5/20/10

YouTube and Facebook Ban in Pakistan

Hurting religious sentiments of other people is the worst thing that homo sapiens can possibly do to create unrest, incite violence and war. Any content that attacks or abuses the religious beliefs of others must not be allowed to get published on sites like Youtube, Orkut, Facebook and other social networking sites. We, as citizens of the world, must not indulge in such sinister acts that can potentially transform into something that is much worse. Islam is a peaceful religion. Muslims, majority of them, are peaceful and seek good, healthy and productive life. 



It truly is an absolute shocker. The Government of Pakistan has decided to ban YouTube and Facebook in Pakistan. Millions of subscribers are in utter disbelief and shock. Their is a sense of helplessness. Freedom of speech and independence of media has been bulldozed at gun point. Millions of dollars have been lost in revenues.

The story behind this non-sense move by the incompetent government authorities is hard to digest. Blasphemous content posted on YouTube and Facebook is said to be the reason for banning. Nobody, before this unfortunate event, had any idea that such content exists. Even the few who knew about it chose to ignore such things. But after this move, the unwanted stuff has got huge publicity and now millions of internet users are actually searching for such an objectionable content. Hence, the move has backfired.

Secondly, it shows that how a "Theocratic State" fails itself when it comes to recognizing the true democratic ideals such as freedom of expression and right to information. It is said, by the authorities here, that the move is according to the constitution of the country which prevents anything blasphemous. But it has no place in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon him) suffered torture and abuse during his lifetime but he never complained and instead prayed for his dissenters to be shown the right path by Allah Almighty. We Muslims need not to give any importance to blasphemers and stick to the fundamentals of Islam which are equality, peace, universal brotherhood, seeking knowledge and spreading light.

Third, the founder of Pakistan wanted the country to become a secular state where all the citizens were free to practice and propagate their religious beliefs. His Pakistan was hijacked by the notorious mullahs (so called religious scholars). They enforced their opinion through corrupt politicians who drafted a Constitution making it a sick theocratic country. Theocracy blossomed into extremism and terrorism that we see today in Pakistan. Religion Islam has nothing to do with all this because theocracy here has its roots in misguided and fabricated religion called Deobandi, Salafi and Wahabi.

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