It "hurts our religious feelings" when people talk smack about our Prophet. Not that I knew I had religious feelings that were distinct from... well, just "feelings". Mostly, I liked how one news article spoke of the "monster" that created the Facebook page that invites the world at large to draw cartoons of the Prophet. That is what brought the Lahore High Court to tears and made them pass the order to restrict that page, then the whole of Facebook (because it is innately the work of Lucifer himself), and then of course, Youtube (possibly because too many people were checking out the new Shakira video).
To enlighten my friends that were wondering why I haven't posted seventy news articles to my Facebook wall since the morning, I shared with some a news article explaining the ban on Facebook and the lawsuit that began it all. Felipe called this news piece the most "awesomely badly written news article". (We don't have a problem coming off as idiots at all.) There's a legal premise behind all this. Under the Prevention of Electronic Crimes, 2007 - Section 29 and 30, Zuckerburg and his entire team could be fined a grand total of *drum roll* $2,300! Yes sir, that and they could be made to serve a sentence of up to two years. Territorial boundaries, you say? Pft - if Facebook is far-reaching, so are the arms of justice of Pakistan (inspired by the Bollywood "Kanoon key haath bohot lambey hotay hain, Judge Sahab" dialogue, of course).
So, all day Thursday my friends and I exchanged notes on what else has been banned by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (certain Wikipedia pages are also inaccessible) - and when our internet slowed down or just died, as it often does, we were all too quick to jump to conclusions of the PTA restricting everything. We love spreading rumors.
In the words of the cartoonist Nikahang Kowsar, "I believe we have the right to offend, but when offense is seen as an 'insult', it might be a bad time to draw an offensive cartoon." Agreed. Its a stupid idea to rile up the "religious emotions" of a certain group, but equally silly is the fact that we got so riled. Hina said "Its gone too far." She's one of my friends that said she wanted to boycott Facebook for that one day that the cartooning contest was being held. Agreeing that it was silly, she insisted that she'd rather do something about it peacefully than do nothing.
But how far is too far? Is it not "far" enough that we're wanting to block that page alone from Facebook, which translated into blocking all of Facebook and then Youtube? CNN analysts said that the reason Youtube was blocked was as a "preemptive" measure - people will make videos of the contest and of the cartoon's they've created and post them to Youtube, the Pakistani government, although not saying it out loud, was trying to preempt just that. Youtube is just one of the pages our government deems "sacrilege". Thankfully, the Wikipedia page defining the word has not blocked - yet (although numerous others have been) and I was able to look it up. It says "injurious treatment of a sacred object".
Muslims believe that faith begins from within and that though we believe in God, unseen, He is out there and watching us and protecting us and testing us. Similarly, although we haven't seen the Prophet, we believe in him and follow his teachings. What object, again, is it that these people are treating injuriously? I thought the whole concept of Islam was not to objectify that which we revere? I'm a little confused.
Personally, I'm a little relieved that I'm not compelled to update my status on Facebook in search for affirmation. So, I can be "enjoying my cup a joe" without having to tell the world about it - and it really will taste just as good. I don't know how we got so pulled into this. I was suffering withdrawal from incessantly posting news articles to my wall, but now I just spam my friends' inboxes. I know most of my friends are doing okay without Facebook - even those whose life and job depend on their Mafia Wars scores. But then we have various student bodies carrying out rallies and chanting "Death to Facebook!" I really wish we'd come up with a new slogan already.
And to think, all this of a South Park episode.
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