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.
Ban on Facebook is right and the Pakistani society as Muslim should punish Facebook by not visiting it. There are so many competitors of Facebook like twitter eg. By boycotting face book Pakistanis will be sending a message to all the Social Media sights. If you will respect our feelings then you will have your customers.
Few Pakistanis have started a new social network site which is a good courageous move. Brain net efforts must be appreciated and supported.
I fully support the ban, till FB apologizes and agrees not to support such hate groups.
I am more pissed off by those who think that FB is not at fault. They should try making a group that supports Hitler, Saddam and likes.Or even scholarly try to discuss Holocaust. They will be banned immediately from FB for life, and the page will be taken off.
I’m happy with the goverment’s decision to ban facebook.
It does make me realize how much time i used to spent on facebook, doing nothing and just being curious about what others are doing.
Facebook should be banned forever in Pakistan, so that other websites learn from this and non-muslims realize that we are strong and still alive and we cannot tolerate disrespect of our Religion and the Noble Prophets (peace be upon all of them).
Since facebook has been banned, i spend more time reading good books ad acquiring knowledge. And i’m happy this way.
I Know for sure I am doing better things like reading and outdoor activities after deactivating Facebook ..
Not many people knew about the face book adventure until Pakistan publicized it by banning face book and Youtube. Traffic to these sites increased by 320 % after that and the negative comments against Pakistan were plenty. We would have served our interest better by silently protested the unwarranted intrusion into our religious matters.
I love the dawn forum for this. This is like a ray of hope….I agree with you wholeheartedly..
and i am agree with the comments of adil, no compromise there at all
@umair
wikipedia is working fine, other than the page “Draw Muhammad Day”
y for one week? y not forever?
Im not happy that youtube is banned..
Living outside Pakistan , i dont really know the predicament of the people living in the country , but I think this is not digested. I don’t really know how u can use Facebook constructively but u can use utube to study .
This is a waste of time for everybody involved. By banning Facebook, Youtube, Wikipedia, protesting and screaming at the top of your lungs Pakistanis are only inviting more attention from the rest of the world. And its all negative attention.
I agree that drawing the prophet is disrespectful and the Islamophobic fringe that organized such a competition deserves our condemnation.
We in New Jersey, USA have set May 31, 2010 as “Everybody Read About Prophet Muhammad Day.” So instead of going crazy with anger, let’s do something positive. These cartoonists want to see Muslims angry. They love to see Muslims protesting on the streets.
Let’s spend some time on May 31, 2010 reading about Prophet Muhammad, pbuh. Read one hadeeth, one paragraph, one chapter, one book, whatever.
Read it alone, with friends, with family. Read it at home, at masjid, any place.
Let’s gain from the treasure that our Prophet is. The cartoonists aim is to annoy us. Our aim should be to help the humanity. That is what our prophet intended.
It looks like as the time passes we are faced with new challenges, specially when it comes to Islam. I don’t think blocking the sites would be the solution to such problems. These kind of events and things will continue to happen. It is necessary though that we register our protest strongly. I believe boycotting facebook for couple of days by all muslims would have been better. I believe it is the duty of media to promote such kind things so that people all over the country and world can join in. This will show the unity of the muslims and will send a strong message across that such events should always be banned. Whether for fun or any other reason these kind of things are not allowed by any religion.
Now as far as the banning of these sites in Pakistan is concerned, I have totally different view. I believe non of our Govt. officials and courts are completely religious. To me it is more of unrest conditions in Pakistan rather than Islam and our love for our prophet (SAW). We are pretty emotional kind of nation. We tend to burn our own country when such things happen, therefore, I believe Govt. has banned these just to avoid any extreme behavior from the people. It is really pity that we are corrupted top to down and no body is bothered about it. We are so much concerned about some Facebook where as there is a lot to be done as Pakistani and as Muslims.
Somebody rightly said when the nations are about to fall their concerns shift from bigger problems to the small unimportant issues e.g. Facebook, youtube, Shoib Malik marriage etc. God Bless Pakistan Ameen.
why cant i see the complte video?
the buffering doesnt stop :/
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.
p.s. Regardless the pros and cons of the action,I do feel proud for Pakistan to have stepped up in the name of religion.
To ban facebook is a great way to inform all Pakistanis and the whole world about Islam. If you are a true believer you should turn off the internet.
We should not allow others to attack our source of knowledge and i.e Islam and Sarkar-E-Do_Alam(S.A.W). We should be offensive and protective to our values no matter on what cost ?.
i think that banning fb and youtube is not a gud move becoz there are many other sites which should be banned instead of facebook and youtube
The ban has resulted in different reactions from different people. In my opinion the ban on Facebook and Youtube was put up hastily. Pakistanis are an emotional nation.
When we know what their motives are, we are actually propagating them ourselves by doing these kind of emotional things. The anger should be directed at the corruption in our own society, not to the outside world.
We should stop pointing fingers at them because they are controlling the world right now. Start working on a better Pakistan right now and get to work!!!! Be sincere in whatever you are doing and don’t be distracted by such things.
Our Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) endured so much himself. We should follow his example.
Pakistan has a very bright future InshaAllah!
We Support this decision of our Judiciary and Government.
We can Compromise on anything else but not on Dignity of Holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him).
Facebook and some other websites were also promoting these violent Pages against ISLAM (they should have blocked that page as it was reported by thousands of Muslims but facebook did not do this).
We Protest not only against that page but also agaist supporters of that page.
Banning Facebook or YouTube is not the answer. If you have true respect and love then write a response to your enemies’ attacks. Just acting as if ‘all is well’ by banning few sites, is not the right answer. This ban has made even more mockery of our country, as it shows we are a nation of impatient people, who have no knowledge of their religion to give response in a befitting manner. Facebook and YouTube have many useful things, as well as bad things, just like everything else in life. Just because people can die from electrict shock, nobody stops using electricity. So, it is an individual’s responsibility to use these tools intelligently. But, probably we don’t have that as a nation..Alas..
I dont understand why did people is against LHC orders..If,we, muslims will say something or do against their faith and religion than west and jews will impose economic and trade restrictions on us.
LHC did absolutely in favor of islam and pakistan. One more thing…we can play our part in strengthen pakistan without FB.
why only pakistan react to this? I was in Saudi for 5 years,they dont bother about this thing. so muslims of the other countries are not pure muslim,only pakistanis?
I totally agree with the ban and happy it was Pakistan that did it. Facebook on their part should have removed that page the day it was created as it was created with the purpose of offending Muslims. You cannot just pass everything in the name of Freedom. How can you tolerate people making fun of our beloved Prophet (PBUH). Wake up guys!
I think we muslims should also start a contest of “Drawing Jewish crimes against humanity” & we all will see the entire western world’s so called freedom of speech, turning upside down. Then they would realize to stop testing the patiance of Muslims by insulting us & our religion under the banner of freedom of speech.