Pakistani court orders Facebook blocked in prophet row

May 19th, 2010 | Categories: News, Stupidity | Tags: , , , , , ,

Pakistani court orders Facebook blocked in prophet row

A court in Pakistan has ordered the authorities temporarily to block the Facebook social networking site.

The order came when a petition was filed after the site held a competition featuring caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.

The petition, filed by a lawyers’ group called the Islamic Lawyers’ Movement, said the contest was “blasphemous”.

A message on the competition’s information page said it was not “trying to slander the average Muslim”.

“We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Muhammad depictions that we’re not afraid of them,” a statement on the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” said.

“They can’t take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.”

The information section of the page said that it was set up by a Seattle-based cartoonist, Molly Norris.

It contains caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad and characters from other religions, including Hinduism and Christianity, as well as comments both critical and supportive of Islam.

‘Blasphemous’

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked angry protests in Muslim countries – five people were killed in Pakistan.

Already the Pakistani press has reported protests against Facebook on Wednesday by journalists outside parliament in Islamabad, while various Islamic parties are also reported to be organising demonstrations.

Correspondents say that the internet is uncensored in Pakistan but the government monitors content by routing all traffic through a central exchange.

Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court ordered the department of communications to block the website until 31 May, and to submit a written reply to the petition by that date.

An official told the court that parts of the website that were holding the competition had been blocked, reports the BBC Urdu service’s Abdul Haq in Lahore.

But the petitioner said a partial blockade of a website was not possible and that the entire link had to be blocked.

The lawyers’ group says Pakistan is an Islamic country and its laws do not allow activities that are “un-Islamic” or “blasphemous”.

The judge also directed Pakistan’s foreign ministry to raise the issue at international level.

In the past, Pakistan has often blocked access to pornographic sites and sites with anti-Islamic content.

It has deemed such material as offensive to the political and security establishment of the country, says the BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad.

In 2007, the government banned the YouTube site, allegedly to block material offensive to the government of Pervez Musharraf.

The action led to widespread disruption of access to the site for several hours. The ban was later lifted.

  1. mahnoor
    May 21st, 2010 at 06:29
    Reply | Quote | #1

    no one has a right to insult any religion. Our religion does not allow the insult of anyone, any religion, so why we should bear the insult of our holy religion, our holy prophet P.B.U.H? Realy appriciable action taken by high court. All muslim world should take such the actions to pove thier love for holy prophet. May ALLAH protect nad bless muslim ummah. Freedom to expess does not mean the freedom to insult. Those who insult would be disgraced by ALLAH ALMIGHTY sooner or later inshaALLAH.

    • Ian
      May 21st, 2010 at 07:38
      Reply | Quote | #2

      Because your religion is not true.

      Freedom to expess does not mean the freedom to insult.

      Actually, it does.

    • Neutral Views
      May 21st, 2010 at 11:22
      Reply | Quote | #3

      we’re not muslims so i guess we don’t have to abide by your “sharia” laws do we?

    • Andre
      May 21st, 2010 at 11:57
      Reply | Quote | #4

      “But it is elementary that freedom of expression (including academic freedom) is not to be restricted to views of which one approves, and that it is precisely in the case of views that are almost universally despised and condemned that this right must be most vigorously defended. It is easy enough to defend those who need no defense or to join in unanimous (and often justified) condemnation of a violation of civil rights by some official enemy.”
      -Noam Chomsky

  2. Hal
    May 21st, 2010 at 09:29
    Reply | Quote | #5

    Blocking facebook and youtube will only stir up more curiosity.
    Once the ban is lifted, what’s the very first thing everyone will search for?
    Exactly.

    • Ian
      May 21st, 2010 at 09:40
      Reply | Quote | #6

      FYI, i did a lookup on mahnoor (dude who posted above you), guess what country he’s in? Pakistan. ;)

      • Hal
        May 21st, 2010 at 11:02
        Reply | Quote | #7

        So blocking those sites was utterly pointless since Pakistanis could still see the pictures on here? What a joke.
        I can (almost) understand if the Pakistani government wanted to stop their own people from actually contributing but to try to entirely keep them in the dark will just make them work harder to track these pictures down.
        If people are determined to see what the fuss is about then they will, albeit they’d be repeating in their heads “Forgiveth me allah for what I looketh at is most unholy” (or something along those lines).
        All that Pakistan has accomplished is to publicise the event to millions of folks who would have otherwise never even noticed.

        • Ian
          May 21st, 2010 at 11:16
          Reply | Quote | #8

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect