The furore over a competition encouraging users to publish caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed on facebook has caused the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to issue a block on Facebook until the 31st of May . Pakistani muslims stepped up to condemn the user-generated contest for blasphemy, as the depiction of any prophet is strictly prohibited in Islam (favorable or not).
The Facebook group “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” has generated heaps of criticism in the predominantly Muslim Islamic Republic of Pakistan – Muslims faithfuls set up online campaigns and other forms of protests to grab the attention of the authorities. The page has been censored in India as well by Facebook.
I will explain what the facebook page is about.
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day is a protest against Islamists who threaten violence against individuals that attempt to depict Muhammad. It originally began as a protest against censorship of South Park episode "201" by Comedy Central in response to death threats from radical Islamists. It started with a drawing posted on the Internet on April 20, 2010, suggesting everybody create a drawing representing Muhammad, a prophet of Islam, on May 20, 2010, as a protest against Islamist efforts to limit freedom of speech. Source - Wikipedia
Numerous controversies have sprouted up over the years over drawings of Mohammed, including a Danish cartoonist who sparked backlash in multiple Arab countries after drawing multiple cartoons of Mohammed for a book cover. The debate over whether or not images of Mohammed should be drawn have raged on for years, but when Pakistan banned Facebook due to groups which posted such pictures, the debate was reignited. One group, succeeded at attracting over 100,000 members and more than 11,000 photos of Mohammed.While Facebook obviously hopes Pakistan will restore access to the site, it’s difficult for the company to constantly monitor groups which post Mohammed cartoons. Facebook most definitely has a team to filter through any offensive photos, however images depicting Mohammed have never been on the ban list. . It will be interesting to see if Facebook decides to ban similar remaining groups and pages.
Michelle
