To ban or not to ban (IV)

LAHORE: Being an intelligent Muslim, I am gravely ashamed by the actions of certain decision makers in Pakistan.

I agree that the competition being held on Facebook (not by Facebook) to draw caricatures of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is wrong, but is our response the right one? The Prophet (pbuh) looked after the woman who used to hurl garbage in his path. All I am saying is that there are better ways of tackling the issue than going for a boycott and a complete blackout of Facebook.

What we need to realise is that almost half of members of the page on which this competition was being held comprised of a group of both Muslims and non-Muslims condemning their actions. Simultaneously, various Muslim groups started pages like the 'Honour the Prophet (pbuh) Day' where they had declared May 20 as a day of respect and were supposed to post their favourite hadiths and let the world know about the greatness of our Prophet (pbuh).

I believe this is the right way to counter any attempts at attacking Islam. But with a ban on access to Facebook, Muslims from Pakistan, who were leading the ‘good’ pages are unable to gain access to them.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 21st, 2010.