Pakistan has blocked two popular websites due to a controversial competition being held on Facebook on May 20. How has the ban on Facebook and YouTube affected you? Has the block on our accessibility to these sites highlighted the fact that how addicted and dependent we are on social networking websites and forums? How do you plan to pass your time instead now that browsing videos and random profiles is not an option?
The views expressed by the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
If Pakistani govt wants to block blasphemous material to Islam & the prophet then they will have to block the entire Internet, the Internet is full of so called blasphemy, easily accessible with the click of the mouse. What good is just blocking the you tube and face book? As the matter of fact blocking these sites has aroused curiosity all over the world and everybody here are checking these sites which no one was aware before.
I think people should have ignored that page, instead of making a fuss of it and advertising it to all those who don’t even know about it. I am in England, I have got 200 British friends in my friendlist who don’t know nothing about any such page, however, after this issue of banning, they might have got to know about it.
We should just avoid it, there are always good and bad things everywhere and a view of a group of people do not represent the views of facebook or all the other non-muslims. Most of the Non-muslims are really tolerant towards islam and respect muslims the way muslims respect them.
Instead, we should condemn the ban on all these websites, as this has resulted in loss of some businesses and loss of people’s freedom of speech and expressions in Pakistan.
I am an American Christian and I am shocked and revolted by some of my fellow Americans who participated in this shameful venture of drawing a religious figure held Holy to all Muslims.
These “heroes”, as I’m calling them, have hurt the feelings and religious sentiments of millions of innocent American Muslims and Muslims around the world. I am utterly ashamed!
I humbly apologize to all Muslims around the world for the actions of some of my “brave” fellow Americans whose sense of “self” needs to be satiated by trampling on the feelings of innocent people…
i think i am saying some different from my respected readers said that if we follow the way of our beloved Prophet Mohammad peace be upon Him then we protest these thing face to face because if saw His life we can see that he face many problems in life but he did not leave the right way i think it is wrong to ban the site because if we have access on that page we can answer to those people with our messages and as we know the pen is more power full than sword and if we have true love with our great Prophet we should unite in the world and make a site which is more famous than facebook and youtube. it is humble request to all reader be practical don’t be extremist because that rubbish group want to declare Muslims as a extremist nation. do as much in I.T profession as you can and prove your selves as a calm nation as our Prophet wants. i again pardon to all of you i don’t want to hurt your emotion but want to saw our weakness Thanks to read
Pakistan is a democracy, not a dictatorship. The government can’t impose it’s views on the public. The best solution would be to peacefully protest, and stay away from the offensive pages. For those who think that the ban is justified because Facebook and Youtube are a waste of time anyway, you guys need to exercise more self control and find better things to do. It all depends on how you use them. Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friends and family around the world.
It is censorship. I don’t specifically know why the websites were banned, i suspect it was on account of blasphemous or politically insensitive content.
We should vehemently oppose state sponsored censorship. Freedom of expression and speech is not just a funndamental tenant of a free, democratic society but is also a sacrosanct human right. State sponsored censorship is one of the main reasons why our conuntry is in shambles. We need to stand up for our rights and defend our values with our intellect and with our pens, not through censorship.
I think the ban is a ill conceived and ultimately pointless. I respect the sentiments of those on here who support the ban but there is so much material on line that one group or the other is bound to find objectionable, blasphemous etc that it is impossible to put a blanket ban on websites that carry them. If the objective is to block every website that carries content that is blasphemous of Mohammed, the govt should start with google as a basic search for ‘images of mohammed’ returns almost 700,000 hits currently. My feeling is that the Pak govt is using the guise of religion in order to quell dissent and ban mediums that educated, socially mobile and politically enlightened individuals are likely to use in order to oppose the government ( just like in Iran last year)
The people of Mecca and some of Medina treated him quite poorly as he went about propagating Islam. Yet, he stood up to all his detractors with grace and eventually prevailed.
The Government should flagged a ban on luscious crude stuff in Pakistan, through which people can access to different explicit material .
Govt should ban them forever. Not temporarily. Those who want them are addicts and an addict will never admit that they are addicts.
I completely support Government in banning these websites forever. Youtube and Facebook are just waste of time.
I do not understand why Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Afghanistan etc have not banned Facebook, Twitter etc? Why they did not find it offensive”?
why ban in pakistan? Are we pakistani best muslims than rest of muslim world?
I support the ban.
Nothing is more precious than the dignity of our beloved prophet pbuh……….
If you are a Muslim and have even the slightest insight and knowledge about the life of your beloved prophet Muhammad SAW, you cannot be but hurt by anything less than respectful about him. I will certainly hate to be seen with such blasphemous people or even those who are seen with them.
It is great that we can collectively avoid unjust people collectively…because singularly they would be weak and so shall be us.
I think nothing should have been blocked by government in the first place as this takes away the freedom of choice from everyone.
I am against the controversial page that caused all this and I was happily taking part in voluntary bycott of facebook along with my friends and I don’t appreciate the decision taken out of my hand.
I request the media to investigate the matter and put pressure on government to give Pakistanis their rights back.
No surprise that the country which is is the nexus of religious based terrorism would be the only country that bans FB in the name of religion.
You want to change the Worlds perception of Pakistan – this isn’t going to help.
Although I dont live in Pakistan, I have still deactivated my account in protest!
I support Pakistani govt in banning such websites which do not protect the rights of muslims. They can ban and remove the profile of osama bin laden for so called “Radical preaching” but no signs of discouragement for the heinous acts of unbelievers.
Long live Pakistan!
its only and best way to retaliate by banning the face book, we should bycott face book even after they remove controvercial pages,,,, we can have other social networking sites tooo,,,,,
petty people, petty thoughts&acts, i can only say that,our Holy Prophet (PBUH) is above all this why not ban internet, the root cause
Agree with Beenish… what the govt should have done is to cut the NATO supply line… that would have been more effective in getting an apology and removing the content by Face Book owners !
AssalamoAlaikum Dear Brothers & Sisters,
Banning Facebook, You Tube & Wikipedia was a sort of a last resort…We as the Muslim Ummah should have started the objections earlier to make a mark…The blasphemous stuff has been there from many years…But since (Shamefully) nothing happened from our side, the so-called believers of “Freedom of Expression” started doing what they did…and i believe the Ban was the right thing to impose…and i STRONGLY support it…and WANT IT TO BE PERMANENT!!!!!
Just think…What our Beloved RasoolAllah (s.a.w) would FEEL & SAY to us on the Day of Resurrection???When Kuffaar made fun of him, his own people didn’t oppose and remained quite…and Stayed a part of the Organization, where He was Made Fun of??????
NO….THAT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN….We Will Meet our RasoolAllah(s.a.w) in all Happiness & Peace…NOT in SHAME & GUILT…
Choice is Yours….I just said what i BELIEVE is RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
I have read a lot regarding this FB ban but one is thing is very clear that there are some ulterior motives behind doing all this. 2005 protests were still fresh in our minds and they planned yet another mind boggling way to express their freedom of expression only to hurt Muslims world wide. I found our response appropriate and the whole world should know by now that Muslims stand united against these evil acts despite our individual differences, which sends a very strong message across the globe. Those who are so addicted to FB, I just wanna ask them, were we not living in the information age before the advent of FB? World won’t turn upside down if we start giving use of FB. The reason I write these lines because I found FB administration protecting this group and they yet have too issue an official statement in this regard nor they have apologized to all Muslim users on FB, while their user policy clearly states that FB hold the authority to take down any offensive material…so what were they waiting for?
Facebook, Google and Wiki etc. are medias. If someone uses a medium for sinister purpose than the target should be that someone rather that the medium itself. By the same flawed logic Internet is the actual medium which is used by many people with negative intentions so should it be banned? We need to realize two things. (1) That facbook, google, wiki etc. are medias of modern era. So some energy time and brains should be invested in stopping abuse of these medias rather that blocking them as whole. (2) We should develop some dignified method of protesting and making our point. Emotional & mindless knee jerk reactions have not been effective in stopping such provocative acts. I hope the point is clear here.
We should also ban the aid flowing into our country where the facebook, youtube is invented. We have no moral right to utilize their financial support. Please ban it URGENTLY.