I invite you to read this article before continuing, as that is the subject here. Also brush up on “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” if you don’t know about it.
In summary: A German woman, inspired by the slightly malicious reaction by a certain community to a couple episodes of South Park depicting the Prophet in a bear suit, decided to start an event called “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” in which she wanted the Internet to do just that. The intent was to call out that community to action when the entire Internet criticized Islam. She shortly backed away from the event (and even when she started, she used a pseudonym), but it gained a fairly large page on Facebook before they took it down due to prodding from the Pakistani government.
The linked article details how Pakistani lawyers wish to prosecute the creators of Facebook as well as the starter of the event under a line in the penal code which states “Use of derogatory remark, etc, in respect of the Holy Prophet, … shall be punished with death, or imprisonment for life.” Authorities have apparently launched a First Information Report against these four people, which essentially launches a criminal investigation.
Summary over. So let me get this straight. These lawyers, and/or whomever paid them, want to prosecute (and kill/lock up) the founders of Facebook for merely hosting the page for the event? I believe FB had no official hand in creating the page. It was taken down in any case. Isn’t there something that prevents a site hosted in one country from being held against the law in another? That’s how The Pirate Bay kept existing, right?
And on another note, I find it personally wrong that Islam is woven into the law there, but having been raised in America, I’ve been conditioned to like Freedom Of ReligionTM. It’s strange to me that anyone found to disrespect Islam - even a tourist, I’d think - is punishable under the law. It breeds a certain fanatical zealotry which leads to…
The events leading up to “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day” included more than South Park. Each time someone published a political cartoon poking fun at Islam - an action I’m certain they’ve tried on other major religions - they’d get a malicious (or worse, violent) reaction from the more vocal Islamic community berating the cartoonist for even thinking of the action. This occurred a number of times in quick succession which inspired the creation of the event.
Bleh. I’ve lost my steam, but the thoughts I wanted to communicate have been written down.
