Blasphemy vs. Social Ban - Controversy Pt. 2 - The Big Picture

After receiving his email I replied by trying to make the big picture more clearer. 

Email from me:

I agree with you 95% of what you have written about hubb-e-rusool (saw) and fighting back or reacting. What I can't seem to register in my mind is this question that "how" we have reacted is the right way or not.

Now most of the people who will listen to me may think that I am defending Facebook or anyone who has insulted. But in fact I want you to try to understand and grab the bigger picture by reading till the end.

First of all let us remind ourselves what is the issue. This is an important paragraph so please read it carefully. 

First Part: Initiation
A lady named "Molly Norris" initiated the event called "Draw Mohammad Day". She made a website and put all the details on it ... including a ridiculous so-called "disclaimer" type thing that says "The purpose of this website is not to promote or hurt the feelings of Muslims but to express that we are not afraid to depict Muhammad". This is just like saying "I don't want to insult you and your mother" and then starting to abusing your mother in front of you.

Second Part: Marketing
Once the website was done the owner of the website created a Facebook page and started inviting her friends and started marketing the event globally. On facebook around 40,000 people joined the page and around 5000 liked the page. Counter pages and events were created by Muslims which were joined by opposing 50,000 Muslims. Then as Muslims started to hear about it one facebook they started to protest by saying "Stop this page" and provided a link to the "Draw Muhammad Day" page. I too came to know about this page when one of my "Mulsim" friend shared the page saying "Stop this". So basically if you see, in the part of Marketing, a). the facebook is used as a tool because of its networking capabilities and userbase b). 50K aniti-Muslims joining the drawing contents and c). 50K Muslims throwing the issue where the wind blows.

Third Part: The Reaction
As stated above, the website of Molly Norris didn't work well, but facebook helped market the event to a world wide coverage. TV, Media, blogs and newspapers around the world are talking about it. Now we expected Facebook to remove this page promoting "hate speech", but facebook didn't remove it saying that we "support freedom of speech". While in the past facebook has deactivated and issued warranty notices WITHIN HOURS to Pakistani group owners who were doing a "peaceful" protest against the Military Dictatorship in Pakistan. And for draw Muhammad event, they say we will "think" about it, and we will remove it if it is a direct threat to someone. Now at this stage the Facebook becomes the target, and we said we can't use facebook anymore. Which is partially right because of the hypocrisy of facebook "policies". Then sudden orders from LHC asked PTA to block the Facebook because if they didn't, the people will come out of their comes and conduct yet another 10 Moharram. It was a quick and reasonable move by the Govt. to save the country from massive and violent protest against its "own people". 

People demand boycott of facebook and all the blasphemy content hosted all over the internet to be blocked. Hence our government is on the high alert to block, block, block and re block everything. I saw an unofficial list of blocked sites from PTA and it contains a number of proxy sites as well. Which has practically nothing to do with blasphemy other than people can access facebook if they want to. I wonder why proxy servers and sites are being blocked? I give you my example, just three days ago, my cousin from USA wrote something on my wall which I hadn't disclosed to everyone around me. I had to remove that post from my wall urgently as I didn't want 250 friends on facebook from different circles and importance around the world to know about that specific event that she wrote about on my wall. I HAD to use a proxy server but whatever I tried found it blocked. Now can anyone tell me that did I intend to view the content that they made? did i try to do something against the Government Policy or UNISLAMIC? I mean, my profile is still there still active as posts are automatically being made through twitter intigration. People don't know I am not there, but I don't even have the access to close or disable my account. Is this what it is all about?

Anyway, so the drama of blocking websites continues, first Facebook, then wikipedia, then youtube, then for a short time Google... some ISPs have blocked only Facebook and some have block all the sites mentioned above. Most probably the artists who drew pictures will also email it right? So are we going to block Gmail, Hotmail and yahoo as well?

Fourth Part: Loosing Track
At this stage, it is all about Facebook, blocking and boycotting. People sending emails and messages about how we can hit their "economy" by doing a massive "boycott". People forwarding sms's about taking action, not watching indian TV or movies, not using facebook, not visiting youtube. All the things mentioned in the above section is all about "blocking" and "boycotting" internet? 

Fifth Part: Outcome
The outcome of all this we are seeing is that a number of MOST popular websites are being blocked. Take facebook, as mentioned above, I know facebook isn't totally innocent, but is it REALLY the right way to protest by blocking facebook? Okay fine, it didn't remove the page? what what happened to the owner and creator of the page? Have we forgot about her - the master mind behind all this mayhem? What happened to all the artwork she made people to make? we forgot that too? Lets take the affects of facebook in the light of practicality and facts. 

Fact 1: The event got the marketing it got because of both the anti-muslims and the reaction of muslims noth contributing equally 50=50% to publicize this event. 

Fact 2: A lot of businesses are affected due to these bans both positively and negatively. ISP's report 10-15% drop in bandwidth usage (+ve). I know a person who was selling her artwork solely on facebook, by taking orders online through facebook, but now she has lost her source of income (-ve). A number of businesses who are working on Facebook applications (including my office) is suffering loss (-ve). Rozee.pk has observed 25% INCREASE in daily traffic (reported by its OWNER) (+ve for the owner) but if you think about it, people are coming there to look for JOBS! means that those 25% people are jobless (-ve or +ve you decide). People are starting to market their own duplicate websites such as paki.com which is a copy facebook by local people and utube which is also a copy by the pakistanis, and this boycot have let them market and make profit. Let me put it this way, the insult on Prophet SAW and its outcome is now being "cashed". They also claim in messages that we have given facebook a loss... but in fact, the figures suggest that FB have 300 Mil users and the ban and boycott is only in two countries, Pakistan and Saudia (I think).. which makes a total of slightly above 2.5 Million users. So facebook now has 297.5 Mil out of 300 Mil users.... WOW what a big damage we have done to FB.

Fact 3: The owner of the website is satisfied with the amount of attention she got and now the news are reporting that she has "apologized". She has her name all over the internet and news. She has achieved her only purpose which is NOT to blasphemy but to PROVOKE MUSLIMS and ignite a fire and a violent reaction in them. Muslims have once again came out as "extremists". The content and artwork is still on the internet. Our prophet SAW, is still in insulting imagery all over the internet.  A lot of people in Pakistan Muslims are jobless. Businesses are at loss. Our own economy is at stake. And it is talked about blocking and boycotting even more things. So in the foreseeable future, the whole internet is going to be blocked. When I say "whole internet" I mean all the things that are useful like emails, search engines, blogs, encyclopaedias, informatory videos, and social networking - One of the best way to represent your self globally in practically ZERO cost... we will still be having porn.. as you can see the list of blocked sites does not have a single porn site. So yes, basically, we will have internet with desimama dot com as our homepage why? because other sites have insulting content.

Final Part: My Question.

I will end this debate by asking myself and everyone around me two ROOT LEVEL questions.

1. What is the punishment for blasphemy? Death right? So is the owner of the event Molly Norris dead yet? Secondly, on the 10 Muharram event, they took out individual faces who lit the fire and prosecuted them... So is anyone who made the artwork dead or Islamically prosecuted yet?

2. Have you tried to erase or destroy any insulting imagery from the internet yourself with your own hands?

3. If the question 1 and 2 has the answer "NO" then what they hell are we "Muslims" doing?

May Allah forgive me if I have said anything wrong in ignorance, arrogance or because of my very limited knowledge. And May Allah teach us how to be smart enough. And May Allah protect the dignity and existence of the ummat of Hazrat Muhammad S.A.W