Pakistan court orders block of Facebook over caricatures

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100519/tc_ ... n_facebook



LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – A Pakistani court ordered the government on Wednesday to block Facebook after press reports of a competition being held to draw the Prophet Mohammad, a lawyer said.

Pakistani media recently reported that a caricature competition is being held on May 20 about Mohammad on Facebook.

"The court has ordered the government to immediately block Facebook until May 31 because of this blasphemous competition," Azhar Siddique, a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum who filed a petition in the Lahore High Court, told Reuters.

"The court has also ordered the foreign ministry to investigate why such a competition is being held."

A spokesman for the official telecommunications watchdog, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, said the government on Tuesday ordered Internet service providers to block websites showing these caricatures, but that they had not received the court orders as yet.

Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous by Muslims.

But some warned the court's response could backfire.

"Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially young and adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them and they spend most of their time on it," said the CEO of Nayatel, Wahaj-us-Siraj.

"Basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just ordered it, but it should have been done in a better way by just blocking a particular URL or link."

"The PTA's decision (to block the URL) was rational and good, but let's see how they will implement the court decision."

On the information page on Facebook for the contest -- which was still visible on Wednesday -- the organizers described it as a "snarky" response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" the creators of the Comedy Central television show "South Park" over a recent depiction of the Prophet in a bear suit.

"We are not trying to slander the average Muslim," the Facebook page creators wrote. "We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we're not afraid of them. That they can't take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence."

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of caricatures.

(Reporting by Mubasher Bukhari: additional reporting and writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Chris Allbritton)

Despite the fatwa against Trey and Matt, I harbor the same friendliness and respect toward Muslims that I do with everyone else.

That said, Pakistan, like all other countries, has the right to enforce any law that would prevent disruption of civil order.

They can do as they want, but it's still BS.
It pisses me off that they think they can shove their religious views on those who aren't muslim.

Exactly.

How ugly could Mohammed be? topic

I suppose no one could agree on this.

OK, here's the full story although I am not a Muslim, I have however worked with these folks for years.

Go into a church and you will see pictures of Jesus and the saints, depending on the culture you will also see these pictures in books and hanging on the walls of art galleries. This will never happen with Islam, even in the most holy places of Islam such as Mecca there are no pictures of The Prophet because in their religion he is timeless and incorruptible. All works of art fade and become damaged over time and in their eyes this would mean that The Prophet himself would be faded and damaged (remember that a lot of Muslims do not like having their picture taken for this reason).

So, it's a pretty easy rule to remember. No pictures of The Prophet, no statues, no cartoons, never, ever. If you want an idea of how Muslims feel then go to this link and have a look at the comments:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/remova ... -wikipedia

Vanilla_Slice

#455103 topic

Flemming Sorenson 's sig is blaspehmous.

Including death and dismemberment for anyone whose ideas are considered blasphemy? It is one thing to deal harshly with acts of physical destruction, but it is another to threaten death to people whose ideas are considered undesirable. That is one of the problems with Islam, the religion prescribes death to those who disagree.

ruveyn

Slandering the "average Muslim" is difficult. Given that the Qur'an openly condones and orders murder, rape, enslavement and mass discrimination; what could you say about Islam that would be slanderous?

Usual disclaimer, don't take my word for it, read the Qur'an. Everyone should.

And look up Aisha while you're on.

It's not like the muslims themselves are drawing Mohammed so they shouldn't worry about going to "hell" or anything. So there's no need for Pakistan to block the site, it's a bit silly isn't it?
I don't see anything wrong with non-muslims drawing Mohammed, because we don't have to worry about damnation or anything. I could draw a little stick man with a beard and label it Mohammed and it would be no big deal because I don't even believe in him, as long as I don't go shoving the picture in muslims' faces and laugh just to take the piss, because that wouldn't be right. But sharing the picture with non-muslims, no problem.

MONKEY, i think it has more to do with what would follow if such tendency was encouraged and not supressed. <.<

I wonder if everyone in Pakistan is happy their facebook account was closed down.

I think I'd be mad but then again I'm not muslim or of any faith for that matter so I don't know.

Its their laws and whatever. Nothing I can do about it.

I havent directed a take that to that specific religion in a long time (since catholicism currently has the attention of my snide remarks), but I will try to be as snide as possible anyways since im expected to hit every single group out there with my remarks at one point or another, and im also sick of targetting NTs since most of yas do that for me anyways)

I am soo tempted to try to hack various government websites through-out the world and post a picture of mohammad and jesus shaking hands, just so I can observe the mass social upheaval across the whole world....

or I can just post it on 2chan or other various troll forums and let it spread from there...

Facebook has a about a zillion pages so they are going to ban them all because there is ONE that they don't like?

Never mind. No doubt the locals can continue to see all the porn and naked women that they want on the internet.

I think it is silly. My friend has joined the group and drew a little drawing. It just looks like a guy. Also, why are they allowed to call a real life person Mohammed (or it's variations) and not a picture? The real person is going to die one day. I don't understand religion at all!

Its because religion is supposed to be so vague as to make no sense in the first place XD

That's because it's called an "incarnation". <.< y'know... A mark of honor or something... Being proud of your name. Meh, that's just me though.