back to article Pakistan blocks 20,000 sites in wake of anti-Islam vid

Pakistani authorities have revealed that a whopping 20,000 web sites have been taken offline as part of a nationwide crackdown on “objectionable” content. The purge took places as part of government efforts across the Muslim world in the wake of widespread anger at “Innocence of Muslims” – a film ridiculing the Prophet …

COMMENTS

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  1. Thorne

    The catch 22 of all multinational companies. Sell your beliefs for money or hold fast and lose out to someone who will sell out

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      To normal thinking people the video is ridiculous, a Life of Brian spoof but to these uneducated masses stirred up by people with an agenda against the West it has become a matter of life and death. Most of the protesters don't even have access to the web.

      When you consider how enlightened Islam once was and then it's decent into Medievalism it just beggars belief. The extremists put their own twist and interpretation onto the Koran and call themselves Scholars, which in itself is an insult to education. Opinions are not allowed if they in anyway conflict with the extreme views.

      The banning of access is not just about religion, it is more than that, it is about control and power.

      Thankfully the West is more enlightened and we have come a long way since the Salem Witch Trials and the Inquisition and the fight against Heretics in the 12 Century.

      1. Ru
        Meh

        "Thankfully the West is more enlightened"

        Have you heard of the US educational publisher, A Beka Book? They're selling to some "schools" in the UK these days. How about Paul Broun? He's on a science and technology panel in Congress, you know.

        Just two recent examples for you. I could go on, but frankly the whole thing is depressing. Medieval religion and persecution of heretics is popular everywhere; there's no Islamist monopoly.

        1. Ru
          Facepalm

          (augh, that beforeitsnews.com site was possibly the worst place I coudl have linked. scienceblogs is less awful in almost every single way. Many apologies)

        2. Psyx
          Thumb Up

          "Have you heard of the US educational publisher..."

          Agreed. It smacks of perception bias or wilful hypocrisy to point out the failings of another religion while turning a blind eye to our own.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Thumb Up

          @ Ru

          "Medieval religion and persecution of heretics is popular everywhere"

          Too right there. Look at the spread of the Cult of Climate Change (tm) and the persecution of non-believers.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        RE:LarsG

        Islam has never been enlightened. The advances that were made in that region were all by the cultures that existed centuries before Islam. As soon as 'the prophet' started indoctrinating followers all advancement stopped and the focus moved from the search for knowledge to the absolute certainty that the holy writ is infallible and all is as it should be and shall never change as declared by God. Any evidence to the contrary can be safely ignored or the person who found the contrary evidence killed and so the problem goes away.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: RE:LarsG

          You have literally no idea what you're talking about.

      3. badmonkey
        Angel

        @LarsG

        >>> When you consider how enlightened Islam once was and then it's decent into Medievalism

        That's rather rosy tinted. Relatively enlightened, perhaps, compared to Christianity at the time, but that's not saying much.

        Islam did it's fair share of *defining* Medievalism and together with Christianity kept the world in an age far darker than the classical era civilizations they displaced.

        >>> it just beggars belief. The extremists put their own twist and interpretation onto the Koran...

        It beggars your belief because you do not understand that there is not really any such thing as a "fundamentalist" and a moderate. The fundamentalists are true believers, by definition, and the "moderates" are ignorant hypocrites who claim to be good Muslims/Christians/Greek-god-worshippers, all the while ignoring 90% of the content in the books (mostly the bits they don't like, naturally).

        The "extremists" are not putting their own twist and interpretation onto the Quaran. They are just opening it and reading it in the firm confidence that they are reading the word of the one true God, and acting accordingly.

  2. jake Silver badge

    Fucking numpties.

    You simply can't block content that is already available on TehIntraWebTubes[tm]. It's out there. It's available to anyone who is interested in finding it. This is true for all of the public TCP/IP-space, regardless of national so-called "firewalls". Anyone who suggests otherwise is sitting in a bubble that doesn't really work in the modern world.

    1. solidsoup
      Holmes

      Re: Fucking numpties.

      Yes, but they know it can't be blocked. They may be an uncivilized bunch, but they're far from stupid. This is merely Pakistani version of child protection database. A populist measure to show government does something in response to public outrage. Our 'think of the children' is their 'dignity of Muhammed must be protected at all costs' The block will be lifted in a year or so, just like the DB.

      1. Thorne

        Re: Fucking numpties.

        "but they know it can't be blocked"

        Yes it can be blocked. We'll post over Stephen Conroy to help them. He knows how

        (They can keep him afterwards)

    2. Grikath
      FAIL

      Re: Fucking numpties.

      The people that pull off this kind of censorship are actually not "fucking numpties" . Both the public puppets and their back-end are not stupid, and very much interested in keeping the status quo.

      This includes the realisation that while it is very much possible to circumvent a "national firewall", 99% of the countries' population do not have the knowledge and/or inclination to do so, and are therefore effectively hoodwinked, especially in a nation where more than half the people are only semi-literate by "western" standards.

      The 1 % that can and/or will circumvent such a "national firewall" are either already part of the elite, or can easily declared "enemies of the public/morals/state" and persecuted and tried under laws and statures that make the practices of the spanish inquisition rather mild.

    3. Sysprog Steve

      Re: Fucking numpties.

      Key in on the last two words of your post. "Modern world" carries with it implicit access to technology and non-government controlled access to the Web. For much of the world outside the Americas, Europe , Japan and Oceania, that is not the case.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really?

    I learned something new today. All this time I thought the idiot protesters in the streets burning flags and effigies were people that didn't know how to use a computer.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    if i can watch the video does that mean i live in a better country

    yes. but im not going to watch it, sounds boring.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: if i can watch the video does that mean i live in a better country

      no. It means you live in a different country. If you think it's better then you're not looking hard enough.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: if i can watch the video does that mean i live in a better country

      "yes. but im not going to watch it, sounds boring."

      Boring doesnt cover it. It's just shite.

      Bad acting

      Bad scenery

      Bad dubbing for the parts that does the actual insulting.

      But if it was dubbed into a different language they won't notice the bad dubbing in English.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Religion eh?

    You gotta laugh.

  6. Spotswood

    I watched it twice. I found the acting and the poor editing offensive.

    1. Ole Juul

      @Spotswood

      In fact that is probably the reason most people watch it - to be offended. I was actually planning to take the opposite approach from you. I'm not going to watch it . . . twice.

  7. RyokuMas
    Joke

    20,000 websites?

    Jeez, that's an awful lot of beheadings they're lining themselves up for...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To quote Bart Simpson and his blackboard....

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    "I will not laugh when they say Islam is a religion of peace"

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: To quote Bart Simpson and his blackboard....

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      "I will not point out ignorant trolls who think that a minority represent the majority."

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: To quote Bart Simpson and his blackboard....

        Hmm, 11 vs 3. Seems to be a majority in my book!!!!

  9. Whyfore

    Why would Google remove the video?

    I don't think there have been many more heavily publicised videos in the history of youtube. They must be raking in the advertising monies

    1. nichobe

      Re: Why would Google remove the video?

      Gangnam style is up there....

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

  10. Amorous Cowherder
    Facepalm

    All mindless sheep who want a riot

    Most protesting are mindless sheep who just want a riot and vent frustration. I bet if you did a quick poll of a 1,000 people protesting and asked them if they'd seen this video I bet you could fill a Vauxhall Astra with those who had!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All mindless sheep who want a riot

      and still enough space left to give the front seat to your bacon sandwich

    2. badmonkey

      Re: All mindless sheep who want a riot

      I'm sure most haven't seen it. But this isn't much different to criticizing any populist group, like the greenies against nuke-this and nuke-that who wouldn't know the first thing about nuclear physics.

      But they aren't really mindless sheep. They are true believers acting according to the precepts of their faith. If your worldview and mental disposition is sufficiently corrupted, warped, and darkened that you believe the Word of God, you would find such rioting to be perfectly understandable.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blasphemy is brilliant.

  12. Gordon Pryra
    Facepalm

    "The banning of access is not just about religion"

    "Religion is not just about religion, it is more than that, it is about control and power"

    There, fixed it.

    Much like LarsG cut through the fact the story isnt really about Muslim etc, its about time that ALL religion was either censored or forced to comply with legal standards imposed on countries they operate in.

    Check out the sexual discrimination allowed by religions in the UK.

    To my mind its a simple flouting of the legal system that "real actual people" put in place to improve their lives and to provide protection to their people.

    Allowing a select group of people claiming to have the voice of some fictional character to ignore laws and contibute to repression is pathetic.

    1. badmonkey

      Re: "The banning of access is not just about religion"

      It is about control and power, but such cynicism doesn't work universally. It's hard for educated westerners to understand that most of these people (Muslims) really do believe what they say they believe, and that it is a rather terrifying fact that their world view is what it is.

      >>> forced to comply with legal standards imposed on countries they operate in.

      That would be great in the west and hopefully we can get there, although the likes of the UK seem agonizingly stuck in a ridiculous liberal mindset that thinks that faith schools and the like are a good idea. But it's a pretty hopeless outlook for the likes of Pakistan where the men of God hold the innocents hostage and the legal framework itself is against the secular and mentally-free.

  13. Dan Paul
    Devil

    We need freedom FROM religion

    All well and good to hide your head in the sand Pakistan...doesn't mean that you will actually succeed in blocking anything from those who have knowledge and put forth enough effort.

    All religion meets the definition of "Cult" if you look hard enough. What the world really needs is freedom FROM religion, not freedom OF religion.

    Really, if the God of Abraham is the same God for both the Jews and the Muslims why can't they just get along?

    Becuase it's NEVER BEEN ABOUT BELIEF, only about who controls the people and their pursestrings.

    Same goes for Catholicism and every other variety out there. Priest, Minister, Mullah or Rabbi all the same, they just want your money, your "soul" doesn't have a value.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: We need freedom FROM religion

      Yes, we do need freedom from religion: We need to be free to believe what some random person on the Internet says we should believe.

      Very much like the French ban on the veil: You'll be free to make your own decisions about how you dress, when we make it illegal for you to dress how you are dressing at the moment.

    2. badmonkey
      Stop

      Re: We need freedom FROM religion

      Yes, but as with the commenter above you, it is not so universal and you are falling into a trap of over-simplification.

      >>> Really, if the God of Abraham is the same God for both the Jews and the Muslims why can't they just get along?

      Partly because of politics, but actually mostly because the God is not the same at all; and the books are quite contradictory, and inciting of violence against infidels and apostates in all cases. It isn't hard to understand if one understands that the true believers are simply acting according to the word of God as they understand it from their particular dogma.

      Apologists blathering about how the 3 religions are just different flavors of the same icecream and how we could all just get along in a nice gooey mix of doublethink - if only those horrible extremists (the ones who actually read the books seriously) would calm down - are, sadly, completely deluded.

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