Did Facebook insult Islam?

Pakistani authorities have banned Facebook because of its “blasphemous content,” said the Islamabad Nation in an editorial. An American cartoonist, Molly Norris, recently launched a Facebook group designating May 20 as “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day,” encouraging users to post caricatures of the Prophet. Since such drawings are forbidden by Islam, the user group was an insult to all Muslims, all over the world. The Americans tried to defend this “Muslim-bashing” by calling it “freedom of expression.” We aren’t fooled. Thousands of Pakistanis have showed their outrage by demonstrating in the streets, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Facebook.”

Honestly, are we trying to become the laughingstock of the world? asked Ahmad Rafay Alam in the Islamabad News. Evidently this country is “entirely devoid of a sense of irony.” All those demonstrators who showed up to rail against Facebook organized their protests by using—you guessed it—Facebook. Immediately before the authorities shut down the networking site, at least one person I know “updated her Facebook profile to inform people how pleased she was that Facebook had been banned.” Now, of course, the joke is on them, and on all of us. Thanks to their misplaced rage, none of us can get on Facebook, and Pakistani authorities are now actually thinking about banning Twitter, YouTube, Wikipedia, and all manner of other possibly offensive technology.

This is just another “example of Pakistan’s tendency for knee-jerk reactions,” said the Karachi Dawn. Yes, the Draw Mohammed group was in “poor taste,” but couldn’t the authorities simply have blocked that page? Why take down the whole site? Pakistanis want to be allowed to “decide for themselves what is or is not offensive, and choose not to access material that is repugnant to their beliefs.” By overreacting, the Pakistani government has “played right into the hands of those who think nothing of displaying or publishing material that denigrates our beliefs.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“Why was such a blasphemous page even launched?” asked Muhammad Aayan in the Islamabad Daily Times. After all, publication of the abusive cartoons was a clear violation of the Facebook terms of use. Many believe at least part of the problem is that Mark Zuckerberg, the American founder of Facebook, “is a Jew.” He did nothing while some 43,000 members shared offensive pictures and even videos mocking Islam. A Muslim in charge of a social-networking site would never allow such “immoral” communities to form and would treat all religions with respect. “It’s about time that Muslim computer experts came forward” to design our own space where Muslims can interact online in accordance with Islamic law.