In Pakistan the reaction was violent. Widely spread looting, burning and general mayhem continued for several days. Several buses of a premium bus service were burn in Peshawar. ATM broken in to of various banks. Instead of trying to put the anger in a positive direction and recording our sentiments in a positive way this action was like burning your own house down, if the neighbor humiliates you. Emboldened by the lack of singular effort from Islamic Countries, other news papers from neighboring countries also reprinted that cartoon, in the name of promoting free speech.
For my on line social life and I think for most of the people who were committed to Facebook for keeping in touch with their friends this incident was like a virtual nuclear blast. Once the debris settled and the Facebook was unblocked the social landscape has become quite barren, with people shifting from Facebook to other venues like myspace etc. It seemed like lashkare Orkutt was to blame for this terrorist attack :)
“Why the love of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) rises in us
when there is an attack on our ideology, why not we show love under
normal circumstances by sticking to his words and the examples
he has left for us”
Fallout from the blocking of Facebook for common people:
Access denied to a powerful communication medium through which they kept in contact with families spread over whole world
Opportunists like millatfacebook.com start entering the market, BTW are the people behind millat facebook any way related to people behind makkah cola :)
and the greatest harm
“MUSLIMS WERE UNABLE STAGE A UNIFIED
ATTACK FOR THIS BLASPHAMY AND RELAIZE
THE WORLD THAT THEIR
SENTIMENTS ARE VALUABLE AS WELL”
If their was a anti Semite group denying holocaust it would be closed. Even MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) successfully bring down whole sites in Law Suite.
“ALL THE MUSLIM COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD
FAILED TO CLOSE A SINGLE GROUP”
Why the decision to to ban facebook was questionable at best:
Is a Pakistan Provincial High Court has jurisdiction to pass decision on a case where the Plaintiff has already agreed to a contract with a foreign entity i.e. I agree check box when creating facebook account
What about all the porn sites why are not they blocked, aren't they even more blasphemous and hurtful for our din.
What about movie downloads that are even offered by on line portals of PTCL and Wateen
If facebook is blocked lets block the whole INTERNET because such thing eventually spread out of their root site and are only a Google search away.
What effect the blockage had on facebook, according to Alexa www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/pk total number of users of facebook from Pakistan at 2,359,620
“FACEBOOK TRAFFIC FROM PAKISTAN IS ONLY .51% OF
THE TRAFFIC IT RECIEVES FROM WHOLE WIDE WORLD”
So is there any chance that .51% is going to put any dent in their viewer ship a big bold in your face NO. In fact Facebook become the grieved party. If we would have been able to convey the hurt Muslims all over the world have felt then facebook would be the cruel one.
The Solution:
“Eik hon Muslim haram ki pasbani ke lie
neel ke sahil se le kar tabkhake kashgir”
First try to protest at OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) level and lodge a case at International Court of Justice to block such blasphemous acts for ever with not possibility of any one doing that again
If unsuccessful block the facebook at OIC level.
Then blocking blasphemous sites would become a cat and mouse game as the content eventually spreads out, so as long as there is orkut, myspace etc, such attacks on Muslims would continue. The solution prepare a robust social site for offer in all Islamic countries like china has their own search engine baidu baidu and chat protocol QQ.
Involving other Islamic contories would benefit by increase the market of such products
If black listing is the only solution left at the country level, instead of blocking any site on whim, make a comprehensive cyber policy where specific types of content is blocked include porn,blasphemous, even soft core porn and strict adherence to Islamic moral principals.
This is the China Model, where they have specified things to be banned any company not cooperating gets kicked out, Google case in point.
Finally a humble plea for all my friends who think they are doing a great service to Muslim umma by not returning to face book:
“IF YOU ARE STILL VISITING ;) SITES AND TORRENTING
MOVIES, AND IF NOT; EVEN THEN COME BACK TO FACEBOOK,
I M MISSING Y'ALL”
remember Farz come before any thing else in din.
