Muslim anger prompts Pakistan to block Facebook

By BABAR DOGAR | AP

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.

"We are not trying to slander the average Muslim," said the information section of the Facebook page, which was still accessible Wednesday morning. "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." A series of cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005 sparked violent protests by Muslims around the world, including Pakistan, and death threats against the cartoonists.

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.

Lawyers outside the courtroom hailed the ruling, chanting "Down with Facebook." Later in the day, the telecommunications authority ordered all Internet service providers to block Facebook, it said in a statement.

Facebook said Wednesday it is investigating the block.

"While the content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal in some countries," the company said in a statement. "In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries." It remains to be seen how successful the move will be at keeping people in Pakistan from accessing the site. Some countries, such as China, permanently ban Facebook. But citizens often have little trouble working their way around the ban using proxy servers and other means.

Pakistan's minister of religious affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, said the ban was only a temporary solution and suggested the government organize a conference of Muslim countries to figure out ways to prevent the publication of images of the prophet.

Comments

UQABIROOH

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salam.
alhmdulillah,PAKISTAN HAS BANNED THE "FACEBOOK"
WHY THE SAUDI GOV.IS NOT RAISING ANY VOICE AGAINST THI "DRAW MOHAMMED COMPETITION"ON "FACE BOOK"...(FITNA BOOK?)

SARFARAZ MATEEN

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Pakistan has taken the bold step to block this FITNA site and not only Saudi Arabia, all the muslim countries and arab must block this as quick as possible. As per the Facebook managements most of the users are from Arab world and they don't dare to bolck this and we entire muslim community should prove them wrong after block this site.

MUHAMMAD

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Saudi government should take action as soon as possible in it's full capacity.

ADIL

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I am really disappointed with rest of the Muslim world for not raising the voice against this horrible coward act. At least I was expecting a lot from Arabs.

SALMAN SARWAR

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This action is like this first drop of Rain...this protest initiative by Islamic Republic of Pakistan, to legally ban this community page, will definately ignite awarness amongst Muslim Countries especially in Middle East. Muslims being the largest community of the world stands very clear and united in this point that we cannot tolarate any blasphemous act. By blocking this community all over the Muslim World we can send our message to all such Online Communities that if such act do not voilate your policies then you need to review them. Indeed, Facebook cannot afford to lose business from 1.9 Billion Muslims and as a further step we can put an economic embargo on them which is very effective tool aimed at weakening the economy of any country. Muslim countries can get together and apply economic or business pressure against that country if it continues to publish defamatory things. During the gulf war, a few countries in the Middle East boycotted American products and caused a big loss to the U.S. & case of Danish Economy is another example of our united stand. If a section of the western media has “freedom of expression” then we Muslims too have the freedom to use or abstain from using a product.
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