Thaindian News

May 20, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): Pakistan’s government commanded Internet service suppliers to obstruct Facebook on Wednesday. This governmental command was released subsequent to uncontrolled fury in Pakistan over a page on Facebook that eggs on the users to place representations of Islam’s revered Prophet Muhammad.

The page on the social networking site has procreated disparagement in Pakistan and elsewhere since Islam disallows any pictures of the Prophet. The government took the bull by the horns after a collection of Islamic attorneys attained a judicial order on Wednesday that demanded the concerned bureaucrats to obstruct Facebook until May 31.

By Wednesday evening, right of entry to the site was erratic, seemingly because Internet suppliers were executing the governmental and juridical order.

The Facebook page, which is at the heart of the intense disagreement, is ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!’ The page persuaded the Facebook addicts to place depictions of the Prophet on May 20. This was encouraged in order to express condemnation of the threats discharged by a fundamentalist Muslim outfit against the makers of ‘South Park’. Their alleged sin was that they had portrayed Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.

In the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, quite a cosmopolitan one, approximately 2,000 female students congregated to appeal that Facebook be debarred for exhibiting the offensive page. Several dozen male students organized a rally nearby. Ominously, in a reflection of unpalatable belligerence, some held placards that recommended Islamic sacred conflict against those who allegedly perpetrate blasphemy against the Prophet.

The information sector of the Facebook page, which was still reachable on Wednesday morning, uttered that Facebook was not endeavoring to defame the ordinary Muslim. Facebook explicated that it merely desired to illustrate defiance towards the Islamic fanatics, who have issued a threat to damage individuals because of their portrayals of Mohammad. Facebook expounded that it was endeavoring to demonstrate that they were not afraid of the Mohammedan fanatics. Facebook mentioned that it was trying to show the Islamic radicals that they can’t snatch the right to freedom of speech of the persons by endeavoring to frighten them into silence.