The
page on the social networking site has generated criticism in Pakistan
and elsewhere because Islam prohibits any images of the prophet. The
government took action after a group of Islamic lawyers won a court
order Wednesday requiring officials to block Facebook until May 31.
By Wednesday evening,
access to the site was sporadic, apparently because Internet providers
were implementing the order.
The Facebook page at the center of the dispute —
"Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" — encourages users to post images of the
prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group
against the creators of "South Park" for depicting Muhammad in a bear
suit during an episode earlier this year.
In the southern city of Karachi, about 2,000 female
students rallied demanding that Facebook be banned for tolerating the
page. Several dozen male students held a rally nearby, with some holding
signs urging Islamic holy war against those who blaspheme the prophet.
 |
Shakil Adil / AP
Pakistani women affiliated with a religious party rally
against Facebook page "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" in Karachi,
Pakistan on Wednesday, May 19, 2010.
|
A series
of cartoons of the prophet published in a Danish newspaper in 2005
sparked violent protests by Muslims around the world, including
Pakistan, and death threats against the cartoonists.
In an attempt to respond
to public anger over the Facebook controversy, the Pakistani government
ordered Internet service providers in the country to block the page
Tuesday, said Khurram Ali, a spokesman for the Pakistan
Telecommunications Authority.
But the Islamic Lawyers' Forum asked the Lahore High
Court on Wednesday to order the government to fully block Facebook
because it allowed the page to be posted in the first place, said the
deputy attorney general of Punjab province, Naveed Inayat Malik.
The court complied with
the request and ordered the government to block the site until the end
of May, Malik said.
Lawyers
outside the courtroom hailed the ruling, chanting "Down with Facebook."
Later in the day,
the telecommunications authority ordered all Internet service providers
to block Facebook, it said in a statement.
Facebook said Wednesday it is investigating the
block.
"While the
content does not violate our terms, we do understand it may not be legal
in some countries," the company said in a statement. "In cases like
this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being
shown in specific countries."
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It remains to be seen how
successful the move will be at keeping people in Pakistan from
accessing the site. Some countries, such as China, permanently ban
Facebook. But citizens often have little trouble working their way
around the ban using proxy servers and other means.
Pakistan's minister of
religious affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, said the ban was only a temporary
solution and suggested the government organize a conference of Muslim
countries to figure out ways to prevent the publication of images of the
prophet.