Chowraha

I received this article recently from someone I know and really appreciate her forwarding this to me - it serves as an eye-opener in perhaps us re-evaluating our sentiments and responses. The article has been taken originally from this website . “Cartoons and Comics – A Call to Maturity and Self-Determination: Ust. Abdu Sattar Published on February 14, 2008 — 26 Comments 9 people like this post. Unlike Notes on the Cartoon Controversy A Call To Maturity and Self-Determination So it’s happened again. They decided to republish the cartoons. Perhaps it is because they want to re-emphasize their opinions on the character and personality of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). Maybe because they wish to provoke more reactionary Muslims into random acts of violence or demonstration. Maybe…just to show the world that they can, and stand proud in the gleaming light of free speech. Anyone with a sense of justice can see that the apathetic Western reaction to these cartoons – full of hate and vitriolic...

A very well-written article by George Fulton (remember from George ka Pakistan) and so glad that he spoke up about the polarizing impact of new media in Pakistan. It all boils down to not just access of the internet but the language of the internet too. English language in itself is a polarizing language in Pakistan – those taught in English schools automatically inheriting a grain of power and legitimacy in society and then them blogging, Facebooking and tweeting automatically representing the thoughts of the elite of the society. This is not to reduce the importance of new media in Pakistan but just to further reiterate what George Fulton has written and what we should be concerned about. The article originally appeared on the Express Tribune on May 26, 2010 and is called Facebook ban: the polarising press *** The Facebook ban is a fascinating story, not because of the actual news, but because of what its media coverage reveals about our increasingly fragmented society. Since the s...

A cousin's friend has written the following article on the two faces of Facebook. It is definitely interesting to see how Islamophobia is so hyped up on newspapers and every protesting action carried out by a Muslim or a sympathizer is looked down upon by many but something like the following goes unnoticed or even unquestioned. I am pasting the article which has been originally posted on several blogs. *** I had been banned from Facebook and my account had been disabled a night before Facebook was banned in Pakistan. Before all this happened, I visited the blasphemous page “Draw Muhammad Day” and the content on the page hurt me badly. Once again a certain group of westerners called it the “freedom of expression” and went on to show extremism – something they always verbally disassociate themselves from. As a response to this lunacy, I thought it best to find out how they respond to others’ right of freedom of expression – I created an Adolf Hitler page right away and it read, “To ...

The post was originally posted on CHUP - Changing Up Pakistan and written by Kalsoom. Following is the link of the original post: http://changinguppakistan.wordpress.com/2010/05/19/from-south-park-to-the-lhc-ban-how-did-we-get-here/ As I wrote here a few weeks ago, Comedy Central censored the oft-controversial South Park after the show depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit, leading a fringe Islamist group Revolution Muslim to make an alleged incitement for violence against creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone . This then led fellow cartoonist Molly Norris to create the posterlike illustration “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” to voice her support for Parker and Stone, saying in an interview, “As a cartoonist, I just felt so much passion about what had happened.. it’s a cartoonist’s job to be non-PC .” Her illustration against Revolution Muslim’s response and the subsequent censorship of South Park was meant to be a one-off protest. However, Jon Wellington was inspired to cre...

This is an email from someone I received analyzing the Facebook situation. This email was in response to an outrage by someone at the poor people of Pakistan being repressed by their government and "it covers the points that need to be considered are necessarily technical, but the crucial aspects of this issue are subtle and often ignored, so I've tried to be succinct but thorough." --- I hear you, and I think we have the same basic position, but there are technical problems with your argument that must be mentioned. First of all, the message sent to the rest of the world does not matter, and neither does what the rest of the world thinks. Understand I'm not saying this out of petulance, but to underscore the fact that democratic government is by definition very local in terms of its mores and views and therefore (other than some basic values like freedom of thought and expression), must serve only its citizens without regard to what how the rest of the world receives...

The title reminds me of Samuel Huntington's belief that the world is divided into civilizations - Islam and the rest, in short and their clash is inevitable. It is unfortunate when we fall prey to such a belief because in doing so we convince the one who is different from us in terms of religion or belief that we are worthy of fighting with, whether we are the so-called Westerners being threatened by "others" or Muslims being attached by "foreigners" or any other such division. However, what I like about the internet technology is the ability to debate and to continue the debate on literally a 24 hour. An interesting debate arose with the Pakistan banning Facebook and Draw Muhammad Day issue that has come to light recently. Here are some snippets from the debate. A comment and my reply from Project Carousel : Arzoo says: May 22, 2010 at 11:32 am (Edit) It was not only Cartoonists but this time the platform that backed them is more important it was facebook in...

My last post on this blog was called "Pakistan Bans Facebook" and I wrote this article to discuss the issue around Facebook banning and what in my opinion is problematic with Pages like these. I have also uploaded this article on Project Carousel website, which is a website maintained by the Media and Film Studies department at SOAS. I have been receiving some comments on the article via email and elsewhere and wished to share these with you below: Comment 1: Want to share a recent event which happened a few days before the 20th May, A friend of mine tried to make a group called hitler in response to the 20th may act. Guess what you are not allowed to use the names like hitler, adolph, nazi, etc. Anyhow he manages to make the group called “H|tler” and writes in a description something like “..for those people who make fun of islam in the name of freedom of speech and doesnt appreciate the genius of hitler..” And invited a few friends to join for fun. Guess what, even though...

Now that I have your attention with the title of this post, the real story behind this post is to discuss whether campaigns like “Draw Muhammad Day” are really more attempts at increasing the divides in the world or again a celebration of freedom of expression. Furthermore, the response by Pakistan and other Muslims around the world, is it a response legitimate enough or are there other ways of handling situations? Lastly, what does that say about internet technology and the world we live in. The “Draw Muhammad Day” Campaign 20th May 2010 was publicized as ‘Draw Muhammad Day’ where caricatures and cartoons of Prophet Muhammad were invited by participants. Apparently, it was a cartoonist Molly Norris whose satirical idea sprung into the “Draw Muhammad Day” campaign. After a US channel refused to play an episode of South Park that displayed Muhammad as a cartoon figure, Molly Norris drew a cartoon of Muhammad as a form of protest and even proposed the idea of May 20th as “Everybody Draw ...