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Saudi Arabia Bans Facebook
gandhi_2 sends in a brief Associated Press piece on Saudi Arabia's blocking of Facebook. "An official with Saudi Arabia's communications authority says it has blocked Facebook because the popular social networking website doesn't conform with the kingdom's conservative values. ... He says Facebook's content had 'crossed a line' with the kingdom's conservative morals, but that blocking the site is a temporary measure." Some reports indicate that at least some individual Facebook pages can be reached from inside the kingdom. There hasn't been an official announcement; the source noted above requested anonymity. Earlier this year when Pakistan and Bangladesh banned Facebook, it was over particular content — cartoons of Mohammed — and the Saudi ban may prove similar once more details emerge.
... and nothing of value was lost.
(in either direction, IMO)
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
.. what websites all these backwards countries ban and block?
We get it. They're against anything that lets people speak publicly against Islam supremacy.
Yet more proof that religious folk are vulnerable to the creation of oppressive sociopolitical groups. It doesn't matter that (obviously) many folks in Saudi Arabi want to access Facebook. The powers that be say they can't, in the name of "God". Tell me how a group of atheists, or better yet, agnostics, could ever create something so ridiculous? Seriously, give me one example.
> ...last week they got elected to UN's women's rights agency.
You need to put "elected" in sneer quotes. The candidates for these positions are always determined in advance by backroom deals, with the number of candidates normally equalling the number of openings. This one was actually unusual in that there were 11 candidates for 10 positions. Of course, the organization itself only exists for propaganda purposes. It will not benefit women in any way (except for those female politicians who use it to futher their careers).
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
On the other hand, they have the right to participate in public executions with human rights violators (not of, with)
But such "entertainment" is always part of islam, of course. It's close to the only allowed form of entertainment (which is why it is the only allowed use of sports stadia, for example, according to "the muslim students" (taliban in arabic))
Blaming Islam is wrong... Blaming those corrupt individuals who exploit their interpretation as a tool of oppression is what we should focus our efforts on.
Islam was designed to be an instrument of oppression--like pretty much every religion. It's possible it can be "reformed" and its inherent purpose perverted like western religions, but Islam itself will fight this process, and fundamentalists will always have a coherent cause.
Your whole post founders on this misrepresentation. Islam was never a powerhouse of anything. Arabic people, under less repressive versions of Islam, managed to make some significant progress. but Islam itself, like almost all religions at almost all times, is a repressive force that imposes false beliefs in non-existent entities on children, who then grow up with crippled critical thinking facilities, not to mention more gullibility than they ought to carry and a good dose of fear inculcated by the religion's dogma - punishment on the one hand, rewards on the other. Islam, like Christianity and most other theistic religions, alternates between fairly benevolent social oversight, and madness like Sharia law (or worse)
Islam is the albatross around the neck of these countries, much as Christianity has been the albatross for America and England for most of their days.
Religion cannot be eradicated except by force on the one hand, as long as tolerance for bullshit exists as an idolized social component; or until the combination of crippled critical thinking facilities, gullibility, and fear can be eradicated.
It's not just that people are stupid - though many are - if that were all it was, we would already be free of the mental quagmire that is religion. Religion is a mechanism for control that has been tuned for century after century until it grips the unprepared mind with the ease of a healthy tiger taking down a diseased sheep. If credit must be given to Islam and/or Christianity for holding things together in some tough times, this is far outweighed by the incredible amount of damage they have caused, lives spent chasing mythology when further exposure of reality would have been of much greater use to the world, lives expended in various punishments for not following the dogma... crusades, fatwas, jihads, blood libel, brainwashing, theft, subjugation of women, rape, pillage, repression, "witch" burnings, financial parasitism, torture, scientific repression, murder of "heretics", censorship and blue laws, theft, sanction of excessive breeding, pogroms, inquisitions, vilification of sexuality and the outlawing of many consensual family arrangements... religion is poison at best, and at worst, it is viral, deadly, and ultimately destructive.
No, Islam is the problem for this particular region. Islam can never be given the credit for the technical achievements of any people; instead, we can credit lighter versions of it for simply not getting in the way quite as much. Dogma that insists on mythological creatures who demand worship has never been much of a positive force for anything, albeit ameliorating problems it had been complicit in causing in the first place, and creating art dedicated to the deit(y|ies).
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
It will not benefit women in any way (except for those female politicians who use it to futher their careers).
Great, lets hope the female politicians in Saudi Arabia use it to further their careers.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Tyranny of this sort should be rewarded in the manner exemplified by Hassan-i Sabbh. But the people of Saudi Arabia won't rebel against this bullshit in any meaningful way, so it's not my concern.
I write sci-fi for metalheads
Hey, if it's good enough for the Southeastern US...
Oddly enough, except for the difference in religion, they essentially hate the same things. They both hate:
1. Religious freedom
2. Freedom of speech
3. Intelligence and free thought
4. Creativity
5. "Elites" which are anyone who has half a brain in their head and uses it (as opposed to actual elites like the Saudi "royal" family which uses their inherited wealth to oppress people).
Similar to the upcoming US election results