Slashdot Mirror
Pakistan To Scour Google, Yahoo For Blasphemy
sv_libertarian sends in this excerpt from an AP report:
"Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google, Yahoo, and Amazon, for sacrilegious content, while blocking 17 other, lesser-known sites it deems offensive to Muslims, an official said Friday. The moves follow Pakistan's temporary ban imposed on Facebook in May that drew both praise and condemnation in a country that has long struggled to figure out how strict a version of Islam it should follow. ... 'If any particular link with offensive content appears on these websites, the (link) shall be blocked immediately without disturbing the main website,' [said Pakistan Telecommunication Authority spokesman Khurram Mehran]."
The department that will handle that will one day become larger than the IRS.
So does that mean they are only block my comment from being viewed, but not all of slashdot? I'd like to see how they plan on doing that.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Imagine if these companies sought to block Pakistan or any other Islamic country. There would be uproar and claims of racism, anti-religious behaviour etc. etc. Yet when these same governments block sites for religious purposes it's considered some sort of right to choose (nevermind that it's on behalf of so many whose rights are stomped). I don't have an issue with people blocking their own access out of stupidity, but this idea that they can choose on behalf of others is a reminder of why religious rather than rational reasoning is so dangerous and has no place in politics.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
It must be sad to so terrified that your religion will collapse if you don't control what the adherents read. Any religion that can only survive by censorship is a religion deserving of nothing but absolute scorn and the sincerest wish that it end up in the trash heap of worthless ideas.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I wonder if they will ship this out to a call center in Mumbai. Now that would be funny.
"Thank you for calling the blasphemy hotline, this is Steve, how may I direct your call?"
0 <- Mohammed
-|-
/ \
Come censor slashdot!
P.S. I secretly rub bacon in all the other ingredients at Subway.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Muhammad was just another drugged out nut in the desert. God (or Allah) is just fantasy. There is no God. The entire Islamic faith is based on fantasy.
Come block Slashdot!
The right to protest the State is more sacred than the State.
When you bend over backwards to accommodate radicals. Facebook caved in so easily, now Islam wants to police the entire internet...
There's an old saying: Give them an inch and they will take a mile.
I feel sorry for non radical muslims living in Pakistan because you will soon lose access to slashdot? Why? Because of the following comment:
Mohammed was not the prophet of god, he was a homosexual violence crazed pedophile who enjoyed sneaking pork sandwiches between cock-sucking sessions.
To Pakistan, with love from yours truly and probably quite few of us here on slashdot.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
An intolerant, closed minded, excuse of a religion deserves true excommunication. Cut off all web contact with Pakistan so that no slight, accidental or deliberate, could occur.
People who insist on living in the past will be buried with it.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
To make sure Slashdot is banned from Pakistan, it isn't enough to point out that Mohammed was a pedophile, although he was. It will be necessary to also insult the terrorist loving spokesman for Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Khurram Mehran, and secretly homosexual Ministry of Information Technology Muhammad Latif Khan Khosa.
From the Koran: "The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with 'Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old"
Just because someone is going to get mad, doesn't mean I shouldn't do it. I'll exercise discretion as I please, who are you to dictate your ideas of respect to me?
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
If you're running a website, is there a way to detect visitors who are (probably) in Pakistan (like, is there a specific block of IPs that is assigned to Pakistan), to redirect them to a page explaining that you'd rather not risk getting a death sentence from Pakistan, so you are not willing to serve content in that jurisdiction?
I say everyone should just create an Internet Embargo against Pakistan if they're going to be like that. Cut em off.
If he's going to trample on other people's rights over it, you're damn right I should. This isn't about making people mad. I know some Muslims, they're decent enough, and I don't really care for offending people just for the sake of it, but this isn't about offending people. This is about people who want to control other people's inherent right to free speech , and I would rather stand up and say yes, I have free speech, and if you don't like what I, or anyone else, has to say, if you find it offensive, that's fine, you have the right to be offended, but if you want to stop anyone, go fuck a pig. Warning, link NSFP (not safe for Pakistan).
Oh, and maybe your idea that what other people think should influence what I can say is offensive to me, so you should stop.
No, it is the experience of someone who learned long, long ago not to talk all tough unless you're able and willing to back it up. Because eventually someone will call you on it.
And to not count on your big friends, because they will not always be there to protect you.
Lessons learned in high school are quite often apropos to real life, and quite often scale up to the nation state level.
0-|-=
Shhhh . . .Stick Muhammad is sleeping. Don't wake him up with your freaky religious intolerance. He'd be disappointed by your unwillingness to be happy to just conquer and tax people you don't agree with.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
So, this should be equally offensive to Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Those of y’all who consider yourselves believers in a variation of one of those themes, pay attention:
If I were to tell you a story about a talking unicorn who gave a pep talk to the reluctant hero before instructing the hero in how to wield his magic wand, you’d know instantly that I was telling you a make-believe faery tale that has no bearing on reality whatsoever.
If I were to swap out the unicorn with talking shrubbery, you’d still come to the same conclusion, but you’d think it’s a particularly weird story taking even stranger liberties with reality.
But if I were to light the shrubbery on fire, name the hero, “Moses,” and call the wand “The Staff of Aaron,” you’d know that this is the absolute truth, the Word of YHWH, to be accepted uncritically as historical fact. (Exodus chapters 3 and 4, to be specific.) Or, at the very least, it’s some sort of utterly profound morality play from which deep meaning can and should be drawn.
And you’d be a complete and total blithering fucking idiot for doing so.
Cheers,
b&
All but God can prove this sentence true.
This raises an old question.
Who is more mature;
the person who says empty words to anger another,
or the person who lets nothing but empty words anger them?
Not defending the act of insulting another for fun, just defending the right to do so. And to point out that you took the bait as the OP intended.
Here is a list of inoffensive websites. This is a comprehensive list which will encompass every single website that is not insulting to Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Shintoism, Republicans, Democrats, Randroids, Scientists, Fantasy Writers, Raisin Smugglers, Budgie Smugglers, and Serial Murderers:
http://127.0.0.1/
There. You will never be offended.
Pakistan: We are laughing at you.
--
BMO
You miss the point of this entirely. Prohibition of blasphemy is a rule you set up for the members of *your* faith only, not for others. Trying to impose your rules over people who have not signed up for your religion has to be called on.
It makes me despair that so many people here somehow find a means to feel sympathetic to these guys' opinion (either explicitly or, which is more common, by taking it from their own religious point of view). As soon as you start walking down that path, you're bound to obey every randomly idiotic law some religious nut, somewhere, at some point in time, had the good idea to utter... and at this point, you know where to stick your freedom of speech. And sadly, that holds true for *all* religions.
I sense much beer in you. Beer leads to intoxication, intoxication leads to hangover. Hangover leads to sobering.
Another giant step backwards for mankind. If these people want to be taken seriously, they need to join the 21st century. If you want to live and work alongside the rest of the world, you'll need to toughen up a bit, and not get offended every time someone draws a caricature of Muhammad, or calls him a clown.
Muslims read and recite the whole Qu'ran with great interest and study. Say what you want about Evangelicals, but at least they have the good sense to ignore the bible and sing meaningless pop songs about prosperity instead. It makes America a much nicer place to live.
- Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long