For the last few hours “youtube†has been blocked in Pakistan. The order to block the website by the PTA is because someone has uploaded an objectionable video by none other than Geert Wilders (the infamous dutch politician) who has gone on another one of his anti Muslim/anti quran rants in it. Perhaps it is an excerpt from his soon to be released movie “Fitna” a documentary against Islam.
Ok so the video is pretty pathetic, but what will we achieve by blocking it? The reason given by the PTA is because this video attacks our religion. Well what about the thousands of websites showing porn in various forms and logged on by many here in Pakistan?If we are such great and pious Muslims why not censor them first? Yeh we can watch porn but not some idiot ranting against Islam, makes perfect sense!
If the government wants to do something constructive then perhaps they can have one of our Aalims make a video countering his arguments and put that up on youtube, fight the enemy with his own weapons instead of just burying our respective heads in the sand i say!!
Or we could launch an online petition against this video and the politician concerned. When our beloved Muhammad {P.B.U.H} first brought his message down from the mountain, he was lambasted as being high and nuts and various other things. Many people tried to insult Islam in front of him and the rest of mecca. Did he look the other way? Did he close his eyes? no he fought tooth and nail, why do not we do the same?(by this i mean fight with words, so put that sword back in)
Just for your information, on polls in yahoo the most searched for word in Pakistan in 2007 was “Paris Hilton†ironic is it not?
Story Credit(None other than the Teeth Maestro)
UPDATE: well as of now it seems that the video in question has been removed by the youtube and google authorities due to it violating the TOS or terms of service, now only if the PTA would get a hold of this and open youtube up again….
It is so sick, childish and narrow of these spoonheads to come up with such idiotic ideas! By banning YouTube, every visitor of YouTube in Pakistan now knows about Geert Wilders stupid video. Good work PTA! Real smart!
The above mentioned video in the post has been removed “due to terms of use violation.”
You can also confirm this via: http://www.sticklive.com or http://www.youhide.com
Thank you Google & YouTube team!
The Pakistani government is just scared that people might come to know the truth.
I really doubt the reasons given for blocking youtube are more than a cover up. Truth is, there has been an increasing degree of political activism online. Forums such as blogging and youtube fill the voids in our society where people cannot always speak up. To my mind there is more to this.
I sadly heard about this censorship in your country. Though, I must confess, that what leapt out at me from this post was the bit about P. Hilton. You have got to be KIDDING? Oh my!!! It’s bad enough that she is culturally corrupting my part of the world. My apologies on her behalf for bothering your part of the world. Why do the trivial always rise to the top?!