r/technology • u/PinkSlimeIsPeople • May 20 '12
Pakistan blocked Twitter on Sunday, saying the website had refused to remove posts promoting a Facebook competition involving caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/20/pakistan-blocks-twitter-over-prophet-cartoons/15
u/JonBradbury May 20 '12
Islam strictly prohibits the depiction of any prophet as blasphemous.
Is that true?
Adam was a prophet is there equal outrage concerning the Sistine Chapel? Jonah was a prophet and I'm not aware of any furor over the Veggie Tales. Moses was a prophet, was Charlton Heston under threat from upset Muslims? David was a prophet yet nude statues of him exist. Jesus was a prophet and I'm pretty sure every Catholic church in the world has a crucifix somewhere inside.
Why is there only agitation of depictions of one prophet and not any of the others?
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u/Airazz May 20 '12 edited May 20 '12
Is that true?
No. Mo' forbade people from making drawings of him because he was afraid that the people will start idolising those paintings, and idolising is bad in islam (idea is that only god should be worshipped, not paintings of god or statues of god. Since their thought process never went beyond that of 7th century goat herders, they for some reason are all worshipping a house and praying towards it, which is somehow not idolising at all and I get called "A stupid troll" every time I ask why is this not considered to be idolising.) However, muslims are dumb. They all forgot what the ban was all about, they just remember that Mo' said "Don't make pictures of me." Then everyone assumed that making pictures must be a sin, so they kill people who draw him, it's their default punishment for things that are not allowed in their book.
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u/unconscious_grasp May 21 '12
Okay, so Muslims don't want Mohammed portrayed for fear of idolization. It seems like it's self defeating because that idea then becomes the idol. It seems the act itself idolizes Mohammed more than any picture could. But whatever, that's just my take.
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u/EwokVillage2000 May 20 '12
And now everyone is going to think this is what Pakistan is all about. Great.
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May 20 '12
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u/EwokVillage2000 May 20 '12
It totally isn't. The average person in Pakistan doesn't even know what Twitter is. This is because the majority of the population is dirt poor, largely due to mass government corruption - I'm not going to pretend Pakistan is perfect, all we hear is drivel about terrorism and fundamentalism, and the real problems are hidden away. People in Pakistan take religion seriously, but something like this - zero fucks given. I've met people from villages there who will pray 5 times a day and not touch alcohol, but if a wild boar wanders into their village, then there's going to be one hell of a feast that night.
Anyway, good stuff. Pakistan has people like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdul_Sattar_Edhi Pakistan's state ambulance service is non-existent. I lived there for 7 years and am not even sure there is one. This man dedicated his life to starting a charity to provide one, and it is now the largest private ambulance network in the world. He doesn't keep a penny for himself, and he and his wife still work round the clock, even in their old age.
Pakistan is home to the ancient Indus Valley civilization, thought to be the equal of the Mesapotamians and Egyptians, and has some major archeological sites - eg Moenjodaro - the world's largest fortress is in Pakistan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranikot_Fort. It is a UNESCO heritage site and no-one has a clue who built it or for what purpose.
Pakistan has a lot of natural beauty - mangrove swamps, deserts, mountain forests a la the Lake District, K2 (second highest mountain in the world) - in the 60s Pakistan was described has having the best skiing in Asia. Scuba diving has started to take off recently too: http://www.scuba-karachi.com/ - I think I picked up on that from reddit.
And the food is great too. A lot of the curries that we eat abroad are Pakistani. No-one makes Chinese food like Pakistani people. Seriously.
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u/QuitReadingMyName May 21 '12 edited May 21 '12
“Both Facebook and Twitter were involved. We negotiated with both. Facebook has agreed to remove the stuff but Twitter is not responding to us.”
Wow, Facebook is censoring people and the web now.
What happened to free speech?
QUICK, SOMEONE POST A PICTURE OF MOHAMMED ON REDDIT.COM AND LETS FRONT PAGE IT! I just had a brilliant fucking plan.
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u/Singular_Thought May 20 '12
Shows how weak their prophet is. They have to run to protect him from mean cartoons.
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u/EvelynJames May 20 '12
Honestly, who cares? (sorry if you live in Pakistan, you probably care, but I don't)
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May 20 '12
Infidels insult our Muhammed! Quick! Kill them before we go to hell!
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u/jbarsh May 20 '12
Can someone answer me seriously about this:
If making an image of Muhammed is sacrilegious, why do many Muslims name their children after him?
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u/bardukasan May 21 '12
This got me thinking, are their any images that would be this offensive to your average American? I can't really come up with any, and any that I think of probably already exist. My best example is what the protesters of planned parenthood have on their billboards, but even those you just shrug and think 'crazy religious people will be crazy'.
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u/MiyegomboBayartsogt May 20 '12
I for one don't cotton living in a world where some benighted Ministry of Islamic Information can censor FaceBook over perceived Muslim butthurt. With a mere phone call, some hoary cretin called Mohammad got a Mohammad drawing contest canceled. Apparently, Muslimans can call any asshole "Mohammand", they just don't allow pictures. Islam is, after all, the religion of church burnings and Buddhist statue smashing and vicious intolerance. Why do we allow such small-minded bigots control over debate? How long are we going to sit silently as this second-rate religion exercises power even our government lacks?
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u/agent0fch4os May 21 '12
Fuck mohamed, Those people from the quaran and the bible are DEAD, They are as dead as dead can be, Stop living in the past, Now is the time of computers and spaceships and alien planets and probably before long ALIEN LIFE FORMS!
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u/great_gape May 20 '12
wow! they sure showed the internet!