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Facebook ban: Plaintiff stays logged on 14 hours a day
Azhar Siddique is also founder of social networking website for Muslims.
Azhar Siddique is also founder of social networking website for Muslims.
LAHORE:
The lawyer who has twice moved the Lahore High Court to ban Facebook in Pakistan has 1,575 friends and spends an average of 14 hours a day on the social networking website, he told The Express Tribune.
Advocate Muhammad Azhar Siddique, on whose petition access to the website was banned in the country for two weeks last year, told The Express Tribune he stayed logged into Facebook from 8am to 10pm every day.
Asked whether he considered it hypocritical to spend so much time on Facebook when he was trying to get it banned, Siddique said that he checked the site “to make it mend its ways”. He said much of his time was spent looking at messages from people informing him of any blasphemous material on the site.
He also uses the website to share how his cases are going with his Facebook friends, including his petitions to ban the website. Siddique has posted 323 pictures on his profile, including of family, friends and news clippings of his cases published in the local press.
Siddique first moved the LHC against the website last year because of a Facebook page called ‘Draw Muhammad (pbuh) Day’ in which blasphemous caricatures were put on display. Acting on his plea, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority banned Facebook from March 19 to March 31.
After that, Siddique launched the social networking website Millatfacebook, which billed itself as a social networking website for the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims and as a rival to Facebook.
He also lodged a complaint against Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, the owners of the website, and a woman named Andy, the alleged founder of the offending Facebook page, at Lahore’s Civil Lines Police Station under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code. The police sealed the FIR after registering it.
Siddique filed another petition against Facebook earlier this month again seeking a ban on the website for again hosting a page of drawings of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). The LHC chief justice, hearing the petition, last Thursday told the federal government to think about blocking Facebook for “holding a competition of sacrilegious caricatures”. Another petition by Siddique seeking implementation of these orders is pending before the LHC.
He said as a Muslim, he was doing Islam a service by moving court against the blasphemous material on the site. He said after his petition last year, all the blasphemous material on Facebook on the Draw Muhammad Day 2010 page was removed.
“This is the right way to record a protest against the blasphemy on the Internet,” Siddique said. “There has been no violent protest in the province since I moved the court against the blasphemous caricatures on Facebook. The court proceedings have calmed the public sentiment.”
He denied moving the petitions against Facebook to gain publicity, saying he had many other cases in the courts that were covered in the press. He said the aim of launching Millatfacebook was to counter Facebook and show the Western world that Muslims were not against modern technology, just against the abuse of it. The site has 437,596 registered members.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 16th, 2011.
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Reader Comments (37)
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Why is the guy even being taken seriously when it is very apparent that his ulterior motive is to get rid of competition. And he is playing dirty to get what he wants. If he is such a great Muslim, why is his site called MillatFacebook? Didn’t anyone tell him stealing is bad and he cannot use trademarked names?
This guy needs to get a life!!!Recommend
Hahahaha. one word. hypocriteRecommend
Cant get the idea of forming a seperate Islamic Facebook when we need to communicate with world more than ever. The fact is that we have alienated ourselves with the rest of the world and are happy in our own created eutopia. Do you think, cutting off from the globe will stop them doing what they want to, instead realizing them how we feel and why, through disscussions will pave the way for mutual peace and tolerance.Recommend
guess for the guy, Facebook is another form of being rejected by chicks…Recommend
Dude coz of you our complete blackberry services are still down and its been like what 1.5 years now?Recommend
This guy is an idiot.Recommend
‘He said as a Muslim, he was doing Islam a service by moving court against the blasphemous material on the site’
sorry but you are doing disservice to Islam by doing a ridiculous act of banning a website. How many websites are you going to ban? are you in your senses? Is this how you think you are doing to save Prophet’s image? You are doing no favours to the esteemed prophet’s life by showing this religion being practiced by people who have no sense at all. Change peoples perspective by your acts…Recommend
All one can say is that this ‘lawyer’ not ‘liar’ is using Islam’s name to popularize his own rubbish web site. Its indeed shameful and thanks Express Tribune for exposing his hypocrisy.Recommend
He is just doing so, To get publicity of his own website, if Facbook stays live in pakistan, then how can his website be famous? Poor Man!!!Recommend
“The court proceedings have calmed the public sentiment.” hmm .. says a lot about the taliban styled “qazi” courts we have hereRecommend
The LHC has too much time on their hands and obviously this lawyer when hes not tryuing to ban facebook is logged in as well.Recommend
An evil genius who want to market his nefarious design to promote his business at the cost of freedom of expression and freedom of association of all pakistanis. May be to avenge the FB for its role in middle-east revolution. Dictatorial forces in Pakistan preempt such people’s interaction by banning and blocking the Face book.Recommend
like the beautifully shaped nails in the pictureRecommend
Clearly he’s a hypocrite. I’m sure he’s bluffing and as a matter of fact has absolutely no understanding of how social networks or even search engines work, hence his “moving” the courts being useless and down right ridiculous.
If he were any smarter, he’d target the core of these issues and he’ll end up with a dozen other matters he needs to address. Apne andar ki kharaabi to nazar aati nahi, doosron ko sudhaarne chale hain!Recommend
Dude coz of you our complete blackberry services are still down and its been like what 2 years now?Recommend
Simply he is trying to get his competitor out from local market, poor mentality He has nothing to do with the issue of blasphemy.Recommend
14 hours on facebook? he sounds crazier than me!Recommend
Banning facebook is not the solution. It would not stop them having another such day and there will be over 2.5 million less people to raise their voice against such a movement on FB by a ban. And it should be a personal act of faith not an imposed order.
Azhar Sahib, If you are reading it and really concerned about Islam. Go to Alexa’s chart of top 100 sites being accessed from Pakistan. There are at least 10 porn sites in that list. Massive amount of traffic is given to these sites each day, spoiling our youth and may be elders alike. If you are so very much concerned about Islam, do us a favor of signing a petition of banning those sites (obviously if you are not a regular visitors of those sites yourself.) so to save lot of wasted time and moral.Recommend
Oh please. That Millat Facebook celebrated Taseer’s death. Though Taseer or Qadri were not heroes in my eyes but celebrating one’s death on your very “Islamic” website shows what kind of mindset you belong to.Recommend
@EM:
As long as there exist judges who take a hypocritical crank so seriously, we are all in danger of being pushed from one absurdity to other.Recommend
What a doucheRecommend
Mauqa Parasti in the name of Islam? sounds very un-original!Recommend
There is a conflict of interest in this case. How can this guy fill a petition against Facebook while he is running his “Millat Facebook” (which in itself is not an original name)? It is so obvious that he is trying to get more publicity and users for his website through this lawsuit. The courts should throw this case out simply because it has no merit.Recommend
Stop calling him hypocrite, who among you is not a hypocrite? Yes, take a deep breath and let the reality hit you, everyone is a hypocrite.
Now coming to the real point, banning facebook will not offer the solution. Facebook has dual standards (yes, you cannot create a hitler or anti-holocaust page but you can create pages to insult Islam) but only way to stop it is by telling non-Muslims about the fundamental values of Islam that are compassion, justice and tolerance. I dont mean to do it by our misguided younger lot (who thinks by dancing, creating music or taking your clothes off, you can improve your identity, NO!) but by the virtues practiced and preached by the followers of Muhammad PBUH.Recommend
there is no scarcity of weirdos in Pak, .. they do provide us with much needed comic relief!:PRecommend
This guy needs a life lolRecommend
Lollllll…..Lets start a campaign to get Facebook to delete his account. :DRecommend
Instead of running around wasting energy on petitions, why not use your brain productively and make a virus to hack the offending page? If I remember correctly were it not our guys who hacked youtube for a day and made the site remove some offending material? As a result yt lost billions of dollars. Attack em where it hurts you retard. Banning the site wont help you either. How else are you gonna spend your 14 hours a day then?Recommend
MAybe he should move towards the ban of libraries, internet and life in general as its filled with such ‘Blasphemous’ stuffRecommend
Sorry to say but we (Pakistani) Muslims never think about what we are doing, a non-Muslim just creates a page and we start promoting it by making Groups & Causes.
Results: We all are reading those disgraceful titles of Groups and Causes which keeps on appearing at our Home page.Recommend
“…he stayed logged into Facebook from 8am to 10pm every day….. Siddique said that he checked the site “to make it mend its ways”.”
rrright!! This guy sounds like he’s got one serious stalking problemRecommend
Did NOT expect this from Tribune, atleast you guys should RESEARCH. I am disappointed to see such low-class journalism this from tribune. 2 things for a starter:
Mr. siddique is NOT the founder of MFB. Mr. Omer Zaheer Meer is, who before launching contacted FB offices and launched a campaign to motivate FB to follow it’s own guidelines and remove the offensive materials. However FB even declined to talk to them anymore. Later on after some protests, Mr. Siddique was one of the many people who SUPPORTED the launch of MFB but he is in NO WAY even member of the founding team let alone a founder. When the issue gained international importance, FB told BBC and Fox News that they FORMALLY supported the ridicule of Prophet Muhammad PBUH (Nauzbillah) and than MFB was certainly the way forward.
MFB is the Largest Muslim Social Network even before it’s first Birthday with OVER 500,000 Members now well above the claimed 437,000.
I hope you will rectify this and for details you can contact MFB team at mfb@gitv.pk to atleast get your facts verified.
Best WishesRecommend
he a hypocritcRecommend
there are many trolls on facebook who advocate banning it, yet see no hypocrisy in using it. in fact there are many numbnuts who “supported” the facebook ban last year but were using VPNs to access it anyway. most pakistanis have lost the ability to think at all.Recommend
I hear that Muhammad Azhar Siddique is currently working on a class action lawsuit in which he plans to file a petition against all the women who have rejected his “fraandship” requests on facebook.Recommend
to all modern mindsets here at tribune, please wake up. can’t you see, in name of “freedom of expression” face book is biggest biased medium. i m glad, i never even bothered to create account there. plus i am not sure, i m hypocrite or not. but i happily tell ppl to stop using face book via proving them, one can live without it.
one more humble request, the time average on face book ( average / day), invest quarter of that time and read history, things will be more clear. sorry if it hurts. i believe, truth should be told.Recommend
@lala, its a matter of choice. the government or courts should not be in the business of deciding whether or not to ban facebook, nor should they ban whatever rubbish you spend your time doing.Recommend