Reaction on the streets

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.

 

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445 Responses to “Reaction on the streets”

  1. shailesh says:

    banning someting is not the solution

  2. shailesh says:

    in India we don’t ban anything.
    recently some British author wrote something bad about shivaji maharaj but our supreme court uplifted the ban.
    be democratic.

  3. kashif raees says:

    i love dawn forum for this effort

  4. Rahman says:

    I think we need more strict rules. It is good to ban facebook now. Lets ban internet then. Why do we need it ? When prophet was there, he never used internet.. Recently i saw a young man who has so many bollywood movies in his computer. Most of those movies were against religious believes and i really felt that it is defamatory against islam. This is happening because of teh DVDs and netwroked computers. We have to really put these manace by cutting down the internet connections and if needed should not be allowed the usage of computer itself. Pakistan zindabad….

    • Taimur says:

      I just can’t believe what you say. Our Holy Prophet (PBUH) never used a car and by that logic you should not use a car. and by the way why are you using computer. of course you didn’t post this comment while sitting on a camel. Mr. are you aware of the negative impact that the banning of internet will have on education and learning. besides you can do a lot of good stuff on internet. Man I just can’t believe what you said.

      • Malik says:

        Taimur, you don’t understand a single iota of the msg given by rahman.

        The networked computer allows people to dig into those nasty things where insults to Islam happens on a day to day manner. Prophet never allows anything which instigate a direct assault to the supreme Allah.

        Whatever you gain out of that medium, if it has got a very minute insult to the prophet and god, is against our believes and hence we should be able to avoid them.

        And what uses are you telling ? recent study says that it is Pakistan who browse more porn site than any other nation in the world. See how it has affected our young brains…I fully support rahman and I am keenly waiting for the further bans on sites like yahoo, google, hotmail etc…

        In spite of banning all these sites, as rahman pointed out, there are crooked ones who watch bollywood movies. Hence banning the computer as told by him, is the best solution.

        • Mohsin says:

          Ban this, ban that! What is this. Dude, Internet is a tool. It is up to you how to use it. If you have access to a hammer, you can use it to construct a shelter for someone or you can strike it in the head of someone you absolutely loathe. Its in your hands mate. Temptations are everywhere. You have to look at yourself. Clean your own mind – that’s all you are asked to do. This is the same as blaming the government. LOOK INSIDE YOURSELF and start from there.

  5. Uzma Mazhar says:

    A more sophisticated and enlightened way of dealing with such insults is the way the Prophet (saw) dealt with those who insulted him in his lifetime. He ignored them and prayed for their guidance.
    Are we capable of such enlightened behavior?
    The prophet we claim to love… are we emulating his behaviors in such conflict?
    Or are we only capable of instigating hatred & anger… impotent people react with false bravado.

  6. The reason that I see behind blocking the website was to record a protest against the blasphemous content. Had the facebook authorities paid heed towards the feelings of its Muslim users and deleted those blasphemous pages, the website would not have been blocked.

    One of the objectives behind all these things may be money and advertisement. The more the people visit those pages in order to report them, the more the advertisements get viewed.

    Therefore making the website suffer financially by blocking it sends a message to the website owners as well, so that they may never allow such offensive and blasphemous content to appear on the website again in future.

    Had the ban on Facebook never been lifted, networks and websites including facebook itself, would have learned the lesson. We must boycott such websites and networks once and for all.

    • Sagar says:

      The most effective way to deal with this is to ignore or join the forums to protest strongly but in a decent manner. Remember the internet is the greatest democracy in the world and the fact that there are just few forums doing this as opposed to the millions of sites/forums avoiding or protesting this suggests that those people are a minority. And the majority always wins.
      By banning them or suppressing them only creates more curiosity and followers among the neutral party. There are 100 times more sites/forums or people who criticize and ridicule the Christian symbols photos etc. but again they are minority and do not generate any interest as people just ignore them.
      M.F Hussain is a great artist from India who also generated lots of controversies by drawing paintings of Hindu goddesses in a manner which angered many Hindus. But the way he got the publicity by the protests/ banning etc, his paintings only sell for more million dollars now.
      Siting freedom of expression issues he has now accepted a citizenship of a country, which I do not think will allow any such acts against their religion. So the more you give importance to these opportunist elements, the more they will gain.
      So just ignore it join the largest democracy in the world and work towards your goals by winning others.

      ‘Njoy,
      Sagar

  7. red says:

    religion is the opium of the masses. Everywhere on this message board I see evidence of this statement. I never understood why people’s feelings are hurt so fast when it comes to a god that may or may not exist and which they have never seen. This is the 21st century, Pakistanis need to join it

  8. Un Shonk says:

    well done!nice job!

  9. wajid bashir says:

    It should be banned for 1 year.

    And sorry to say near to me facebook is just a way to expose your family on internet.

  10. wajid bashir says:

    It should be banned for 1 year.

  11. GJ says:

    Banning Facebook or any other offensive website is not a sustainable option for Pakistan, nor for any other Muslim country. But we also know that the West’s assault on Islam and its followers will remain in one form or another; that’s been its history since the dawn of Islam as an organized religion. Should we not protest? Should we not object? Of course we should. But what’s not acceptable is violence during such protests. The prophet of Islam, Muhammad (PBUH), ardently advocated civil behavior even during the worst of adversity. He was not known to exact vengeance upon those who inflicted pain on him. We know that he exhibited an extreme degree of patience, compassion, and forgiveness. We incessantly cite these qualities of the Prophet (PBUH), and yet never fail to do the opposite.

    So what are we to do about material on the Internet whose aim is to denigrate Islam and offend Muslims? First and foremost, we should try patience and forgiveness. Second, the Muslim nations should develop filters that would block off such material. I don’t know to what extent that is feasible; I am not IT expert. But I think it is a viable option. There is no way that Muslims by demonstrating in their own streets, destroying their own property, and even killing their own brothers and sisters in faith can restrict offensive material in other nations, notably of the West. It would be wise to keep the reality in mind while devising any strategies to respond.

    • Khan says:

      Indeed, we, as good Muslims, must abide by our religious teachings but why only selected ones.
      Preaching tolerance, patience and forgiveness, should we forget that publicizing personal, private, intimate matters and/ or proudly showing off un-islamic behavior is not allowed in Islam.

      How would one react if his/ her deceased father was insulted? Would one smile when ever the culprit passes by or join that group and live in hope that one day the guilt will descend upon that person/ source.

      Here we are talking of someone far more sacred than all Muslim fathers combined.

  12. Sana says:

    I think it’s the right desision

  13. Moeed says:

    Every one should do what ever he links to do considering the norm of ethics. This is what we call Experession of freedom. Facebook is a business. More users in Pakistan, more business to facebook from pakistan. This has done nothing other than generating more business to them. This is very easy and simple to understand, No rocket since involved. Now, its upon us. Thousands of urguments can be given in favour of not banning facebook or vice versa. But in my opinion, Facebook should not be banned. We as a muslim should do what ever we think is right. forexample, I have deactivated my facebook account because this is the most simplest protest we can do.

  14. Duaa says:

    I think facebook should be banned forever in muslim countries…..this is the high time to show that when it comes to our beloved Prophet Hazrat muhammad (S.A.W), we cannot compromise.

  15. adnan baloch says:

    I think it will be better to ban facebook permanently because as a Muslim we can not bear anything against our beloved prophet peace be upon him and for us nothing is more than him…

  16. Aziz says:

    What I personally think is that blocking facebook doesn’t serve the purpose for Muslims.
    First of all the whole of the Muslim World needs to come down and unite on a platform. A platform where the whole of the Muslim community around the world should take a stand on anything and everything that effects the Religion.

    This is high time when the Muslim World should unite and emerge as ONE.

    After that all these issues can be addressed. Banning something in one country doesn’t serve the purpose because banning something increases its own importance. I think that facebook has now become a lot more popular that ever.

    Also facebook should be responsible about the content being published or uploaded on it.

    Again I would say that Banning something can’t serve the purpose, the real problem should be addressed and fixed for ever.

  17. farah says:

    the offensive page is still on and accessible in Pakistan…. and PTA claims that the blasphemous page has been shut down and facebook has apologized!! what a lie !!!

  18. Muhammad says:

    Boycott Facebook forever

    We are inviting Muslim from all over the world to come and join Peace full Protest against the Blasphemous competition on facebook. We are offering the Muslim to boycott facebook forever not only for 03 days in just few days their losses reached to billions. Don’t worry about the Salary Inshah Allah you will rewarded in the AAKHEERA.
    Jazakallah

  19. Afnan says:

    Well to me it was not the case Pakistani goverment blocked Facebook because of that page.
    Pakistan blocked that website because they wanted to keep people away from accessing that material that may possibly raise anger among the individuals and keep public property safe .(as last time most of shops were destroyed).

    To my point this website should be blocked permanently and we should make an example out of it. I dont think that this website has more importance than or Prophet (PBUH).

    So even it is unlocked Please De-activate your account.

    Let me quote you that what happens when something like this happens to them.
    You are not allowed so say any one about holocaust denial.if you do so you will be sent to prision

  20. A. Qadir says:

    Dear brothers, it is a great step by Pakistan and it shows that we have the heart in the right place. If you find the owners of Facebook, they are all Harvard inner circle, which is a well known bastion for promoting their own version of religion (we can not name that religion, right? otherwise poor Muslims in US will suffer). Pakistan should always take such strong steps to stop the people we all know are against Islam, our Prophet (PBUH), and all that is good and great in this world. It is the duty of Pakistan to continue to take such strong stand in the face of wrongdoers, miscreants and true terrorists and human right abusers.

  21. SADIA says:

    yes for the time banning fb and other sites is a good step.

  22. Omema says:

    I second Zaheer. Why not do something positive which depicts the true picture of Islam. These blasphemous contests are actually held to irritate Muslims and force them to violate. Which we eventually do and than being tagged as terrorist. There are many other decent ways to send across our protest or set off the effect just as Zaheer did. As far as ban on FB is concern, let it remain forever as we can also create a networking web site of our own instead of using theirs. Why provide such huge financial benefits to these westerns?

  23. Being muslims we can not and should not be quiet on the happenings of such blasphemy, agreed. However, making facebook inaccessible to ourselves does not make the other party start respecting our prophet (p.b.u.h) or stop their blasphemous activities for that matter. What we should have tried to pressurize the fb management to ban all such people who can not respect other people’s values and religions instead.These social sites are meant for the purpose of voicing out one’s opinions; why couldn’t we utilize the medium in the same manner as the other party did? Having said that, I am not against the ban of facebook (temporary or permanent) UNLESS we are provided with an equally strong social medium to reach out to the world.As for banning youtube; it just seems to be a display of over-efficiency on the part of PTA. We simply can not dictate people as to what material they should and should not publish- its a matter of free will. Likewise, I shouldn’t read or watch something that does not complement my values and principles.
    +1

  24. Munazza says:

    I think it has been a very bold step by all Pakistanis to stand against such wrongdoings.In my opinion these cartoonists just want to see Muslims angry and violent and portray them as violent people in front of the entire world which is not true.As we have stood against this horrible competition we should stand against all the wrongdoings in our country.

  25. Steve says:

    OIC has banned that page only not the whole facebook

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