""In negotiations with Pakistani officials, Facebook agreed to continue to prevent the “Draw Muhammad” page from being accessed in Pakistan [Personally I find nothing as offensive as a $100 billion corporation folding like a cheap suit when it comes to freedom of expression-HL], but Yaseen said Twitter would not cooperate. That led to a directive from the Ministry of Information and Technology that ordered telecom providers to block Twitter access in the country. Officials began negotiating Saturday evening with Twitter “to remove this content, this objectionable Web site which is objectionable to the Muslims of this country,” Yaseen said."
And for some context:
"In Pakistan, even the most liberal politicians tread lightly when dealing with the issue of blasphemy — especially since the assassination of Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab province and a leader of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party, by a member of his security detail. Taseer’s confessed killer cited Taseer’s opposition to anti-blasphemy laws and was lauded as a hero by a group of 500 Muslim scholars as well as many ordinary Pakistanis."
The reality is simple. Stifling dissent (specifically, keeping the prophet untouchable) is part and parcel of orthodox Islam. The calls for freedom of expression is the Islamic world cannot be traced to the Koran and the Hadith. Rather, to Enlightenment values that are finding their way to the Islamic world. While secular Muslims are fighting the good fight, it is clear that in much of the Islamic world, the "traditionalists" are winning, through the use of terror.
1 comment:
A country run by religion is a country still living in a archaic bronze age superstition it's a wonder they even have computers let alone a social network.
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