The other side of blocking Facebook in Pakistan

It's been around a week since Facebook is blocked by official orders in Pakistan.

Here are few of my personal observations and ideas regarding this important decision that created a sort of change in our life-styles.

What is Facebook? Of course, a social networking site.

There are so many other websites, some ever better, less fussy, and even older and more mature than Facebook, but it is considered one of the top sites among other social networking site. Almost everyone has a profile there. Every Local TV channels, brands, local/international celebrities, hobbyists, etc. have their fan pages there. It's an age of Technology, and it's practically impossible to meet and interact with so many friends and acquaintances all the time, so we need a platform to enjoy our social lives in this virtual world.

Making a Fan-page or Group on Facebook is easy. You just need to come up with some topic, and create a group, and then you can invite you friends and that's how the members in a group grow. For that reason, so many pages/groups are created just to be different and then to attract more fans. Then, there's a feature of "Report" with every group, that if some content is against Facebook's policies, people can report it to Facebook management and then they can review it and take action, if applicable. According to their rules, hateful contents, violence, racism, anti-religion, nudity, etc, [All the basic "Morality" topics] are not allowed.

Someone there created a page that started this issue.

A lady came up with an idea that the members should be asked to draw/illustrate the Holy Prophet of Muslims and post them on 20th May, 2010. That page was titled something like "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day". People with like minds started joining it and the members grew.

In Muslim's religious teachings, it's forbidden to draw and depict the faces of Prophets, out of respect and to differentiate from Idolatry. Muslims certainly do not appreciate things like these, especially when their most beloved religious personality is not respected the way he deserved. Creation and mention of this Facebook page created a reaction against it.

First it was a privately created group, and some people joined it. Some Muslim came to know about it and they, for spreading awareness, or for condemning it, joined or shared its link to their other fellows. And then this network started growing. Muslims started sharing this group, and then this personal group, that could have been ignored earlier became to obvious to ignore. That private underground activity took the form of a serious Global Event. Then, others created groups against that page, and then Facebook feed was filled with so many condemning groups. Then many people reported that group but Facebook admin didn't delete it promptly. Many people didn't consider that it's a commercial age and others only go for things someone advertises. There are thousands of Anti-religion sites over the internet, but does anyone protest against them? No, because no one bothers to go there and share its link to anyone. If everyone has adapted this behavior in the start, that reaction could have been minimized. 

Then a point comes that why should Muslims allow anyone to humiliate their personalities like this? Why should they ignore the activities against their religion? But, on the other hand, why should Muslims give much importance to someone who's not ready to accept them? If someone hates your ideas, let them stay in that hatred, while you gather the facts and choose some constructive way to give your peaceful message. If someone doesn't know about your Prophet, and believes only few misconceptions, then you can also invite them and introduce them to that Personality. The respect and position of your Ideal Personalities cannot be tarnished by creation of any Facebook groups. You simple cannot make everyone around to respect and believe what you do. Some people do make fun of you, just like you make fun of others.

In a situation like this when the offensive content is hidden, and you need to search for it specially to view it, otherwise, it doesn't hurt, why take the pain and look for things all over the internet to see if there's something that we don't like? And then, cutting the entire country from using internet isn't a solution. Personally, I do not accept the decision of blocking this entire website along with around 800 other websites, because that is such a weak and impractical solution in the long run. I'll write about this, and some more possible solutions in my next blog.

---