Pakistan Blocks Facebook Over Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
If you live in Pakistan, you won’t be able to access Facebook for awhile:
LAHORE, Pakistan – Pakistan’s government ordered Internet service providers to block Facebook on Wednesday amid anger over a page that encourages users to post images of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
The page on the social networking site has generated criticism in Pakistan and elsewhere because Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. The government took action after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court order Wednesday requiring officials to block Facebook until May 31.
By Wednesday evening, access to the site was sporadic, apparently because Internet providers were implementing the order.
The Facebook page at the center of the dispute — “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” — encourages users to post images of the prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of “South Park” for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.
In the southern city of Karachi, about 2,000 female students rallied demanding that Facebook be banned for tolerating the page. Several dozen male students held a rally nearby, with some holding signs urging Islamic holy war against those who blaspheme the prophet.
(…)
In an attempt to respond to public anger over the Facebook controversy, the Pakistani government ordered Internet service providers in the country to block the page Tuesday, said Khurram Ali, a spokesman for the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority.
But the Islamic Lawyers’ Forum asked the Lahore High Court on Wednesday to order the government to fully block Facebook because it allowed the page to be posted in the first place, said the deputy attorney general of Punjab province, Naveed Inayat Malik.
The court complied with the request and ordered the government to block the site until the end of May, Malik said.
Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. Which is why Everybody Draw Mohammed Day would seem to be a day to tell regimes like this to, well, shove it.
Not surprising at all.
I posted on Everybody Draw Mohamed Day and already got death threats in my comments, from an ISP in Pakistan http://faustasblog.com/?p=19876
No shocker that this is happening in Pakistan. It reminds me of what the Angry Arab guy said about Pakistan when he went and spoke at a couple of universities there – that there was an “unhealthy obsession with Islam, particularly for a largely muslim country.”
It’s no doubt a result of the “Islamicization” that was promoted as part of regime policy in the 1980s and ’90s as a way of unifying Pakistan’s various groups.
By the way, here’s my Mohammed head:
________
__________
| |
| O O |
| >
| \__/ |
\______/
IIIIIIIII
IIIIIII
IIIII
III
Now, if they had blacked Facebook because it’s freakin’ Facebook, that probably would have been understandable.
blocked, blacked, whatever. Stupid spell checker, wouldn’t have fixed this even if I had used it.
Especially when we are talking about a country with a very small minority of Muslims (for the dim out there, I mean the US of A)
Question for those of you out there who cheerlead this sort of thing: When we as a country, are involved in 2 wars in majority Muslim countries (costing us billions of dollars)(not to mention the lives), are trying very hard to win over the populace of those countries, and, what is more, are actively engaged in trying to convince the larger Muslim world that our way is the right way,
WHY IN THE NAME OF JESUS DO YOU DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO PISS THEM OFF??????????????
(sorry about the all-caps, and bold print, but really, stupid is as stupid does) (and you just made a few more jihadis and maybe killed a marine or a soldier)(thanx)
No, Fausta, your “death threat” doesn’t count for one iota against the threat those guys (and gals) face every day.
Yah… a nuclear armed state in one of the most volatile regions of the world… “Shove it.”
Pathetic doesn’t begin to describe this discussion.
Tom,
Why ?
Ask Salman Rushdie, Lars Vilk, the Danish Cartoonists, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Theo van Gogh.
Oh wait, you can’t ask van Gogh because someone killed him for making a movie.
I fail to see why the actions of a small percentage of fanatics should cause us to disrespect the religious views of hundreds of millions of people. No class at all.
The point is not to disrespect their religion.
The point is to force them to recognize that threatening to kill people is not an appropriate response to someone who does that
Do you really believe you are going to “force” the fanatics to recognize anything? All you are going to do is piss off a lot of decent folks who have never done a thing to us. And for absolutely no good reason.
You are throwing the word “them” around a lot. Who exactly is “them”? There are almost a billion Muslims in the world. Do you think of them as some sort of monolithic bloc?
And it is disrespecting their religion, no matter what justification you attach to it.
So this is all just one colossal pissing contest?
And so now, we want to give them even more reason to kill someone? Like they needed it? The vast majority of the muslim world has this view of America as being “anti-muslim” and this sort of thing gives the extremists all the proof they need. If this is an attempt to “force them to recognize that threatening to kill people is not an appropriate response to someone who does that” it fails, utterly and completely.
It’s like trying to convince a bunch of bikers that just because a guy pisses on their Harleys, they shouldn’t beat the holy crap out of him… By pissing on their Harleys.
As I said before, stupid is as stupid does.
I am A Muslim, Kill Me And Call It Colleteral Damage, Imprison me and call it security measure, exile my people en messe and call it New Middle East, rob my resources, invade my land, Alter my Leadership & call it, Democracy.
A Jew can grow his beard in order to practice his faith
But when Muslim does the same, he is an extremist and terrorist!
A nun can be covered from head to toe in order to devote herself to God, right?
But, then, if a daughter of Muslim-Ummah does the same, why is she oppressed?
When a western woman stays at home to look after her house and kids she is respected by the entire society because of sacrificing her life to her house
But when a Muslim woman does so by her will, they say, “she needs to be liberatedâ€!
Any girl can go to university wearing what she wills and have her rights and freedom?
But when a Muslim Girl/Lady wears Hijab(cover), they prevent her from entering the university!
When a child dedicates himself to a subject, he has potential and talent..
But when he dedicates himself to Islam he is hopeless!
When a Jew kills someone, religion is not mentioned, but when a Muslim is charged with a crime, it is Islam that goes to trial!
When someone sacrfices himself to keep others alive, he is noble and everyone respects him.
But when a Palestinian does that to save his son from being killed, his brother’s arm being broken, his mother being raped, his home being destroyed, and his mosque being violated — He gets the title of ‘terrorist’! Why? Because he is a “Muslimâ€!
When there is trouble, we accept any solution available, right? However, if the solution lies in Islam, we refuse to take a look at it.
When someone drives a perfect car in an improper manner, no one blames the car….
But when any Muslim makes a mistake or treats people in a bad manner — people say “Islam is the reasonâ€!
Jack Garrett says:
May 23, 2010 at 9:36 am
We must eradicate islam now before it’s to late. There is no moderate islam! Islam is a failed religion from the start, based on the teachings of a pedophile. There is no debating this. A pedophile is a pedophile. All signs of islam must be removed from the world.
When someone talk against anyone’s religion or play with others feelings it is a comment or freedom of speech but if a muslim does same thing then it is a terrorism.
We Love Our Prophet MUHAMMAD(PBUH) Even More Than Our Lives. We Will Sacrifice Our Lives For Our Prophet(PBUH).
ISLAM is The Only Religion Which Is Continuously Expanding In The Whole World. Even The President Of U.S.A Is Hussein.
We Respect Our Religion, Not Like You Idiots Make Fun Of Your Holy Books And Popes or fathers etc.