Mark Zuckerbergs to Blame?

Hello readers! While Leslie continues to follow Hasma Kashgari and more recent online activities I am going to go back in time a little. I have stumbled upon a recent article that deals with an issue dating back to 2010.

            It all started over the very controversial and popular Comedy Central show, “South Park.” South Park had planned to show the Prophet Muhammad in the 201^st episode. This of course sparked remarkable amounts of controversy, including death threats to many writers and creators. This was not the first time “South Park” has used the Prophet Mohammad. In 2010 the creators decided to make a joke about censorship and black out the screen when Mohammad showed up (A picture of the blackout can be found here http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/10/SP-s10e04-censor.jpg). Even that was not the first time the Prophet Muhammad had made it into the show. In 2006 Muhammad was part of the opening to the show! That means he was in every episode! (Here is an image of that http://www.aoltv.com/2006/04/15/south-parks-been-showing-muhammad-all-season/) Lastly Muhammad was also show in an episode portrayed as one of Jesus’ super pals (and here is an image of that one http://www.aoltv.com/2006/04/09/muhammed-was-on-south-park-before/).

So Muhammad is no stranger to the creators/writers of “South Park” in fact, their plans to show him probably weren’t even a very big deal to them. So the controversy had seemed to have run its course after the Muhammad was not shown, but it hadn’t. Many people were outraged that he was not shown and said that it violated that little thing we like to call the First Amendment. So much outrage was sparked that a few people turned to Facebook to fight back. Draw Muhammad Day 2010 was created. The premise behind it that if everyone drew Muhammad, not everyone could be threatened killed, or whatever they had in mind. This leads us to what currently sparked my interest. The Pakistani government would like to hold Mark Zuckerberg accountable for images of Muhammad posted on Facebook. This means arresting Mark sending him to Pakistan and letting them try him as a criminal (Kill him most likely). Does that not sound outrageous? What do they feel that will accomplish? Zuckerberg did not participate in the day nor did he advertise, organize, or do anything really. All they can really say he did was own the website on which the day was launched. The first articles I read about this date back to 2010 when the event took place, they mostly talk about Facebook ended up banned for a month or so which makes sense to me. Although, when I saw this article http://tribune.com.pk/story/342031/blasphemy-arrest-mark-zuckerberg-fleming-rose-says-petitioner/ dated in late February of this year I had different thoughts. Muhammad Zahid Saeed apparently filed to ban Facebook and other social media websites after stumbling upon a demeaning picture of Muhammad. Apparently they are “international terrorism and evil profession” “deliberate and malicious.” Saeed does seem to have some ground in wanting to ban these websites but to arrest Mark Zuckerberg? That’s a bit far not to mention it’s unreasonable, the U.S. would never agree to it, and it seems a little desperate right? Because they can’t arrest the participants of the day (that was the idea behind it), they try and arrest the guy that sat back and let it happen. If that was really the idea behind it you’d have to arrest probably more people than actually participated. Saeed also said the images were “trying to create a war between Muslims and Non-Muslims” I haven’t really seen the pictures myself but this would put a new spin on things, but they may just be the words of an angry offended Muslim man. Whatever the case I don’t believe Mark Zuckerberg is going to end up in the hands of the Pakistani government. Do you? Does the Pakistani government? They couldn’t possible which makes me wonder why they have even tried. Maybe it’s to uphold the image that they are doing something, to keep the people on their side. Whatever it was, I do know that Facebook, social media, and modern technology are just making another impact on the Middle East and that impact is expanding, rapidly.

If you want any more info on this you can just search for it on your unblocked Google. Try Mark Zuckerberg arrest warrant Pakistan or some combination like that. I’m also very open to commentary and if you post ill get back to you ASAP. I’m available on twitter: @MSweet197

Thanks for reading.