Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pakistan bans Facebook over 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day'


A court in Pakistan has temporarily banned Facebook after users were encouraged to enter a competition to draw caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad.


In their petition to Lahore's High Court, the Islamic Lawyers Movement said the 'blasphemous competition', scheduled for this week, would harm the religious sentiments of 45 million Pakistani Facebook users.

Supporters of Islamic political party Jamat-e-Islami carried placards during a protest against the site in Karachi, while more than 36,000 people have joined a group on Facebook itself called 'Against Everybody Draw Mohammad Day - May 20'.


On the actual ' Everybody Draw Mohammad Day' competition page, set up by Seattle-based cartoonist Molly Norris, a statement emphasises that it's not 'trying to slander the average Muslim'.

Instead, it's intended to be a 'snarky' response to Muslim bloggers who threatened South Park's creators over their depiction of the Prophet in a bear suit.

The statement continues: 'We simply want to show the extremists that threaten to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we're not afraid of them.

'They can't take away our right to freedom of speech by trying to scare us into silence.'


As well as the Prophet Mohammad, the page features caricatures of figures from religions including Hinduism and Christianity.

Five people were killed in Pakistan in 2005 when cartoons of the Prophet were published in a Danish newspaper, sparking protests across Muslim countries.

In February 2008, Pakistan ordered internet service providers to block video-sharing site YouTube for containing material considered offensive to the Islamic faith.

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