The Facebook page that offended Islam and had caused Pakistan to place a ban on the site, has been removed.
Facebook said Friday that they were not involved in the removal and that the page must have been deleted by the owner. The page was visited by more than 100,000 users and encouraged them to post drawn pictures of Islma’s Prophet Muhammad.
This is to be in protest of threats made by a Muslim group on the creators of South Park, who earlier this year aired an episode that showed Muhammad wearing a bear suit. It was a campaign promoting free speech, but Islam was greatly offended. Muslims feel that any depiction, good or bad, of the prophet is blasphemy. Najibullah Malik said yesterday that after an imposed court order, the government had no choice but to remove Facebook.
Pakistan would only consider removing the ban if pages considered offensive to Islam are removed. Page inspirer Molly Norris says that her work was only to be a commentary on the South Park controversy. She had created a cartoon based on the censorship of South Park, but She claims that she did not create the Facebook page and offers her apologies to the Muslim faith.
This is not the first time Muslims have been offended over depictions of the prophet. In 2005 a Danish newspaper featured cartoons of Muhammad igniting rioting and protests from Muslims around the world. It is said that in Pakistan these protest was violent.
16 Responses
We can not control the non muslims lands for what they are doing and for what they were not. But we can control our lands for such acts. Example Pakistan is the muslim country/ and 56 muslims country must not publish,display, or any other non islamic things which can create hatred from one to another nations. Because when u see the things, u will ask where it is made ,who made it, why he made it. When u don’t see the things, u won’t ask the above questions. Reducing the affect of hatred.
The western countries tag as “FREEDUMB of Speech” where Free is more dumb than it’s free for wisdumb. Got it?
Banning Face book is welcome action, And i request muslims to deactivate their accounts as soon as the face book activates in Pakistan. So that the hatred can be reduced which is the spirit of Islam.and Preach non muslims to come to Islam.
Islam teaches us to reduce hatred among nations, and also asks us to preach, it’s up to them to accept it or not.
I think that if a company “Facebook” is open to allowing content from all people and nations that they should have set a standard to review pages and post before or soon after they are published. They should only allow content that is not so widley offensive to other people, nations or religions. If someone reports something as offensive and have good reason then the content should be removed.
@Danielle that exactly the points i would like to make.In my view freedom of speech should not be used as an excuse to insult / disrespect any faiths people or its belief’s.weather one believe’s in God or not they should respect people’s faith’s.I as a muslim have been tought be respect all religions and its messangers and in my belief so i am not wrong in expecting people of othere faiths to respect my faith’s belief’s
I use this forum to urge all muslims to deactivate their facebook accounts. Stop giving the business to facebook and help bringing the facebook down.
I am sure, sooner or later, they’ll feel he heat of it.
The muslims in non-muslim countries are following the suite by deactivating their account. i started a small survey to check how the muslims reacted to this blasphemy and i could see 98% of the muslims had deactivated their accounts in protest. This is just an indication that imaan exists in us. All praises to Almighty Allah.
Unfortunately facebook still does not take responsibility for closing the page which means they would have never closed this page if the owner had not deleted it.
Danielle wrote “I think that if a company “Facebook” is open to allowing content from all people and nations that they should have set a standard to review pages and post before or soon after they are published. They should only allow content that is not so widley offensive to other people, nations or religions. If someone reports something as offensive and have good reason then the content should be removed.”
There are several problems with this thought. I am no fan of Facebook, and agree with your calls to deactivate your accounts in protest. But I think that you are asking for something that is not feasible. Logistically, it is physically and humanly impossible to do what you suggest when you look at Facebook statistcs.
“* More than 400 million active users
* 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
* Average user has 130 friends
* People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook”
200 Million people a day, reading and posting comments. Reviewing content for “offensive” material is just not going to be feasible.
Second, who sets the standard for what is “offensive.” What is offensive for one person may not be so to the next. Freedom of Speech. It goes deeply. I allows you to practice your faith in my country, and it allows you to criticize the government for it’s failings.without fear of being arrested by the state. It can however, leave you offended at times.
Censorship is a slippery slope, that can also snuff out innovation and creativity. Not 200 years ago, the thought that “gentlemen” doctors should have to wash their hands before surgery and in-between patients was regarded as highly offensive. Yet some people braved offending others, and now millions of lives have been saved as such.
I am not trying to equate a Facebook page to the above situation, but trying to get you to see things from a different perspective.
As a Christian, I am highly offended when I see my Lord’s image used in a derogatory manner or my Lord’s name used in vain. My initial reaction of course is to get angry about it. BUT, there is a difference here. A fundamental difference. I do not call for the death of the person responsible. I do not call for violence against them. Rather, I end up feeling pity for them. Sorrow that they know not the true Joy of Faith. And sadness, knowing that one day they will have to stand before God for judgment.
Be not angry about those that made the page, or the the offensive South Park (which, if the depiction of Mohammad is the only thing you found offensive about South Park, you have issues, as every minute of every episode ever made offends me). Instead, pray for them and pity them in your heart.
This is to Faithful
Sp when does freedom of speech go to far? When does it become discrimination and racists. There is a fine line between what is okay and is not. What if someone started a page that was aginst gay people and included hurtful mean things that gays would find offensive. What if someone started a page that racial. Like a KKK page for people who don’t like blacks. I am not saying FACEBOOK is to sweat the small stuff but when something is posted that offends a specific large group of people then it should be removed. If someone posted a page that made fun of Jesus there would be alot of people hurt and offended. Someone is taking something millions of people believe in and showing no respect for other people’s religion. I don’t for example expect FACEBOOK to remove pages that show meat because it offends vegetarians. But when something is offensive to religion or race and many people complain…. then it should be removed!!!!!!!!!!!1
hey,Fantastic article dude! i’m Tired of using RSS feeds and do you use twitter?so i can follow you there:D.
PS:Do you thought about putting video to your blog posts to keep the readers more interested?I think it works.Best wishes, Irving Cragun
I think that if a company “Facebook” is open to allowing content from all people and nations that they should have set a standard to review pages and post before or soon after they are published. They should only allow content that is not so widley offensive to other people, nations or religions. If someone reports something as offensive and have good reason then the content should be removed.
I use this forum to urge all muslims to deactivate their facebook accounts. Stop giving the business to facebook and help bringing the facebook down.
I am sure, sooner or later, they’ll feel he heat of it.
Very eloquently put ‘Faithful’, thank you. You have hit many nails on the head… I would just like to add from another perspective…
Whether or not you personally like to use Facebook, you have the right to choose (this is freedom).
If you find content offensive, you can click away from the page… You can even deactivate your account (you are free to choose).
I am happily active on Facebook but on quite a few occasions I have stumbled across material that I regard as offensive… You guessed it… I clicked away while thinking “how can people believe that guff?”
Unlike ‘Faithful’, but like many other Facebook users, I am not particularly religious in my own beliefs. I do however still respect every individual’s right to believe in any religion they choose, despite personally finding many religious teachings to be offensive to humanity.
How Facebook governs itself should not be in question here, it is merely a platform for all kinds of weird & wonderful stuff from all kinds of weird & wonderful people…
By all means if you are offended by apparently anti-Muslim material, may I suggest you start a page or group etc. on Facebook to complain about the fact and to promote Muslim teachings.
No doubt that page would in turn offend another group!
To Danielle Walker, you cite very valid offences but please read what Faithful said again.
Education is the key but freedom of choice is paramount.
Seek to inform but don’t ram it down the recipients throat!
All the best, Nomad
Censorship is not the answer. Freedom is. When something offends you, the peaceful approach is simply to walk away or in the case of Facebook, don’t go to that page and view the material.
Mounting a campaign to have the page removed and for Facebook to comply with the demands of a group of offended religious followers simply amounts to no less than one more campaign by an aggressive religion to bring down anything that is not of their belief structure.
To some extremists, being offended by free speech is as effective a tool in battle as an airliner fully loaded with fuel.
Ghandi would have simply said “it will exist in a heart whether or not we see or hear it. By not exposing ourselves to it we dissolve its effectiveness with indifference.”
All the hate is coming from the Muslims. Facebook should refuse to even allow them to use their free site if the cry babies can’t handle art and freedom of expressions. Drawing a picture of allah or mohammad, big deal? You know what’s REALLY offensive? Treating women and gays like human garbage! Muslims have no right to talk about offensive anything!
Maybe Facebook should ban all homosexual’s profiles because it offends some groups. And they should ban the pages of those who practice witchcraft as it offends some. Oh, don’t forget to ban all single mothers because it is offensive to old ladies. And blacks and women…they shouldn’t even be allowed to vote! Get my sarcasm yet? People find offense at everything so live and let live! Quit being so intolerant. COME ON people, this is not the 9th century!
To Michelle…
It seems to me that just from your comment that people like you are the problem. Muslims are not cry babies… They have thier religion, and their beliefs just like everyone else. And just like anyone else they will not have their beliefs stepped on or made fun of or ridiculed by others. It is wrong adn you should expect them to be upset over something so offensive to their beliefs.
Amazing. We should not allow freedom of thought and speech to be controlled by anyone. They will live and prosper pictures or not. Oddly we don’t mind offending witches, christians, buddist, etc. They get mad but….oh yea…. they do not kill people for thoughts and speech. How can we take Muslim religious leaders serious.
OMG rick! That is so on point. But I am sure those who would find offense to your sarcastic comments did not even get to the end of your post. As one who’s beliefs and lifestyle would offend some, I still RESPECT those whose beliefs differ from mine, but respecting and following are totally different things in my (not so) humble opinion.