''Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'' Facebook group incites anger and boycott in Pakistan

[~N9NE~]

Facebook was sucked into a growing row over Islam and freedom of speech yesterday after a Pakistani court ordered the site to be blocked over a page advertising a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

Creators of the “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” page, which invites users to send in caricatures, said that it was a response to Muslim bloggers who threatened people involved with the television show South Park for depicting the Prophet in a bear suit. The competition has infuriated many Muslims, especially in Pakistan, reigniting a debate sparked by cartoons of the Prophet published in Danish newspapers in 2005.

Several Islamist political parties have organised protests across Pakistan over the past two days, while a group called the Islamic Lawyers Forum filed a petition against Facebook with the Lahore High Court.

The court, describing the drawing contest as a “blasphemous competition”, responded by ordering the Government to block the site until May 31, after which it said that it would consider taking further action.

...

Muslims, who make up about 97 per cent of Pakistan’s 166 million people, consider any representation of the Prophet to be blasphemous. The publications of the Danish cartoons in 2005 stirred violent protests across the Muslim world, which claimed about 50 lives, including five in Pakistan.

Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Danish Embassy in Islamabad in which six people died in 2008, describing it as revenge for the cartoons. Pakistan also blocked the video-sharing site YouTube in 2007 for about a year because it allegedly carried un-Islamic clips.

Hamid Saeed Kazmi, the Religious Affairs Minister, “strongly condemned” the caricature competition and urged Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Prime Minister, “to take immediate action and call a Muslim conference”. Facebook said: “The matter has come to our attention and we’re looking into it.”

...

“Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” began with a Seattle-based cartoonist, Molly Norris, who posted a drawing on her website showing several objects — including a purse, a domino, a coffee cup and a spool of thread — claiming to be likenesses of the Prophet. She said that May 20 would be the first annual “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day”. She created a fictional group, Citizens Against Citizens Against Humour to sponsor the event, and dedicated the cartoon to the South Park creators. She withdrew the cartoon from her own website after protests from across the world but it had already spread across the internet, and inspired several Facebook pages.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article7130527.ece

I was at uni today with a Muslim friend and she showed me a text she got telling her to boycott Facebook.

Danish cartoons all over again. This won't end well.

 

[UberMario]

I'm not suprised by their actions, Internet-related boycotts have happened throughout the region several times already.

 

[~N9NE~]

I disagree with the action of both sides to a certain extent.

They clearly did this with the knowledge it would spark a hostile reaction. Not the greatest idea. That said, what I disagree with to a greater extent is the denial of freedom of speech.

People need to choose their battles wisely. This is going to achieve nothing apart from increased tension and unfortunately it most likely will lead to bloodshed.

I'm checking the actual group on Facebook. People are putting too much energy into this, from both sides. I think there's going to be a bigger repercussion from this than from the Danish cartoons. This seems like it's going to snowball. The bigger the contribution to the group, the bigger the action against it, leading to more contribution and so on and so on. The Danish cartoons were an isolated incident. This is more of a collaborative agenda that has roots in the US with the South Park issue.

I don't want to sound ominous but this is going to end really badly, I can feel it.

 

[~N9NE~]

UPDATE: The Facebook page was just deleted.

I hope this prevents further repercussions occurring. But I know this won't be the last of it. Problems were going to arise the second the group started building a gathering. I'm just being hopeful.

 

[Fuelbi]

Congrats Facebook


Asides from being a waste of time, you have also angered an entire nation of Muslims.

This won't end well

 

[Mic_128]

I think you mean "congrats internet trolls"

 

[SuperBowser]

Apparently youtube has been banned too...

 

[Mota]

Well it's been deleted, in it's place will sprout numerous other pages of the same nature.

The pages against "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" are left up. O_o

 

[Today]

At least they decided to delete it to stop and calm down all the ruckess.

 

[cF=)]

>--}D:&

sad mohammad smiley is sad