[Reader-list] Fwd: [PR] Is FaceBook Down Tonight?

[يا سر ~ ɹısɐʎ]

it was working during the last hour on my service: wateen, but not any more
  :)


On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 5:43 PM, Claude Almansi <claude.almansi at gmail.com>wrote:

> Now also reported on
> <
> http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1260582/Pakistan-court-orders-block-of-Facebook
> >,
> via Reuters:
>
> "A Pakistani court ordered the government on Wednesday to block
> Facebook after press reports of a competition being held to draw the
> Prophet Mohammad, a lawyer said.
>
> Pakistani media recently reported that a caricature competition is
> being held on May 20 about Mohammad on Facebook.
>
> "The court has ordered the government to immediately block Facebook
> until May 31 because of this blasphemous competition," Azhar Siddique,
> a representative of the Islamic Lawyers Forum who filed a petition in
> the Lahore High Court, told Reuters.
>
> "The court has also ordered the foreign ministry to investigate why
> such a competition is being held."
>
> A spokesman for the official telecommunications watchdog, Pakistan
> Telecommunication Authority, said the government on Tuesday ordered
> Internet service providers to block websites showing these
> caricatures, but that they had not received the court orders as yet.
>
> Any representation of the Prophet Mohammad is deemed un-Islamic and
> blasphemous by Muslims.
>
> But some warned the court's response could backfire.
>
> "Blocking the entire website would anger users, especially young and
> adults, because the social networking website is so popular among them
> and they spend most of their time on it," said the CEO of Nayatel,
> Wahaj-us-Siraj.
>
> "Basically, our judges aren't technically sound. They have just
> ordered it, but it should have been done in a better way by just
> blocking a particular URL or link."
>
> "The PTA's decision (to block the URL) was rational and good, but
> let's see how they will implement the court decision."
>
> On the information page on Facebook for the contest -- which was still
> visible on Wednesday -- the organizers described it as a "snarky"
> response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" the creators of the Comedy
> Central television show "South Park" over a recent depiction of the
> Prophet in a bear suit.
>
> "We are not trying to slander the average Muslim," the Facebook page
> creators wrote. "We simply want to show the extremists that threaten
> to harm people because of their Mohammad depictions that we're not
> afraid of them. That they can't take away our right to freedom of
> speech by trying to scare us into silence."
>
> Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked
> deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed
> during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons,
> five of them in Pakistan.
>
> Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's
> embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in
> revenge for publication of caricatures."
>
> On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Awab Alvi <drawab at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\05\19\story_19-5-2010_pg13_6<http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C05%5C19%5Cstory_19-5-2010_pg13_6>
> >
> > LHC issues notice to PTA on plea to ban Facebook
> >
> > LAHORE: Justice Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday
> > issued notice to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority secretary to
> reply
> > until Wednesday (today), on a petition seeking a ban on Facebook, which
> is
> > holding a competition of caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Islamic
> > Lawyers Movement filed the petition through Chaudhry Zulfiqar advocate,
> who
> > stated that a competition was announced on Facebook on April 20 which
> would
> > continue until May 20, asking all the members of the website to create
> their
> > caricatures to participate in the competition. Zulfiqar said under the
> law
> > no practice against Islam could be allowed in the country. He told the
> court
> > that the website, having various features against the injunctions of
> Islam,
> > is banned in various countries. Zulfiqar submitted that there were 45
> > million users of Facebook in Pakistan, adding that the PTA was
> responsible
> > for its spread in Pakistan. He said the PTA has already blocked various
> > websites in the country but was reluctant to ban Facebook. He said
> students
> > and various segments of the society have already started protests in the
> > country, which could be harmful for the public property. He requested the
> > court to issue directions to PTA to put an immediate ban on the use of
> > Facebook in the Pakistan. staff report
> >
> > Awab Alvi
> >
> > Blog: http://teeth.com.pk/blog
> > Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrAwab
> >
>
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