Pakistani Court Orders All Of Facebook To Be Blocked Over Page It Doesn't Like

from the sledge-hammer dept

Remember back in 2008, when Pakistan ordered YouTube to be blocked and took down a chunk of the wider internet outside of Pakistan in the process? One hopes they’ve got the technical details worked out this time, because Mr. LemurBoy alerts us to the news that the Pakistani High Court is so disturbed by the fact that there’s an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” page (hopefully you’ve already heard why that’s controversial…) on Facebook that it has ordered all of Facebook to be blocked through the end of May. Originally, only that specific page had been ordered to be blocked, but apparently that wasn’t enough:

Lawyers with the Islamic Lawyers Forum appealed to the higher court on Wednesday, saying the entire site should be blocked because it had allowed the page to be posted in the first place

Of course, that makes me wonder. If someone created a similar webpage just “on the internet,” would Pakistan order that all of the internet should be blocked? If it was on a piece of paper, would all paper be blocked from import?

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Comments on “Pakistani Court Orders All Of Facebook To Be Blocked Over Page It Doesn't Like”

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48 Comments
AMIN PANAAWALA says:

Re: Re:disputed page on face book

face book is a social plate form it is not for insulting.we love our prophets religions and religious heads,prophets mimam,padri etc.if this trend continue we will totally give up face book.we,muslims love mohammad s a w more than every thing even our life and childres etc,we do not the world any thing we believe in life after death.MAP

Anonymous Poster says:

Re: Re: Re:

You are.

Having spiritual/religious beliefs is fine. Even if those beliefs say “there is no God”, that’s fine too.

But using those beliefs to justify ignorance and bigotry and a complete misunderstanding of other cultures, while at the same time proclaiming that your beliefs are the only “right” beliefs, is just plain stupid.

For me, toleration of another person’s religious/spiritual beliefs ends the second they attempt to use their beliefs to justify stupid, irrational behaviour (“God made me kill this man!” “Allah said to punish the heretics!” “Jesus said we should bash the gays just because they’re gay!”) that no sane, learned man would ever participate in.

People who believe in the faith of Islam are fine by me. But when they start saying things like “death to those who defy Islam” just because we don’t believe in it…well, then, that’s when I stop tolerating those people and start looking at them as someone who’s dangerous to themselves, other people, and society as a whole.

We don’t need a society built on fear and intimidation and hatred of those who think differently; we need a society who is willing to tolerate – even love – people for their different ways of thinking, and respect those differences without resorting to rash, illogical behaviour just because we don’t see eye-to-eye.

Wolfy says:

Religion of any kind is a form of mental illness. I have only pity for those brainwashed as children, and we should clinically treat them as best we can. They are victims. Those that choose religion as adults should be disregarded until they pick up weapons, then they should be put down like the rabid animals they’ve become.

amin panaawala says:

on internet same behavier

world know what muslims can do with the help of Almighty creater,the real superest power,EVERYTHING MOVE /RUN ACCRDING TO HIS WISH/ORDER.WE CAN SACRIFICE EVERY THING FOR THE PRESTIGE OF OUR BELOVED PROPHET MOHAMMAD S A W.,OUR RELIGION ISLAM.WE CAN CREATE HUNDREDS OF INTERNETS IF WE ARE BEING HARRASSED.BETTER FOR US TO MAKE THE WORLD PEACEFULWE WANT PEACE IN THIS WORLD ,THESE DISTURBANCE ,TALIBAN ,TERRIRIST ARE CREATED BY WEST[YOU]U ARE SUPPORTING THEM .9/11 FRAUD CREATED BY U TO GAIN WASTED INTEREST.WHAT U HAVE GAINED ,NOW WORLD KNOW REALITY.MAP

Any Mouse says:

Re: on internet same behavier

Dude. Seriously. Pretty much EVERY religion is like this up to a point. Most just aren’t willing to blow themselves all to shit and take defenseless people with them. Go on, keep waving the ‘we’re terrorists because you made us be terrorists’ flag at us. If you’re a terrorist, YOU made that choice. Nobody’s forcing you to pull the trigger. At least not over here.

And spare the Christian remarks, if you please. So not a Christian or a Jew or anything like that.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: on internet same behavier

Why don’t all you religious nutjobs just fuck off to another planet where you can perpetuate your brand of censorship and restrictions of freedom and speech.

And yes, I include Christian, Jewish, etc, etc fundamentalists. You’re all doing nothing but using religion to control populations and provoke fear.

There is no god and organised religion has caused virtually every single war in the history of humanity. Fucking retards.

Ali says:

RE:

The decision is 100%, Facebook should have to be blocked for unlimited time in all Muslim countries, if we are user of facebook, but it does not means that facebook can play with our emotions, can give permission to others to hurt Muslimes,
I think the people who made that bad page and who supported have no religion, because no religion allow to hurt.
the people who did this would not be forgiven.

zub says:

Re: RE:

The funny part is that instead of letting your favourite deity deal with the issues (they, well, me included, will burn in hell etc.), you are all that eager to take matters into your own hands. As if you were not so sure your deity will handle it.

That applies pretty much to all religions out there.

taoareyou (profile) says:

The Difference

On Facebook there are pages such as the Anti-Christian Sentiment, and There Is No God. You have no calls from the Pope to block Facebook. No threats to kill anyone. In fact, they get relatively no attention.

The difference is tolerance. One of the Islamic pages I found was “There is No God But Allah”. Some followers of Islam want to enforce respect for their religion onto the rest of the world while at the same time offering no such respect to any other religion. Demand tolerance, but do not give it.

The most vocal Muslim responses to pointing this out are almost always near unreadable rants composes of juvenile insults and threats. This is what the rest of the world sees: intolerance, hypocrisy, hatred and violence.

No matter what an actual religion teaches, it will be judged by the actions of its followers.

I think the ban of Facebook is just a show. The number of pro-Islamic/anti-everything else pages on Facebook is my evidence. By banning Facebook, they are cutting themselves off from a global recruitment tool. It’s nothing more than using the international news agencies as your advertising department.

They will continue to try and control Facebook. Who knows, Facebook might be as spineless as Viacom and give in. But the ban on Facebook will be short and temporary because every day they block it, is a day they can’t use it to connect with new members and spread their messages of intolerance to the rest of the world.

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