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As you might be knowing that today we, the facebook muslim community have arranged an organised protest / boycott of facebook for not removing pages that we find offensive. This move has been taken on the page ‘Everybody draw Muhammad (S.A.W) on 20th May’. This page was reported as abuse classified under hate speech on the first sight by almost any practising muslim who has respect for Islam, including me. We have been reporting this page since 2 weeks to be removed from facebook. Despite thousands of reports from muslims and even some non-muslims who believed that this was hate speech against Islam, facebook took no action on this matter. That is when we, the facebook muslim community decided to boycott facebook on 20th May to show our strength and our disapproval of the highly offensive act of facebook by not removing those pages. I am very grateful to the government of Pakistan and the high court who took this a step forward. Instead of us facebook users reminding each other to not use facebook on 20th May. The lahore high court decided to pass a ban on facebook following this incident till the date of 31st May pending action from facebook regarding all of those pages. All internet service providers in Pakistan were notified on this and day before yesterday, facebook was completely blocked by all ISPs. This is the email I received from my ISP:
I hold high gratitude for the high court for taking this step. Muslims have been representing a high proportion of the internet users since it’s very start contributing to almost more than 45% of facebook’s users. We are definitely a majority and we cannot have our interests and beliefs insulted like that. Muslims have been contributing to the internet in all forms (me and my blog is an example) and we are a main reason why facebook is making a lot of money. Losing all the muslim users means losing approximately 45% of your revenue (considering the average revenue per facebook user. Moreover, facebook is a large business corporation. Any rational business would create about even the slightest change in their revenues while 45% is big enough to bring it down from the peak to the bottom. I will prove this when I write another post about this in a few days where I will show the loss of facebook’s internet users and possibly revenue generation for them. It will definitely teach facebook a big lesson. Where this started?This is the first thing that I researched when I took a notice of this highly offensive page and the event. A cartoonist, molly norris, did not like the censorship given to a scene in an episode of south park which depicted Prohpet Muhammad (PBUH). She believed that this provided a wrong image to the people of USA. She decided to give birth to the idea of this day be as a call to freedom of speech and protest against the censorship that was given. This led to the facebook page being created and the whole thing going viral. It was further ignited from a youtube video by a user by the name of ‘thunderf00t’. This user posted a video by the name of ‘Islam Fail’. This was deemed as extremely offensive by all of the muslim community on youtube. The responses were obvious to be harsh. Then this user went on to support 20th May as a ‘Everybody draw Muhammad (S.A.W) day’. (Nauzubillah) This originated the whole thing and has resulted in a complete ban on youtube in Pakistan as well as that video had also been reported as offensive on no subsequent action was taken on that matter. I have also removed the link to my blog’s fan page on facebook. I wouldn’t want to use facebook again until facebook takes some kind of an action on this matter, because if we use facebook, we want our interests to be protected. I was much busy with my studies, but this is a post that I just had to put on the blog because I couldn’t really keep this inside. This is a thing that everyone should know, whether they’re a muslim or a non-muslim. If you’re a christian, jew, hindu or even an atheist. Think about this with an open mind and think for yourself whether or not this is a massacre on the name of humanity. Better classified as ‘genocide’ by many. If highly offending the believers of a religion and insulting it is classified as ‘freedom of speech’ by the big internet websites, then we refuse to ever use them again. Related Articles:
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Hey You, Join My Facebook Fan Page! said,
[...] UPDATE: The link to the facebook fan page has been removed due to a boycott on facebook. You can read more about it here. [...]
anon said,
If highly offending the believers of a religion is classified as ‘freedom of speech’ —it is not about “offending” Muslims—Constructive criticism can offend–but also result in the betterment of the community. Muslims do not have a problem responsible freedom of speech.
This is about irressponsible and malicious defamation of the Prophet(pbuh) for the sole purpose of defending the “entertainment value” of such actions. Therefore, such actions are destructive to the moral, ethical values of all humans regardless of religion.
[Reply To This Comment]
Jawad Khan said,
Our beliefe being the muslims is not complete until we have equal respect and honour for all holy prophets. This is not possible for a muslim that he can respect last prophet Hazdrat Muhammad PBUH and dont have respect and beleve fpor jesus or other prophets.
We can not accept such freedom of press who offend worlds 1/4 population. It is just a mean tool that most of Western newspapers and some of their other groups are using to offend peaceful people. But they should note that they can never never defame the name of holy prophet Muhammad PBUH.
EU Govts should control such activities on face book, other wise they have to face financial losses more and more after more bycotts etc.
Thanks
[Reply To This Comment]
sandy said,
There are many things that offend certain groups; I personally am offended when I read foul language on someone’s blog, or see nudity on their avatar, or blog, or 125 x 125; but I have no right to ask that it be removed. That’s what freedom of speech is about. People being allowed to express themselves. I do not agree with them, but I am free not to. I can choose (as I typically do) to avoid their page; but I can’t imagine the US Government getting involved in a page on Facebook. Is that the difference in our countries? We have separation of church and state and the government wouldn’t have the right to do that; while in your country they do; and your people expect and rely on your government to do?
Isn’t your government then picking and choosing what you can do, what you can read, in fact they are censoring. Government censorship would never be supported as a positive thing here in The States. If people were offended shouldn’t they be responsible themselves and not use that page, or support FB who allowed it on their own; without the government doing it for them?
Sandy
[Reply To This Comment]
sandy said,
Thanks for attempting to help me see the differences between our countries. The reason my country doesn’t censor is because Christianity is not the official religion of the country. There is no official religion of the country, which is why people who are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, or any other religion have the right to come and practice there religion here. You would be free to practice your religion in my country; but I would not be afforded that freedom in your country. That is the basic difference between our countries. I do understand your group of facebook’ers boycotting and expressing your opinions, but I don’t support or understand the government doing it. One of your commentors said it was good your government did this incase individuals would want to check their fb updates etc, therefore it really does seem like censorship to me. I do not doubt your respect or commitment to your religion; but if there are people in your country who did want to express a different opinion, it doesn’t sound like they would be allowed to do so.
The entire reason people came to this country was freedom of religion. They left other countries where they were told what to belief in, how and when to practice their believes and that is how the country was formed, and why there is no official relgion. You can travel almost anywhere here in the states and within a very short distance of each other find a church, a synagogue, a temple, and a mosque all in the same neighborhood.
Sandy
[Reply To This Comment]
Julius said,
I really hope that Facebook will do the right thing and remove this offensive page, and that it will carry out the same preventive steps in others that may follow. It’s pathetic how some people would choose to offend the belief of others just to gain popularity
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anon said,
censorship in the U.S.—there is a lot of censorship in the U.S. —most Americans are totally unaware of what their country is doing outside of the U.S. because the media never reports it. The U.S. supports dictatorships that favor U.S. policy (of stealing the resources of a country)and oppress the citizens of their countries, the U.S. CIA has renditions programs that kidnap and torture people, The U.S. wars create massive “collateral damage” that causes untold pain and terror in the lives of innocent civilians and NO ONE in the U.S. makes a peep of protest!!. There is discrimination in the “west” where freedoms of Muslims are taken away by one pretext or another, Mosques cannot be built because of “zoning” excuses—Women are unable to wear what they want to because of “intergration” excuses, bigotry, hate, and intolerance are all excused under the banner of Freedom of speech ………political parties, pastors, and Islamophobic scholars are all given the time by the media promoting an Us vs Them attitude by promoting LIES about muslims and Islam—-if any journalist lifted a finger to do even a cursory research—they would know these are lies—but do they?—NO. —so don’t take a superior attitude about how “free” the U.S. is—it is not free—the U.S. is a hypocricy—it simply uses “Labels”/banners to hide its ugliness.—like saying they went to Iraq to promote “Democracy” when all they wanted was to steal the oil.—-and the intellectually lazy public laps it all up.
There is nothing “civilized” about attempts to defend the “entertainment value” of offending another at the cost of trampling the higher values of respect, tolerance and compassion.
[Reply To This Comment]
hassan said,
i think that this is genocide and the people who did it will get what they deserve. The prophet muhammad S.A.W is not meant to be created by the mind. I hope that facebook deletes the page i get back on. If they dont take it off i hope that facebook falls down and loses
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Fahad said,
i appreciate the fact that so many people have taken notice of how serious this is and want to inquire about. i dont support facebook or any other website or any media for that matter which trys to discriminate or show hatred towards a certain religious community by attacking their religious beliefs be it Muslims, Christian, Hindus or whoever we all have the right to practice our beliefs as we see fit and its only fair to show respect towards our beliefs as we show respect towards yours. but on the other hand i would also like to emphasize on something (B)Sandy(/B) said which was to avoid such things in general..i do remember in Islam it is said that “if you find your self arguing with a person who is ignorant of religious beliefs and faith and is only interested in bad mouthing it using what ever excuse, do not argue with him for in the heat of argument he being ignorant will disrespect your religion and your beliefs even more and for that only you will be to blame”..(agar koi jahil tumhare mazhab ko bura bhala kahe aur usko tumhare mazhab ke bare mein pata nahin hai to us se behas mat karo kyunke woh apni jahalat mein tumhare mazhab aur tumhare Khuda ko bura bhala kahega aur behas woh tumhare waja se karega to iske zimidar bhi tum khud hi hoge) now i have heard this repeated many times over but would like any acknowledgment if possible and if it true then why cant it be practiced here. people who have no respect for our religion will always want to see what makes us tick..this isnt the first and by far not the last attempt to do so
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Roomi said,
I appreciate your effort Mr. Agha and support your arguments fully.Actually Sandy is unable to understand the intensity of our devotion and consequential actions. This is because of the major difference between the muslim and non-muslim cultures….and culture is dominated by religion in muslim countries and established by the practising masses of believers while government is just an image of the masses…..the magnitude of devotion to respective Prophets of each religion, is quite different and since one cannot explain his or her interest for certain person/thing/matter and convince others to feel the same towards it, similarly in West, people wonder if it is really an issue to imitate or model Prophets when they have statues of Jesus n Mary spread everywhere. And as they have evolved such an dvanced approach of “personal freedom” that they don’t question the status of homosexuals or restrain this spreading sickness just in name of “personal freedom” even if their religion abandons it.the western society is bound by the human-established ethics rather than religion or divine-established morals…and that explains all the differences.I myself feel proud of the in-time decision taken by Pakistani Government. Plz keep spreading the awareness.
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Mattiullah said,
Freedom of speech has always been a controversial….
To miss sandy: Will you allow anyone to say curse words for you or your family, thinking just that its his freedom of speech..Will you ever allow your 3 year child to burn himself only becoz its the right of every human being to do what he wants….
Will you miss sandy!!!
Not going long..Just think about it…
[Reply To This Comment]
anon said,
Historically, Islam/Muslims have sometimes been a civilizing force in the world. Maybe this (peaceful) protest by Muslims will help open a debate in the “West” about the imbalance in their values—and they will learn to value “respect for others”.
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Waqar said,
I condemned in severe words; that western are continuously trying to target Islam why is that so?
are they really afraid of Muslims and the answer is yes, people are now accepting the ultimate truth
Quran and Islam is spreading all around the world continuously and such things couldn’t be bothered by
western; u can’t hide the ultimate truth, Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any Prophet as
blasphemous and Muslims all over the world, try to spread the words of love rather than oppressing the
religious susceptibilities of any religion. Be mature who are involved in such shameful and unethical
acts and learn how to give and to take respect. LIVE LOVE ISLAM & MUSLIMS Amin
[Reply To This Comment]
A said,
I believe we, all Muslims, should unite and stop using Facebook completely. There is so much offensive material on Facebook about and against Islam and it is time we all got together and stopped using this site. Limits have been crossed for a very long time now and despite many protests by individuals and groups, no action has been taken. Why should we continue to be a part of this ridiculous networking site when it has no respect for our beliefs? Our concerns are not acted upon and our views aren’t taken into account.
If you are reading this please, for the sake of your religion if nothing else, deactivate your Facebook account/s and spread the word to fellow Muslims. When our words have not been heard, then we must take action and this is the only way we can now protest; by simply deactivating Facebook. This will incur a large loss for the website and the owners of it. Let these racist illiterate people continue with their networking site. We should not be a part of it, if they cannot respect our religion. I am positive if any other religion was treated the way Islam currently is, that action would seriously be taken. This is just appalling.
Please deactivate your account and spread the word. You may feel that you, as an individual are not going to make a difference, but if everyone was to think this way, we aren’t going to be taken seriously. I have deactivated my account and when deactivating it, I left a very strong worded and lengthy reason why. Please make your views heard. Deactivate it today! Inshallah things will get better for Muslims and the world realises our religion and beliefs are simple and peaceful.
Jazakallah khair
[Reply To This Comment]
Chinaren said,
As an Atheist I don’t, and won’t, understand your views here. To me it’s just another example of one of the stupid rules that all religions have. Don’t eat pork, don’t use a condom, cows are sacred etc.
That said, I won’t go out of my way to purposely offend people’s religions. On the other hand, I simply don’t care about this Facebook page.
However, what I really posted a comment about were your figures here:
“Muslims have been contributing to the internet in all forms (me and my blog is an example) and we are a main reason why facebook is making a lot of money. Losing all the muslim users means losing approximately 45% of your revenue (considering the average revenue per facebook user.”
45% of Facebook users? Where did you get that from? Are 45% of the users on Facebook muslim then? I seriously doubt that muslims are one of the main reasons FB is making money. I suspect most users, if you broke it down, would be Christians, as most users seem to come from the English speaking world.
Please state your sources if you quote facts like that! I’m looking forward to your ‘evidence’ about FBs lost revenue.
Oh, and it’s ‘my blog and me’.
As someone who lives in China (I’m not Chinese), I’m used to FB (as well as lots of other sites) being blocked. Yet I can still access them using proxies and VPN software, so I doubt Pakistani’s ban will really affect people who want to use the site.
I also find it a bit sad that people are so scared of something they choose to block it.
Meh.
[Reply To This Comment]
Joe said,
I read they banned Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and other video and photo sharing websites. I even read that Google was blocked for several hours and many WordPress and TypePad blogs are banned along with Blogspot links.
Sounds pretty stupid to me and I can’t believe the people who live in this country (such as you) actually want your government to do this.
[Reply To This Comment]
Chinaren said,
@Abdulahi: Hello? Did you read my comment at all? Where, exactly, did I say I hate Muslims pray tell?
Before you start *your* hate, read the comment properly. I don’t understand religion, I think it’s stupid myself, but that’s just my POV. I never said I hate religious people. Some of my best friends are religious.
Don’t jump to conclusions.
The owner of this blog is secure enough in his beliefs that he can take my comments and comment in return. That’s something I admire. Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree.
As an aside, I read the Facebook page in question has now been taken down.
And yes, my blog and I. Duh, my bad.
[Reply To This Comment]
Liezl said,
I’ve seen that boycott page and I understand the reasons of those people. Though, I am not one of them. My stand is so-so because I can live with or without facebook.
[Reply To This Comment]
Zee said,
I’ve deactivated my account for one reason: I’m a muslim and I love my religion with all my heart. As muslims it’s our duty to react against anything that insults our religion.I was a regular facebook user, I used to check my profile every single day, more than 20 times! Because I had friends on it, and we used to just talk and chat about random stuff for fun. Nothing bad. But then people of other religions (I dont know exactly if they were jews or christians, so I can’t specify) made pages on it about our beloved Prophet Mohammad. Whether we deactivate our facebook profiles or not, we should be proud of ourselves for one fact: Islam teaches us not to EVER make fun of, or to insult someone else’s religion.
There’s a Quranic verse:
” lakum deen o kum, waaley ya din.”
Translated, it means: “my religion is mine, yours is yours.”
Being a muslim, I’m so sure that a true muslim would NEVER insult another religion, because our Allah has taught us the right ways of living through the Quran, which was revealed through our Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), and because of that, no other religion has the right to say ANYTHING at all against our Prophet. By doing this, they’re only showing how badly they have been raised, and how corrupted their minds are.. I do not mean to disgrace their teachings, but let me ask, is this what their religion teaches them? Atleast that’s what they are displaying!
So we don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve heard that facebook has removed that page. Good. If you guys wish to go back on it, I guess you can, and if your heart doesnt agree to it (just like mine doesn’t) then you just boycott it forever, because why should we use something that the Jews gain profit from, inspite of making such filthy groups? Even if they get deleted, they were once there, and that’s something that can’t be forgiven, specially when it comes to our Prophet. Just ignore them, people.
And another thing, I don’t like the way pakistanis go out on the streets holding those banners about boycotting fb.. What’s the use of that? I’m a Pakistani too, and I love my country.. But you people are just being silly. if you want to boycott fb, do it. You don’t need to waste your time on useless things like going out on the streets as a bunch and screaming “BOYCOTT FACEBOOK!” because you’re only doing that in your own country, and it’s just a waste of time. Be sensible.
Last but not the least,I hope I haven’t offended anyone.
Thank you
[Reply To This Comment]
Azee said,
We cannot expect any civilized acts from barbarians.
[Reply To This Comment]
Was the facebook boycott any good? said,
[...] back people and as I mentioned before, I would post on whether the facebook boycott went successful or at least according to what was planned. The main aim behind the boycott was the [...]
Joe said,
Everybody is somewhat right and everybody is somewhat wrong. I am from the U.S. and like its laws and reasons for being.
To be honest, I have no problem with Muslims, although I disagree with a couple of tenants. Such as, infidels are of no consequence. Have I heard correctly that if infidels do not convert they should be put to death? Christians used to do that, but got over it. Such as, emigrate to other countries and insist that that country change its laws to accommodate Islam. That is what appears to be happening in the U.S. and Europe. That really ticks off the non-muslim population. There is a muslim fanaticism that is trying to take over countries, Somalia for instance. Christians used to do that, but got over it. Christians get insulted all the time, but don’t insist on killing the person in the name of God to make a point.
’nuff said. I am sure this will raise the ire of all muslims, because they are right and everyone else is wrong. Hope it is not a killing offense.
[Reply To This Comment]
Seospidy said,
feeling bad but i can hope everything is gonna be all right soon.
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talk.learnwebpage.com said,
I read that banned Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Wikipedia and other video and photo sharing web sites. I even read that Google was blocked for several hours and many of WordPress and TypePad blogs are banned and Blogspot blogs.
Sounds pretty stupid to me and I can not believe the people who live in this country (like you) really want their government to do this.
[Reply To This Comment]
nomi said,
feeling bad but i can hope everything is gonna be all right soon.
yap its going to b riite now my frend..!!
[Reply To This Comment]
Amie said,
While I understand that you are offended and feel that you need to take action, I feel that it should be said that you, as I assume are a Muslim and are in the United States (a country which guarantees your right to worship however you so desire)also have the right to be offended. Just because you do not like what someone has to say, write, draw does not entitle you in anyway shape or form any rights or privileges above that of anyone else. A part of these freedoms that we hold so dear and that I view as evaporating in recent times is TOLERANCE. I’m not a fan of EMO kids, but they have the same rights to express their views as you, me, and everyone else because that is the nation in which we live, and the freedom of expression is not one to be taken lightly. Just because you dislike what an individual has to say what right do you have to censor their words? If you choose that path you start chipping away at the very freedoms that allow you yours.
[Reply To This Comment]
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