Pakistan bans facebook due to ‘Everybody Draw Mohamed’ day

Showing that we, unwashed multitudes, can influence events at the level of geopolitics, or perhaps that is what it always was, Pakistan bans Facebook to prevent people from seeing all the blasphemy. Vlad Tepes will hopefully be publishing our own video tonight at Midnight of our submission for this clearly august event.

Maybe we can get Pakistan to ban the internet altogether. Then perhaps we can get them to ban watching their own radars if we can get Moe images on those. Should make the job a lot easier for India.

From The Washington Post:

Pakistan blocks Facebook in response to ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day’ pages [UPDATED]


When is a cartoon not “just” a cartoon? Well, perhaps when an entire nation decides to ban its citizens’ access to Facebook over a page spawned by an illustration. An illustration that, in turn, was created to support an animated cartoon show.

A Pakistani court has ordered authorities to temporarily block the social-networking service over the Facebook-ignited campaign “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” according to Agence France Presse.

The campaign encouraging people to caricature Muhammad is scheduled for May 20. The primary Facebook page that arose in recent weeks to promote “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” now has more than 40,000 “fans.” The page’s status updates, however, have been a frequent stream of vitriol — a hate-laced war of words and images.

According to AFP, a group of Islamic lawyers petitioned a court Wednesday for “a blanket ban” on Facebook in Pakistan. Justice Ejaz Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court ordered the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) to block Facebook until a May 31 hearing, AFP says.

“We have already blocked the URL link and issued instruction to Internet service providers,” said PTA representative Khurram Mehran, according to al-Jazeera. But Facebook users in Pakistan told AFP they could still access the site after the ban was imposed Wednesday.

About 2,000 women protested against Facebook on Wednesday in the southern city of Karachi, as did several dozen men nearby at a separate rally, the AP reports. The women, many of them students, reportedly demanded that Facebook be banned.

The person who created the primary page, Jon Wellington, reportedly has withdrawn his support of the campaign, Last month, Wellington told Comic Riffs: “I created a Facebook event because that’s an easy way to remind myself of upcoming events. … I am not a cartoonist, and I loved [Molly Norris’s] creative approach to the whole thing — whimsical and nonjudgmental.”

Molly Norris is the Seattle cartoonist who last month created the posterlike illustration “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” to support what she termed the censorship of the creators of the Comedy Central animated show “South Park.” In April, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker said Comedy Central censored their attempts to depict Muhammad and edited a speech within the show about responding to fear and intimidation.

Comedy Central’s editing of the show followed talk of violence toward Stone and Parker on the website RevolutionMuslim.com. The website posted an image of the fatal stabbing of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, a noted critic of Islam, with a caption that asked whether Stone and Parker had forgotten what happened to Van Gogh.

News reports said the Revolution Muslim posts were by Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee — a.k.a. Zachary Adam Chesser of Virginia, a recent George Mason University student, according to a FoxNews.com report.

Some Muslims consider any depiction of Muhammad to be blasphemous.

Within days of drawing her illustration, Norris told Comic Riffs that she was distancing herself from the viral campaign that had risen around it.

This morning, Norris told Comic Riffs: “I will not be drawing Mohammed on May 20.”

Norris continued: “I joined ‘Against Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ [on Facebook] and folks from there write to me. I never even set up a place where people could send images to. Other people started Facebook pages for this day but I never did. … My cartoon was the beginning and end of expressing my personal views about Comedy Central’s South Park censorship.”

The primary “AGAINST ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ ” page on Facebook now has nearly 60,000 supporters who “like” the page.

“If I had wanted my one-off cartoon to be the basis for a worldwide movement to draw Mohammed, then at this moment I should be thrilled,” Norris tells Comic Riffs today. “But instead I am horrified! My one-off cartoon that was specifically about Comedy Central’s behaviour vs. Revolution Muslim’s threat leading to a slippery slope of censorship in America is not good for a long-term plan.

“The results have shown to be vitriolic and worse, offensive to Muslims who had nothing to do with the censorship issue I was inspired to draw about in the first place.”

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12 Replies to “Pakistan bans facebook due to ‘Everybody Draw Mohamed’ day”

  1. According to the dictionary of “Oxford University Press”- “Oxford guide to British and American culture”, Freedom of speech is :”The right to express any opinions in public.This right became part of American law under the “First Amendment”.If the opinions expressed are false or damage a person’s reputation,however that person can take legal action under US law.In Britain people are free to express most opinions,but it is against the law to express some ideas,e.g ideas that aim to cause RACIAL hatred.”

    All those who are defending the “draw muhammad day” because of freedom of speech then they must learn that freedom of speech has certain limits too. it doesnt mean that you start jumping on others necks or you start humiliating them.
    If the cartoon is just cartoon for you, then wait let me draw a very offensive and humiliating cartoon of yours,when you will be sparked with anger i will slap hard on your face and say “hey dude, donot be angry. its freedom of speech”
    Same is the case now, first Molly norris drew images for south park, when she was threatened by the Muslims which was of course natural and reasonable, followers of molly norris started a terrible contest on the name of freedom of speech. Shame on All!
    if hurting some ones sentiments is freedom of speech then m sure no one will mind if we draw same dirty, offensive images of yours.

  2. The first part of your post was interesting and reasonable. How fast it became threatening, illogical and absurd is truly amazing though. Mohamed isn’t a race. Islam, isn’t a race. I can, and will, and shortly in fact am uploading a video with a good dozen offensive images of Mohamed. You actually think you have a right to threaten, hurt or even kill me for that.
    Drawing a cartoon of a 7th century warlord doesn’t humiliate anyone, unless you CHOOSE to be humiliated for your own reasons. Its not a drawing of YOU. And yes, if you want to draw a nasty cartoon of (pick any three) Zeus, Jesus, Moses, Thor, Amon Ra, Albert Einstein, (To me is nearly is a god) Hercules, Aphrodite, Ganesh and frankluy any number of other gods throughout history and their prophets please do so and hey if they are funny or clever, I might even publish them here. But if you think that peoples right to mock violent, arbitrary, irrational religious authority means you get to hurt them go fuck yourself, I hope you end up in jail.

  3. In law if you are trying to create racial hatred then i have rights reserved to sue you!
    When you know that offensive drawings van attack on someone’s emotions then why the hell on earth you are doing so?Learn to RESPECT others, and if you cant go to hell and earn PORK!! Stick your photo on its back! we will humiliate you and pig. and it will be a freedom of speech!!

  4. Yes there are such laws. Islam however is no more a race than Hindu, Christianity or Hellenism is. Islam is nothing but a giant 1400 year hate fest against all non-Muslims. Read Quoran sometime. So before you start blowing that kind of crap at me yo better make sure it doesnt blow back on you a lot harder. If anything i say and do is ‘speech likely to cause racial hatred’ in your definition, you better read Quoran and Hadiths.

    The fact that someone doesn’t like a thing is not a reason to stunt your whole civilization. Islam forbids the drawing of any living thing. Did you know that? I absolutly promise you that if we submit to not drawing Mohamed, an arbitrary and untrue requirement of Islam by the way, then the next demand will be to not draw representational art as we already see in force in some Islamic states and in some others like Bangladesh, Islamic goon squads are out destroying sculptures of birds and so on as its against Islam. In Pakistan buses no longer play music as the taliban threatened to blow up any bus that did.

    Let me ask you a question:
    The Catholic church used to be extremely hurt and would react violently to the idea that the Earth was not the center of the solar system. Should we have ended all scientific research so as not to inflame the sensitivities of the Vatican? Methinkst you will say no, which begs the question. Which one of us is racist. Because I think you only want to not insult people that are non-white. Perhaps you think they can’t take it?

  5. I strongly condemn this rubbish event. no one is allowed to make fun of others spirtiual leaders. if i make fun of ur religious leaders? if i make offensive and humilatinsg cartoon of ur beloved ur parents ur friends? then?is it a freedom of speach?not at all. freedom of speech has its limitations.so respect others n their religion

  6. My parents and friends are real people who are not attempting to dictate the terms of your lives. But go ahead and make fun of them all you want. They clearly arent as thin skinned as Muslims are. Enjoy the new post, Everybody Draw Mohamed! Will be live in 10 minutes.

  7. hina dutt:

    yeah it is sarcastic against Islam there is no doubt about that and you should feel insulted for your religion being reticulated.

    But the question is how does Islam react to it.
    Would you kill someone that insulted your parents? Or physically stop them from insulting them? or would you say, “please stop that”

    Obviously if you answered the first one then you need to reevaluate your basic moral structure of life.

  8. hey this is haleena and i am really fed up now because i was a big user of the facebook but now just because of the wrong decision of the facebook i hate to use it because it is really redeculous to degrade the others faith…

  9. No one can degrade the faith of another. If people drawing pictures of some guy from the 7th century damages your faith, your faith was weak to begin with, which frankly is a good thing. Face book is real and current. Islam is dangerous hate filled fiction. I don’t like facebook either, but ill take it over Islam.

  10. I will put up with a lot of crap that is dished my way, but I have no patience for sheer ignorance. Religion is a personal choice, not a requirement. If you choose to follow religion, then do so, but don’t expect the broader society to compromise it’s most important value to suit your personal choice. For centuries the ignorant have insisted that mysticism deserves protection from scrutiny, forbidding any challenge to it and, for centuries men and women have challenged in defiance.

    Drawings of Muhammed are not forbidden in Islam and if you insist upon continuing this lie, then you are free to live as dishonestly as you like: that too is a choice. As for the thuggery, intimidation, threats of violence and violent acts, free people have always understood that these are classic, desperate measures chosen by the ignorant to retard the human spirit. Maintaining atrophy of the mind is not a human achievement and as a morally reprehensible act, should not be given one ounce of credence or respect.

  11. Grace, really excellent comment. I only have one thing to add. I don’t give a rats ass if it is a requirement of Islam. Islamic requirements apply to people who chose to obey them, because they are Muslim, and then, because they choose to accept that particular requirement because Islam like all other faith based systems is a sort of buffet where people pick and choose what edicts are ‘true’ or required.

    The one thing that really matters to me is, superstitious violent morons do not apply what their system requires of them, to me. So in summary, if Islam demands that all people stick their heads in a vat of rotten cheese curds, Muslims are free to do so, but they may not wash their hair in my sink, nor may they demand that I also observe.