture. Every person I know has been made aware of this event by a muslim/fellow Pakistani. While we are at it we can find thousands of websites, forums, blogs which are blasphemous, put it up on our status and look at it go viral in a few days.
Most importantly I know so many people whose livelihood are going to be effected by this ban. Who would like to enterprise into facebook applications meant for Pakistani people now?
Maulana Mehreen Kasana
LAUGHED my ass off at this xD <3
Read about this in the news and I think it’s just absurd, really. Freedom of speech allows anyone to say anything and as far as I have read about it, they don’t mean to make degrading sketches of your prophet. Perhaps they’re doing what they did to Jesus. But then Christianity is quite A-okay with pictorial representation of their dear messenger. As an atheist, I know one thing for sure: Religious offence can lead to massive destruction especially in case of Islam.
Be careful. Don’t want to lose a young writer like you.
I’ll just repeat what you said, okay? :D
HORY SHET!
So tell me, all you very intellectual people, and specially you, mehreen ali kasana, what is the answer? how exactly should one tackle this problem? tell us, my lord, we all want to hear your answer. and please, if you may, a straightforward non sarcastic implementable answer would be nice. and also tell me what are you doing for this issue? what is your non violent, non boycotting, peaceful and very intelligent answer? or wait, you’re one of those people who believe it is everyones right to exercise freedom of speech however disgusting it may be?
@Sonia:
My, my. Don’t we need to calm down.
Firstly, thank you for implying I’m an intellectual. I’d like to correct the first mistake of your comment: I’m no sage. I’m an ordinary student from an ordinary background.
Second correction of your comment: I’m not a believer of blasphemous freedom of speech (although, if you study this further, you’ll realize that this is a very relative subject). Now, the answer to your question:
This problem can be tackled in far better ways. Starting off with tolerance, for beginners like you. If they’re making drawings, banning Facebook won’t stop them. Killing them won’t fix anything; we’re already despised for mentally-clogged extremists and their doings. Your fit of rage helps no one. How am I helping? By not making a fool of myself and by calmly answering queries posed by both Muslims and Non-Muslims. I believe I’m a better a Muslim than most of these ‘enraged devouted-lovers of Islam’ because, unlike the majority of these raging followers, I am answerable to God and His Prophet in terms of primarily significant matters like Haqooq-il-Ibaad because I don’t know if you know but this little story here proves alot. Why the hell aren’t you staging a protest on this? Oh wait, sorry. Caricatures being drawn seven seas away pose more threat to your religion and society.
It’s sad we’ve got it all wrong as a nation. Your obligation to Islam implies you follow the basic core values first (as mentioned by Adnan Ali in the article given above). The majority of these “true Momins” don’t even remember the fourth Kalma, for gods sake. This is about hyping matters up. Nobody’s nerve is touched when real savage brutality is inflicted upon a Muslim by another Muslim. But oh my God, a bunch of artists decided to doodle away and presto! “We’re up for a cyber war that doesn’t fix anything but hell, we have to do something because ‘Muhammad tum se poochay ga ke tum kahan thay jab yeh sab ho raha tha?’” Well, guess what? He’s more concerned with your basic duties. Once you’re a nearly-perfect Muslim, come up to me, Sonia and I’ll be in favor of your Facebook-Ban Theory. But right now, quit it with the dumb trolling.
hey mehreen, thanks for your great answer. you know, at first i was pro facebook boycotting but later when the PTA decided to ban everything i realized their point is not to boycot facebook but limit freedom of speech (i know how tricky this is). I do agree with you in all of your points and once again, thank you. i’m sorry for being rude up there, i was angry at a couple of things and didnt realize how awful i sound. “major pwnage” as the troll says. today i got a fwded msg saying bbc reported facebook has lost 2 billion euros in these 2 days facebook has been banned.i mean how stupid does that sound? where does one even begin to point out everything that is wrong in that one sentence. i realized then how stupid this whole boycotting thing is. from now i’ll control my hormones and think before acting :) cheers.
and also, i wanted to boycot facebook because facebook should have banned that group like it deleted many others. that was the only issue. not because i wanted to turn a blind eye against it. but the group has gained enough attention; they will be on cnn at 9 gmt, have been interviews by msnbc, various radio stations and other radio channels. but i still feel facebook should not be acting as a platform in this whole issue and providing them this freedom. thats what i have against facebook.
^ yes she is. And you shouldn’t really have a problem with that. I don’t get why all of you get fired up over something like this. Why don’t you request for boycotts when Mullahs rape kids in madrassahs? Why don’t you request for Boycotts when girls are deprived of education?! Why don’t you request for boycotts of stuff when there is a karo kari case in Pakistan?.
I fail to see HOW these issues are NOT significant enough. But then again, if there’s a social networking site which like someone above mentioned has a lot of “pro religion” pages, that has one “non religious” page, it is deemed blasphemous and banned?!
Why didn’t the PTA ban Zaid Hamids page? He dwells on conspiracy theories and he has been on record saying stuff which is “good” about an apparent false prophet?! Why not boycott him?
But wait, oh yeah, HE’S A PAKISTANI AND HE’S A MUSLIM *AT THE END OF THE DAY*..
tsk.
I totally totally totally agree with Kasana”s response to Sonia. What good is this protest when 1. It won’t stop the profane artists from doing what they want and 2. It’s being staged by hideously pseudo-Muslim themselves.
massive religious pwnage by opponent kasana. opponent sonia has been pwned. tautological coverage by 4chan troll.
yours 4chanly,
an atheist who is actually against the drawmohumedday.
I was almost 90% sure that it was you yourself. Untill i read the last line.
Maulana Mehreen Kasana?? LOL!!! :D
Apparently Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia and Flicker – all of them – are banned by reactionary judges in Pakistan.
Fasten your seat belts, ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to land in the stone age.
a good critical viewpoint on banning of facebook and youtube….what adnan ali has written is good abt caricatures issue. your point about blocking explicit websites is a valid one almost more required and neccesary than banning facebook or youtube…
First facebook, now youtube, wikipedia and flickr! :@:@:@ kuttay kameenay!!!! #@%^#%@@
JAAHIL!!!!
A great and sensible response to that ‘Sonia’ by Mehreen Kasana. *a big round of applause*
The people who planned this event , have achieved exactly what they want … what does this ban really proves ? Is it alright to leave the field? Are we not capable of defending our faith and to prove the allegations wrong which are put on our religion and our Prophet ?
It would have been great to see people talking about the mercy of Prophet which he offered to the worst of the criminals. It would have been great to see the people spreading the great words of our great prophet (PBUH).
It’s an interesting and thought provoking article, Mehr. I read Adnan Ali’s article too, and I whole heartedly agree with and support his solutions, but I believe the boycott is also an important part of the entire thing. See, facebook would not have been to blame – if it had really been the neutral ground it should have been. Didn’t that group come under racism, the comments, the pictures, everything? And it should’ve been controlled, if not taken off. Again, as an example, if I were to make such a page about the Holocaust, the chances are it would be off pretty damn soon.
I went on, I reported it, I wrote on it and put forward a strong argument and when no one was willing to listen – because Facebook isn’t the height of intellectual political debate, I was greeted with curse words and the like – I boycotted it in this way. I never watch South Park; if I had, I would’ve boycotted that. I’d have boycotted the network, Molly Norris (or whoever that bimbo is) if I could. I can see the redundancy you argue, but while they’re unsure, some reports do say that the boycott can affect facebook financially – I for one am not even willing to let go of the jitna bhi minute chance of that happening.
But anyway, the reasons for a personal boycott are far and varied. I support the state ban because if you’re going to be the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, then yes, this is part of the things you need to do – if for nothing else, then to depict the unity of the Muslim Ummah in a protest against this.. And yes, you could be right on the porn site count, but that goes unnoticed because this is not so much about Islam and its teachings as it is about standing against religious intolerance and incitement.
Perhaps, PERHAPS, even if it were about Islamic teachings, one person’s personal choice to watch porn is very different from a direct assault, a smear campaign against the Prophet and God. That would be why the porn could go unnoticed, but this doesn’t.
Also I believe that Muslims universally are also reacting out of pent up frustration – correctly so, since we’ve been the single religion taking the most flak for the past several years, and trying time and time again to prove ourselves, to prove that we are not all terrorists, we are not all animals, but yet we come up against this – not just an insult to the religion at large, but specific to the Prophet himself, and this then becomes unignorable. Alot of us are taking this as a moment to take a stand against all of it – yes, it serves as a way to even blow off steam and simply signify a protest and if we can harm them financially, all the better for it.
I don’t think this qualifies as leaving the field – we can still write, record, video, etc and post all over the place, including e.g. CNN’s belief blog. Again, Facebook is hardly the height of intellectual debate – nobody is made bereft of their ability to get across their argument by the ban. So I choose to boycott it personally, temporarily or permanently refuse to use something that not only allowed but encouraged this racism, stand with the country ban because as an Islamic country, we need to globally register and mark our intolerance of religious intolerance and insults to the Prophet on a personal belief level, and yes, write about it, write about what the Prophet was truly like, what Islam really stands for and get my point across nonetheless.
phew. i think thats all. now my brain died. going to bed.
kaafir =D
Correction: The group is categorized under blasphemous content but Facebook acknowledges it as freedom of expression. It is not racism, as you stated earlier. You’re being childish if you think it would be “wise” and only “fair” if you decided to make comics on the Holocaust. As for the financial attack on Facebook: Once again useless. Why? Facebook only suffers a small loss of $0.15m and it doesn’t affect it in any way. We’re talking about a social network that managed to ignore China, Vietnam and Iran’s bans on it. Pakistan’s restriction on it is nothing compared to such bans.
I’m sorry but how aren’t porn sites and daily rapes of children not so important to Islam? I fail to understand the point you made. Please help me here. Your stance on pornographic content and then your contradiction about being so passionate about your Islamic Republic is just a little confusing for me. Doesn’t Islam preach one to avoid hypocrisy at all times?
I never said it would be wise or fair to make Holocaust cartoons. My post read the same – everything deserves respect. Us included.
Facebook has been known to delete off pages that are completely harmless, a case in point being some random group about loving islamabad. This should have been deleted off too. The fact that they didn’t take action despite the growing aggression and insult they were causing is racist. Drawing the Prophet is freedom of expression. Drawing him across a dick and balls and fondling babies and wearing a turban bomb and sundry more is religious intolerance/racism and should have been stopped by Facebook.
I, like I said, wouldn’t let go of the chance to lose them a little money so the amount doesn’t matter to me, except that it does make a difference. Including to me, as a person.
The porn, read what I said again: “yes, you could be right on the porn site count, but that goes unnoticed because this is not so much about Islam and its teachings as it is about standing against religious intolerance and incitement.” My point was that it goes unnoticed because I think the entire cause of the ban is a stand against religious intolerance, especially important for us because we ARE Muslims, not so much about Islamic teachings. Also porn disobeys Islamic teachings BUT it doesn’t insult the Prophet. It’s not an assault on the national religion. Big difference. The importance of the online availability of other vulgar content or content forbidden by Islam does not equate with that of a global campaign to insult the Prophet.
Have no clue where the daily rapes came from. You’re clouding the issue. Rape is wrong. It IS banned, by the law. That rapists are not caught and brought to punishment is the result of a corrupt political and ineffective law and order system. I fail to understand the relevance to a ban on Facebook.
I started my sentence on the premise that you could be right about it, but its taken in a different context. Don’t imply I’m hypocritical again.
I don’t think it’s like running away at all, like I said above: “I don’t think this qualifies as leaving the field – we can still write, record, video, etc and post all over the place, including e.g. CNN’s belief blog.” I think it’s walking away from the petty mess of every asshole on Facebook who doesn’t want to listen, doesn’t want to have a normal argument, just wants to cuss the shit out of us. And again, even a miniscule financial effect matters to me.
Also, you should consider that the ban is also a move prompted by the need to uphold some stability in here too. Extremist political and other parties, and, hell, even the average man would’ve gone mad if the government had taken no action.
Moreover, maybe they would like to ban porn. Only it might be impossible. They haven’t even been able to to block all the facebook links properly abh tak, and hackers are having the time of their lives hacking through their blocks. Just a random thought. Notice usage of words ‘maybe’, ‘might’ and ‘random’ :P
I haven’t killed you yet, have I, despite the temptation to? :P
How stupid can they get? It’s like they want to promote the whole thing. They are just not getting enough of it. Now the caricature project people will be on every tv channel, every newspaper, and all over the internet.
If we had shown sanity the first time, when the caricatures were published in Danish papers, would anyone have thought about doing this? We are fucking retards. I wish someone goes and draws the caricature on the moon.
fucking bull’s eye.
:o
I LOVED this post. <3
This is such an insane measure by PTA. I have also blogged about the whole issue.
The judge is utterly idiot who took this decision, and these H. Khor Jamatis. they can’t condemn the suicide attacks, porn websites, rapes, but trying to impose ban of Facebook on every one. Where the hell is freedom of choice to the people.
If some one wants to ban any thing on him/her self, that’s fine. Why the eff banning knowledge for others.
One can simply ignore those particular groups or maximum you can report it. Sigh.. but Pakistanis love to be addressed as an idiot.
Nice information about PPC and If I am not wrong, this Pay per click is on Ads of Facebook only. That means , Hardly few thousands click on Ads out of those 2M Pakistani facebook users.
Another fact is, YouTube has been declared 2nd biggest search engine after Google. idiots blocked that too.
I agree with you Mehreen – like, totally. Also, the loss of youtube and wikipedia (my secret comfort) sting – like, badly. But seriously, this is so crazy that I cannot even process it! My brain gives up.
I have a question – is being an atheist also blasphemous in our purely hypocritical land? Some people develop humanity without religion or petty concerns. But can it be a real problem – which means, can it get you stoned or killed or something worse? It just occured to me and I realized I don’t really know.
Sigh, I’m Muslim and I don’t have a problem with my friend being an atheist. I’m not sure about the rest. Be careful. Stones or no stones, you’ll get glares though.
^ well technically if you are an atheist or even agnostic, you will be looked down upon in this society by the “rational bunch”.
Not to mention, it may or may not get you killed. If the jamaat -e-harami finds out, they might also launch a protest against you.
Worse case scenario, death threats ( A weekly newspaper got them for publishing in honor of Darwin’s 200th anniversary)..
Worse worse case scenario .. boom
As for the racism approach and how “porn is a personal thing, a direct assault is blasphemy”.. seriously?!
*refuses to comment any further*…
As for the rules and regulations laid down by the Government of Pakistan, there apparently is no clause for stoning atheists but if you talk about Shariah Law, you are sentenced to stoning if you are an apostate (leave Islam or Question Islam).
I asked some people at work today and they said that if you’re born muslim and you leave islam and decide to be something else, you can be sentenced to death. Or somebody can throw a big rock at you pretending its a stone etc. I never thought it would be so extreme. And you know what, considering how hot it is and how there’s barely any electricity – I don’t really care.
Oh my Allah, your poor people are wasting their time in discussing negative things.
Mrs. Mahreen, there’s always freedom of speech and freedom to think and act. I wanna ask you a question, “Will you abuse your own parents”?
I am sure you don’t even want to hear from anybody else. Think twice before getting into a particular situation. Writing few sentences doesn’t make a man wise. You’re talking about statistics, now tell me how many times you are abandoned by your Allah…
Count your blessings, Allah has provided you.
“Leadership is the action; not position”.
Firstly: It’s Miss Mehreen.
I wouldn’t ‘abuse my parents’, stupid question. I wouldn’t let others on first note but if someone does, I wouldn’t hide in my house and ‘ban their sight’ out of existence. I’d simply confront them and let them know what I intend on doing.
God bless you, preacher.
I’ ve been noticing how people’s parents keep popping up in these arguments. Especially mothers. Miss Kasana, I am alarmed and disturbed (as usual) and I agree with you. I say “make love, not war” and lets not drag in parents and mothers and cats and dogs and pet lizards. They don’t make a good argument.
I heard that amir liaquat dude on TV going on about killing people. That’s insane, isn’t it?
That is the problem with Muslims, instead of getting united we fought among ourselves. Whether banning FB and Youtube by PTA and LHC is right or wrong, we can’t declare FB innocent completely. A community against Caricatures Competition has more members that that of bigots and it was reported by Muslims but they didn’t pay attention to the sentiments of Muslims.
Is it freedom of expression to hurt the feelings of more than 1 billion Muslims? Their hollow slogan will cease when you will make a community on Facebook about Holocaust and Nazis. Freedom of Expression is a tool used by them for vengeance. Banning Facebook will no doubt not affect the revenue of Facebook by complete boycott by Muslims Ummah will crash their business because more than 47% are users of Facebook. According to sources they earn 2.30 dollars per user and more than 150 million users are Muslims.
United we stand and divided we fall. They are united in their cause and we are criticizing our own Muslim brothers. Why we are on the mercy of their technology, instead of wasting 8 billions dollars on a useless hotel Arabs could have changed the very image of cyber world by spending that amount in the field of science and technology.
Moreover, I don’t expect that a true Muslims after the biased attitude of Facebook authorities will log in there and boost their revenue. For instance if someone make caricatures of our parents, make fun of them then what would be our reaction?
Just for a trial make a community against the owner of Facebook, (he is Jew) and draw caricatures, make fun of him, make slanderous statements there, defame Judaism, get pictures of his family and convert it on xxx and post it there, you will know whether there is freedom of expression or not.
I requested to the Muslim Ummah to be united, avoid mutual rivalries, equip yourself with modern technology, fought with them medial war, adopt concrete measures to check their intellectual terrorism. The are worst terrorist than Taliban and in extremism they surpassed Al-Qaeda. It is the time to think that why we are dependent on their social networking sites, don’t we make such websites like that of youtube and facebook?
Your argument is pretty much the same, only paraphrased.
My question to you: If we’re so smart then where is that amazing-omg-hit-me-this-is-a-dream social network made by Muslims?
sal.am is one . the fact that people like you are too ignorant to it, and the site itself has not gotten much popular like facebook/myspace, doesnt mean websites made my muslims dont exist.
Faceboook hasn’t been blocked on the first day. Thousands of Muslims have reported that group and on the basis of that facebook management should have blocked / deleted the group. If they won’t, than muslims have all the right not to use their websites whether if affects their business or not. Dear Muslims, you are being discriminated in almost all of the issues and still you are divided and unsure what to do? If they are the champions of freedom of speech than what had prevented them to pass the law against holocaust.
Alright. “Everybody Draw Muhammad” page is there no more. “Everybody Draw Holocaust” page is still there, though. Talk about biased Facebook.
“Everyday Draw Muhammad Day” page is available on FB. About Holocaust, keep posting there, invite members, defame them then see what happens. It requires time and patience.
No, it’s not available. Check again. Last I checked, a couple of other pages supporting this one had popped up, thanks to the perfect Muslim response.
I suggest you read the comments from this blog, because the Pakistani majority obviously does not agree with you:
http://propakistani.pk/2010/05/19/blasphemy-why-facebook-is-culprit-and-how-best-to-react/#comments
http://propakistani.pk/2010/05/19/lhc-orders-pta-to-ban-facebook-in-pakistan/
http://propakistani.pk/2010/05/18/breaking-facebook-is-going-to-get-banned-in-pakistan/
So roughly 1000 people are now the ‘majority’ of Pakistani people? That’s hilarious!
Correction: That’s 1771 as of writing this comment.
Isn’t that a “bit”, only a “bit” more than the 48 people/comments on this blog?
And I would like to ask you and Mehreen Kasana:
Would you ignore/forgive someone who draws erotic caricature of your mother?
This is not a ‘war’ between two blogs. You cannot gauge the response of the majority of Pakistani people just by looking at two blogs on the Internet. Also, nowhere did I or anyone else say that this is the opinion of the majority of people. To be honest, I couldn’t care less what the majority thinks. The ‘majority’ also elected our current president.
As for your question, let me put a different spin on it. What if I drew erotic caricature of your mother? What would you do? Restrict yourself and your family of going out of the house for fear that I might show up some place with it?
Also, we need to consider what the Prophet used to do when someone used to cause him distress. He used to deal with them rationally and with kindness. Nowhere did I say that we should back off. I think you’re misconstruing my stance as saying that what they’ve done isn’t a big deal. It is. But there are far more intelligent ways to pursue a solution than to ban the entire website in your country when many people also rely on Facebook for their livelihood.
Scroll down this page and look at my post where I’ve posted an excerpt of an article that makes perfect sense to me.
I’ll try and make this short.
When you open up Facebook, it doesn’t show you that event page by default. You have to search for it. When you open up Youtube, it doesn’t show you ‘blasphemous videos’ by default. You have to search for them. However, you can also find some very positive and pro-Islamic content on Facebook and Youtube as well.
If you want to find something blasphemous, you could find all you want just by typing a few simple words in google. So what next. Are they going to ban google too? Why not ban the entire Internet while you’re at it. They’re getting there.
I think the issue could’ve been handled in a much better way. A lot of people/companies who have Facebook related products are in quite a bit of a mess because of these hasty decisions made by the government. The people who have made these decisions most likely have never used Facebook or Youtube themselves which means all they know about the sites is that it hosts blasphemous content. Which is wrong because as I mentioned above, you have a lot of pro-Islamic content as well.
You guys mentioned the government should ban porn sites. I agree, but why would they, when these corrupt people probably generate more than their fair share of hits for these websites?
Would you ignore/forgive someone who draws erotic caricature of your mother ?
I don’t know about you Nabeel, but I can say for certain that neither me, nor anyone else commenting on this blog would ban Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, Google, Metacafe, and majority of the internet not categorised as porn.
I might not forgive that someone, but if I were to retaliate, I’d do it at his/her level or below. That is, drawing caricatures of his mum.
References to my family is another cunning tactic of the ones who are pro-ban but then that’s just plain silly.
I could do what Bakemono said but then that’s falling to their level. I’d simply pay them no heed whatsoever. I wouldn’t kill them. And most importantly, I wouldn’t let them get to my head by staying in my home for weeks to home.
That’s like running away.
no no no Een-Chan. Nabeel wants us to stay home and make banners that say “down with “, “Take down mummy’s caricatures” etc and then hit the streets outside LHC with chinto, pinto (our siblings) and minty (cat or dog), and protest.
And Nabeel, the tit for tat tactic is the height of my ability to retalitate. If you’re so islamic Nabeel, tell me this, how is sending detailed graphic death threats to someone who made a cartoon of the holy prophet equal to them making the cartoon in the first place. Forgive me, but don’t remember a hadith that goes like “An eye for an eye, nose for nose and ear for ear, but forgiveness is better, unless they make fun of me, then you can go ahead and kill those swine”
Did you know, you can buy ornate tapestries depicting the holy prophet (not a white oval but an actual face) in Iran? majority of Irani muslims have them in their homes. . . how about you ban that as well.
I’d like to see the masses protesting against porn websites. That would be the day! I’m not sure whether I’m pro or anti about Facebook being banned, but I’m hating how people create an issue out of one thing but choose to completely ignore other issues. =\
*against (as opposed to anti) lol…sorry
I agree with your views. But first we should try to tackle the most immediate problems. Students are organized and it is the right time to motivate them and start movement against porn websites. We should also take practical steps and everyone should try his/her best to aware the people and convince them to stop pornography.
An excerpt from an article I read on this controversy. Very well written. I completely agree.
“Instead of reacting negatively to the bigoted call to support “Draw Muhammad Day,” American Muslims — and Muslims worldwide — should use that and every other day as an opportunity to reach out to people of other faiths and beliefs to build bridges of understanding and respect.
The best and most productive response to bigoted campaigns like “Draw Muhammad Day” is more communication, not less communication — including not restricting the free flow of ideas with measures like banning Facebook.
Research has shown that anti-Islam prejudice goes down when people interact with ordinary Muslims and have greater knowledge of Islam.
Therefore, the best reaction to those who would mock the Prophet Muhammad (or the religious symbols of any faith) might be a mosque open house for the local interfaith community, a community service activity organized by Muslims and involving people of other faiths, or a newspaper commentary describing the life, legacy and personal character of the Prophet Muhammad, which is the opposite of the calumny some people fabricate about him. This should be of concern to all decent and objective people.
We will all benefit if each of us — whether Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu — exhibits the common human decency required by our respective faiths.”
As I’ve said on Twitter, please stop spreading inane interpretations of statistics.
It’s plain pointless to multiply point-per-click revenues with total number of users. As it assumes that each user points at an ad on each of their visits.
It’s equally pointless to base Facebook’s entire revenues on the PPC model. That way, Facebook’s total revenues for the year 2009 would be less than $100 million. They were, in fact, around $500 million.
The damage to Facebook is indeed not as great as it is made out to be by the Pakistanis. But, your interpretation of the stats is even poorer.
Like I said, I only gave a rough estimate on it. Nothing serious but my point remains valid: The ban has no major effect on Facebook, Mini Sulpovar or Molly Norris.
Ban would have affected the revenue of FB if all the Muslims of the world were stand united. The problem lies with mutual rivalries, see that blog no consensus, some stand against ban some validate that decision.
Molly Norris sought apology from Muslims and said I’ve no further affiliation with that page of FB. It is a big move due to the protests all over the world. Moreover, Pakistani Govt protested with US Govt. and FB is in their territory, FB admins can face legal actions.
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//Right now, many Pakistani Facebook-users look like this//
can’t stop laughing looking at the pic, they really are crying like this believe me, i never felt so tense on twitter before this, looks like as per nytimes the whole educated elite is on Twitter for facebook tehreek insaf baraye fatwa hatao mullah ko side lagao.
anyways jokes a part, here is my opinion, i appreciated the LHC ban till 31st May after the arrogance of FB guys in removing the page despite the submission of PTA request, now in future i don’t know how this movie will take turn, will the judges make more drama or will the so called freedom of speech guys move on. God Knows, in my opinion what we need is control of our anger and made these so called freedom of speech makers into submission by our witting arguments, what do you say? ( parh rahi ho na :-P)
I say yes. Shun them with your knowledge related to Islam. But noooo, PTA and LHC’s bent on the ban. Whatever, then.
A Facebook page that was considered offensive to Islam and led to a Pakistani ban on the site has been removed, possibly by its creator. Perhaps the page is removed because competition is over now. But Pakistan’s decision of such sites carried a wight.
The United States has strongly supported Pakistan’s move to ban certain internet sites, saying the Pakistani government had the right to protect its public from offensive images and speech. Again it’s a slap on the faces of those who were against ban.
Moreover, in India, China, KSA, Iran and other countries the block thousands of pages on political grounds. Actually Mahreen Kasana once wrote something illogical and now she is bent upon proving her stance valid. Mahreen Jee it is difficult to call a spade a spade.
You are just a blog writer, completely ignorant of ground realities. Move inside the country, check the videos of protests, all were not Taliban typo protesters. Actually this step was first taken by religion org. thats why highly criticized. But I’ve seen fashionable, youth ready to die for the honor of the Holy Prophet PBUH.
Every Muslim is the custodian of faith, Islam not the so-called religious junta specifically. Ghazi Ilmdin when martyred, Dr. Allama Iqbal and Maulana Zafar Ali KHan wished for such honored death. Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was the defence lawyer of Ghazli Ilmudin. That story is connected with the current scenario. One or two blogs can’t make a difference. Enjoy the freedom of expression.
So, you might have shunned them by your knowledge about Islam. Can you plz enlighten us about your services apart from that absurd and useless discussion which carry no weight.
Spot on. Love the soft punches to the naive minded goons in between. We cannot just close our eyes and pretend that it’s dark.
Word.
Please make sure, The page has NOT been removed !, I just checked it :).
They are just spreading the news that they have deleted it, Facebook said ‘We might make the page inaccessible in Pakistan’. so do you get the point mate ?
No one got anything from the BAN..although ppl did lost cutomers/fans of their businesses.
Since i don’t want to get into a debate, I won’t be answering any arguing comments, But i do will say PTA can’t block anything :D, I still am using Facebook and every other website they have blocked :)
I do think that one day they will wake up and they will have a notice in their office saying Supreme Court has ordered to BLOCK internet access in Pakistan !!
Wake up people, Islam never taught us to boycott or run away.
I do believe, this war could had been fought the right way..unfortunately it went as ‘they’ expected/planned to be !
@Atiq Khan:
I apologize for the late reply. My cyst surgery got the better of me. Now, to refute your silly claims.
Pakistan’s decision to ban the site does not carry “wight”, sir. Of course, you’re right about Pakistan’s authority to ban such social networks hosting blasphemous content but you never substantiated your belief. No slap on the faces of those were and still are against the ban, no. I don’t know how it is illogical to compose something based on facts and then to have someone like you, Atiq Khan, come over and tell me, of all people, that it is invalid.
I happen to be a citizen living in Lahore, where most of the protests are taking place. And I support those protests because, yes, that could be an effective way of letting the likes of Norris, Zuckerberg and Sulpovar know that whatever they did was wrong, hurtful and simply unethical. No excuses for using freedom of speech. Also, I am one of those “fashionable youths” of Pakistan who would, for a legit cause, give my life away for The Prophet. I completely agree with what you have said about The Quaid and Allama Iqbal. No questions about that.
But then yes, I’ve done my share and continue to do so. I have spoken to atheists and other believers that whatever is being done is not extremism on our part. We’re hurt and we’re resentful towards to such profane expression of art. And I’ve also proven that their usage of freedom of speech is not done on basis of asserting their rights. It’s been done to receieve the very same reaction you support at this moment. You need to realize you’re giving them intense amusement by banning the entire network. Go to them, confront them but don’t hide, damn it.
That’s what I see Miss. Mahreen Kasana’s changed view in this reply. :) No offense meant, I just delivered my point of view and you have the right to disagree with me . I’m proud of you people and happy to see your love and affection for the Holy Prophet PBUH. God bless you.
“But then yes, I have done my share. I have spoken to atheists and other believers that whatever is being done is not extremism on our part. We’re hurt and we’re resentful towards to such profane expression of art. And I’ve also proven that their usage of freedom of speech is not done on basis of asserting their rights. It’s been done to receieve the very same reaction you support at this moment. You need to realize you’re giving them intense amusement by banning the entire network. Go to them, confront them but don’t hide, damn it.”
Ditto, This is what i have been talking about..we should stay there and talked. I did my part and i wish most of us did the same which they didn’t..
Mehreen: Did you read that post by that owner where he mentioned ‘Pakistan’s role’ in golden words ? IF you can access Facebook, do check the link given below.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5936758&id=554965855
Precisely, We did exactly what they wanted us to do :s. Instead of taking the stand against what was happening, we were abusing them and they were enjoying, they took snapshots and showed the entire world..’these are muslims and their islam’ I mean what the HELL ! Does no one in the entire world love the prophet (pbuh), I mean NO one did what we did..and what did we achieve after boycotting/blocking Facebook !
Damn it.
You people are right that we are sending a wrong message to the world as intolerant society.
But just give it a thought are not all the Western societies sending the same message of intolerance by
(a). Conducting competitions like “Draw Muhammad…”
(b). Banning of wearing hijab
(c). Killing so many innocents in wake of war against terrorism
(d). Banning of minarets?
(e). Danish PM not meeting the Ambassadors of the Muslim World over cartoon issues?
Is the responsibility of being tolerant only tied for Muslims? Why not for them? Do these Westerner powers not send the message that they are unwilling to absorb the Muslims within their societies?
My belief is that we have been forced to believe that this only Muslims responsibility to have the “Soft Image”. Why do not they all disapprove the all four things that i have pointed out. What message they are sending to the Muslim World? We need not not be worried about our image abroad as the West is not worried about their image in our eyes. Be mindful of the fact that”What you see is not what happens”. The matter of the fact is that they secretly sell all you data to the US government and the same is used wrongly.
Just to share with all.
Google saves the each word that you type in their data base along with you IP for indefinite period and shares the same with FBI? Why?
AOL saves all the emails, chats and online activities of all the members and shares the same with FBI?
Yahoo shared the emails a Chines national who was wanted by Chines authorities and he was sent to jail. Why?
UAE banned Facebook and all pornographic materials flowing into UAE
Iran, China, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia, has already blocked Facebook, Google and Youtube
First of all i am not an interlard activist, being in KSA i can confirm you not a single site you have mentioned is blocked here, KSA only blocked the blasphemous page.
Kind Regards…
Interesting. I’m going to do some research on your claims, Yasser.
something to add to your interesting debate/discussions.
http://propakistani.pk/2010/05/23/one-facebook-two-faces-one-is-real-ugly/
..and finally this page is unblocked.
PTA would get into further trouble if it stayed that way.
That link added by Uncarved is very interesting.
PTA issued a directive to some ISP’s to ban all the WordPress blogs, not this particular post.
And seriously, if they wanted to have this post block, it *would* have been blocked just like Facebook.
Of course it would. Never denied that.
“A recent poll from Sophos found that an estimated 60 percent of users are considering quitting Facebook over privacy issues.”
Facebook’s Downfall has started because of privacy concerns:
“A recent poll from Sophos found that an estimated 60 percent of users are considering quitting Facebook over privacy issues.”
More than 11,000 people have committed to ditching the social-networking site on May 31, according to QuitFacebookDay.com.”
“And more people are searching Google for ways to delete their Facebook accounts than ever, according to the Search Engine Land blog.”
Some say there will be a mass exodus.
The Diaspora Project, an open-source alternative to Facebook is about to hit $100,000 in donations.
Now, Time For some links:
More people think about deleting Facebook accounts?
Deleting your Facebook account (FAQ)
Why you shouldn’t believe ‘Facebook backlash’ numbers
Growing On Google, People Asking “How Do I Delete My Facebook Account” (May 10)
One-on-one with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Non-muslims are leaving Facebook because of privacy concerns, and you Muslims cannot leave it for our Holy Prophet (S.A.W.)?
The love you have for your Prophet, Nabeel, is contradicted by your silence regarding issues of more cogency like rape, corruption, violence, dishonesty and other prevalent evils in your society, all of them which are completely against Islam. A drawing doesn’t change shit. Get your facts straight.
Beautiful column written by Orya Maqbool Jan: http://www.pkcolumns.com/2010/05/26/na-jab-tak-cut-by-orya-maqbool-jan/
Well, much has already been said on the subject. The only thing I have to say is that if people feel the need to express something, they will do it, no matter how many bans you impose, and this has been seen throughout history. So whether people are starting pro Islam groups or drawing caricatures of the Prophet, they will find a way to do so. Banning websites won’t be able to stop them. It is a stupid and baseless step.
A post by Hussam Raza led me here. I agree for the most part but the idea that there is this moral compass and this imaginary sense of consideration that may guide us in the process of deciding what is off limits with reference to Freedom of Speech and Expression I find hard to digest. Where do you draw the line? The Islamic Prophet. K. But wouldn’t the Westboro Church people have a problem with the following video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0LTKY6Wc7g ?
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What a dumb approach to problem solving. If we were to follow this approach with all the problems things would get very ugly. They are taking away the people’s right to choose. Next thing you know they will put a ban on thinking because they cannot guarantee that you will not have bad thoughts.
Agreed Facebook banning was stupid…
Disagree by giving logic like u dont do anything about rape nd killings nd ur “islamic FARZ” bla bla so why u speaking against this; u cant justify this argument ….two wrongs dont make a right ..u cant say to someone that u didnt say ur prayers so now u cant be against someone drawing Muhammed (P.B.U.H)…
PS: By “You” i mean people who gave this logic …dere were numerous…
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