back to article 'Draw Mohammed' page removed from Facebook

The Facebook page that encouraged users to post images of Islam's Prophet Mohammed was taken down globally on Friday, following an order by a Pakistani court for ISPs in that country to block the social networking site. Facebook officials tell the Associated Press they played no role in the removal of the "Everybody Draw …

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  1. Squirrel
    Paris Hilton

    <- Muhammed

    disguised as paris hilton.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Is it a bird, is it a plane, no it's the prophet Mohamed!

    Why does Mohamed need to travel incognito? It's like some kind of David Niven film where he's trying to hide his identity.

    If people want to draw insulting images, then I understand. Like those photoshopped T-Shirts that say the Pope smokes dope. But just drawing him in any way what-so-ever is a bit like conspiring to protect the identity of the outlaw The Scarlet Pimpernel.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      AIUI it's the same in Christianity

      All those effigies of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Apostles etc are false idols People worship the image rather than the teachings. I think the Muslim rule of "No pics of old Mo', ta much" is to try and stop the same thing happening.

      Of course, you cannot (and should not) stop people drawings pictures of whatever they damn well choose.

      Nor should any such drawings result in threats.

      Finally, religion (responsible for more pain and suffering that any other human invention) is nothing more than a method of control and an attempt to curb critical thinking. There is no god. Get over it. Move on.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Up

        @AC re: AIUI...

        I would agree with the last paragraph, all except for the comment about god. You can't declare there is no god, that's impossible to know. All you can say (and be accurate) is that "I don't know if there is a god." You can say that the people who believe there is one are wrong, but that's all. Saying there isn't is just as wrong as saying there is.

        Oh, and I agree with the rest of your post - well said!

        1. Mark Adamson
          Happy

          @AC re:@AC re: AIUI...

          Hmm... I don't agree.

          I think we can probably go as far as "there is almost certainly no God".

          I don't know that there are no fairies in my garden, but I don't feel the need to buy fairy repellent spray, because, on balance, I don't think there are.

          As a result saying that there isn't a God is orders of magnitude less wrong than saying there is, but you're right, it's not strictly prudent to say "there is no God".

  3. Stuart Morrison
    Unhappy

    Sad

    Sad Mohammed smiley is sad that he will cause the Register to be removed from the Internets.

  4. n3td3v
    Thumb Up

    Person who created page deleted it

    It seems the person who created the page realised how serious it had got and that people shouldn't draw Mohammed afterall.

  5. Gumby 1
    FAIL

    its not gone its just blocked

    Still alive in Australia ( Shhhh) . Seems its only blocked in that country so tuff .

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    The knitting needle may well be mightier than the sword

    Or at least more cost efficient. The mind boggles; I wonder if the Indian intel guys at RAW are paying attention to all this. You don't need an army or nukes to destroy 'the old enemy'; if a well placed facebook page with only 100,000 members can cut the country off from the world and generate civil unrest, just imagine what utter chaos and self-immolation a properly planned 'false flag' campaign of diss Mohammed events might produce.

    A few strongly worded suggestions of support for freedom of speech at various web 2.0 sites, womens institutes and christian associations, and you can sit back and watch it all kick off. India can nod sagely and sympathise with it's neighbour as the flags of every western nation are burned on the streets of Pakistan, along with the offices of ISPs and the more traditional targets for Pakistani national outrage, such as shopping centres, buses, schools, power stations and government buildings. By the time the WI's "Knit a Prophet" week gets into full swing, the Pakistan government will be in exile, everyone will be very tired and irritable, and wishing perhaps they'd skipped out on torching the Bollywood movie rental stores, and the whole place south of the North West Frontier will be ripe for a peaceful takeover without a shot being fired across the border.

    Congress could claim the credit on behalf of Gandhian non-violence, the national defence budget could be diverted to welfare + health, thus guaranteeing the BJP become obsolete and LK Advani never gets to be PM, although there might be a brief global crisis in the supply of footballs and cricket balls.

  7. Alan W. Rateliff, II
    Paris Hilton

    Using a free site for marketing

    Everything else aside, I take great issue with companies who use free social sites for marketing purposes. Boiled down to the simplest argument, you get what you pay for, and free is not worth the paper on which it is printed.

    So when a Facefeck, MySpace, Twitter, or whatever outage seriously hurts your business... really.

    Paris, really...

  8. john fisher 1

    with freedom comes responsibility

    I enjoy a good fart joke as much as anybody and remember seeing a hilarious South Park episode several years ago where everyone ran about farting madly. However, for the most part, having watched several episodes I found South Park to be a tasteless and vulgar experience and do not watch the show.

    Concerning the latest South Park flap, it seems the writers suffer from a malady that affects more and more citizens of the “free world”. To wit: with freedom comes responsibility. A famous example often cited is that free speech does not give someone the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater when no fire exists. Or, to put it another way just because you CAN do something does not mean that you SHOULD do it.

    It is not hard to argue that the leadership of the vast majority of “organized” religions has become corrupt and morally bankrupt. It is also not hard to argue that the religious extremism practiced by all too many followers of Christ, Mohammad, et al is a vile and despicable thing.

    Therefore, it would seem a natural response to ridicule and demean the religious icons and symbols of these corrupt religions. However, there are many decent folk practicing the various faiths that would be greatly offended by depicting their most respected inspirational figures in such a disrespectful manner. And, as we have seen, it gives extremists a great excuse to either retaliate or pour flames on the fire out of hatred. How does that benefit us as a whole?

    Personally, I am offended by the depiction of the prophet (Mohammed) in a bear suit, Jesus watching porn and Buddha snorting cocaine. This does nothing to start a discussion on the real problems of blind or misguided religious belief but only stirs up the worst aspects of the human condition through insult and innuendo.

    Would I wish it censored? No. Would I wish to see the ratings plummet for several weeks after such episodes? Yes.

    1. neverSteady

      Funny but...

      They didn't censor Muhammad at all in a 2005 episode (I believe). It was the Super Friends episode or something.

      But that was before the Danish cartoonist incident.

      So why the uproar again?

    2. Tom 13

      Just for the record

      I have been to a Penn and Teller show where Penn took great pride in yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Grrr....

    I'm tired of the West bowing down to the wishes of these idiots. It's OK for them to bash Christianity, Buddism, the Holocaust, etc but if you offend them you had better watch your back! When will we grow some balls and stand up for what we believe in? Oh wait I forgot, we lost those after we stomped Hitler, now we use the appeasement philosophy, though I remember we tried that on a dictator last century and it only made the problem worse. Striving to please everyone will please noone.

    //End rant before I get fatwa issued for my head on a plate.

    1. kissingthecarpet
      FAIL

      Grow some balls

      At least use a nick, AC (note the last word of your adopted name)

    2. irish donkey
      Go

      ehhh Isn't that why were are in IRAQ

      or did you really believe we went there looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction?

      Of course YOU will be the first to grow some balls and take the fight directly to them.

      Although I do think you have a point just not one worth going to war over

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The problem with fighting wars for principles...

        .. is that those with the strong principles are invariably well to the rear of those sent to fight...

  10. Rob 5

    This story makes no sense!

    Tell the people!!!!

    Or, if I can stop channelling Mr Teenie for a moment:

    1: Court in PK orders PK ISPs to block Facebook.

    2: The "offending" page is removed worldwide.

    3: But Facebook had no part in its removal.

    4: ???

    5: Prophet?

  11. Winkypop Silver badge
    Grenade

    I'm waiting for....

    ..."everyone say Jehovah day".

    or

    ..."everyone point and laugh at Thor day".

    or

    ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      or maybe

      an "everybody claim the earth is round" day, you could get bonus points for claiming it circles the sun too.

      In the past, claiming both of these woud have resulted in you being tortured to death by the christian church.

      However, the world has progressed a tad over the last few hundred years. Threats and outrage over something so petty as this, just shows the world that Islam, as a religion, is stuck in the past. It need to either adapt to the modern world, or die out.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Headmaster

      Actually...

      ...today is Moon Day....

  12. Walking Turtle
    Joke

    So draw Walking Turtle instead.

    Show the World+Self+Dog what a John 8:32 Bizness Suit looks like.

    Depictions that include tall, budding, five- or seven-leafed Stringy Green Vegetables in the background shall be awarded Extra Points. Depictions that include the Bible in any form (paper+ink or digital samesame) must also include a comparable image of every other Holy Book of every other Genuine Truth-Respecting Discipline all the world around or be disqualified from the competition.

    Depictions that do the job right albeit sans any such images of Ancient Wisdom Tomes etc are gladly accepted so long as they remain true to the spirit of the event. (This includes Playmobil depictions.)

    Boolean Truth Tables are explicitly encouraged. Kindly post (and do not 'submit') all such depictions to http://dev/null. Walking Turtle does not do FaceBook. 0{:-)o<

  13. jake Silver badge

    Care to show me where the Koran says that?

    "The page ignited the fury of many Muslims because Islam considers depictions of the prophet to be blasphemy."

    Religion, noun;

    The art of people in power keeping the uneducated in line.

  14. IdrewMohammadToo
    Go

    The Success of May 20th

    This event was rough around the edges so to speak, but the intent behind it was sincere. Always stand up to the bullies on the playground. They need to be ‘taught’ how to behave by the rest of us.

    Sometimes you have to respond in a manner that the other side can take notice of regardless of how banal and crude other people think it may have been. They took notice that people were standing up to their tyrannical antisocial expectations put upon the rest of us by them.

    The first page received up to 100,000 supporters prior to being removed, the 2nd page was up to 14,500 supporters before it was also removed.

    The ‘protest’ was a huge success, no one had acid splashed into their faces, no one had their hands cut off with swords, and no one was bombed by a homicide bomber.

    We [atheists, Pagans, Xians, Hindus, & Buddhists] all exercised our right to freedom of expression in the face of “Hate Speech Mongers” who masquerade as a “Religion of Peace”.

    So what if it may not have been done as some would have wished it to have been. It was done. That is what was important.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    if people are going to hold ridiculous beliefs

    they should expect to be ridiculed

  16. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Code Monkey

      Where they came from

      The family of Muslims that live next door to me come from Birmingham.

      1. Lionel Baden
        Joke

        thats ok

        Throw them back there punishment enough !!

    2. The BigYin

      Send the Christians with them!

      Yeah, send them all home. We don't need their monotheistic doctrines here! We have a local religion for local people! Down with these foreign belief systems! And while we are deporting all this nasty, foreign stuff; anyone with a French suname; OUT! Back to frogland you go. Angles too. Go on, sod off. Saxons, on yer bike. Every man-jack of you invader spawn. Britain for the British! Which, given racial mixing etc., will turn out to be one bloke and his goat or something.

      The bigoted reactionaries on all sides really need to get a grip.

  17. David 45

    Crawlers

    Sounds like a bit of toadying and grovelling to the Pakistani government to me. They've won.

  18. Alpha Tony

    For what it's worth..

    ..I always find religeous extremists (of every flavour) utterly arrogant.

    They believe that someone is doing something that they perceive God/Allah won't like, so they appoint themselves as proxy to sort it out. Seems to me any surpeme being worth it's salt would be able to fight it's own battles and wouldn't need their help.

    In fact I would go so far as to say that an imperfect human assuming they completely understand the mind of a god and appointing themselves judge, jury and executioner in his name would seem significantly MORE blasphemous than drawing a picture of a prophet, But maybe that's just me.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      All religions...

      ...boil down to a few basic rules:

      1) To be Good you must do as God tells you.

      2) Don't worry if you don't know what God wants you to do - I've been specially and magically chosen by that same God to advice you of his wishes.

      3) Therefore, to be Good, you must do as *I* tell you.

      4) Beats the hell of of standing for election.

  19. VinceH
    Joke

    Oh, it was 'Draw Mohammed Day'

    I got confused, and drew 'Mu, Ham and Meds'

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Religion!

    Fuck, I hate all religions - dreamt up and run by complete bastards, believed by complete brainless tosspots, caused more wars than... etc. etc.

    Awaits flames....

    !bleh!

  21. Steven Cuthbertson
    Megaphone

    Aww, diddums is upset.. AGAIN!

    Religion needs to get a grip on reality (I know, oxymoron...) If religions kept to themselves, live and let live, and stopped trying to force their worldview on me via too many means then I would be much happier. People have a right to free speech. People do NOT have a right not to be offended. If Muslims find it offensive to draw an image of their prophet, then fine. They do NOT have the right to tell me, as a non-muslim, that I can't draw the same image. "But it upsets them" - so what? I don't have to 'respect' their religion insofar as it infringes on my rights of free expression.

    Keep your religion yours. I don't want anything to do with it!

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    When we're not free to offend....

    ...we're not free at all...

    And when it comes to religion, it's almost impossible not to offend people who spend their lives diligently determined to be offended. They demand respect but have none for others. They abandon their own critical faculties, then begrudge the rest of us ours.

    Facebook should be ashamed.

  23. frymaster

    Quite right

    while the right of people in the US to draw these pictures is protected free speech, there's nothing that says facebook has to host them

    the whole idea of "let's intentionally mock, insult and abuse an entire culture because some pretty shitty people self-label themselves as representatives of that culture day" idea never appealed to me

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    Its...

    ... back again...

  25. Keith T
    Pint

    The day occurred

    The day occurred.

    But if you forgot to draw Mohammed on that day, remember you can draw him any day.

  26. Paul Lee 1

    Not quite true

    The administrators of the Facebook page have announced that the page was removed after one of the admin's passwords was hacked and various unsavoury messages were bandied around. The page is now up again. Frankly, I am sick of the constant pandering to Islamic beliefs http://www.paullee.com/bandb/index.php#Islam

  27. 2FishInATank
    FAIL

    Errr....

    I'm sure I'll not be the first to point this out, but the group still seems to be there for me!

  28. a reader
    Thumb Up

    The page has been returned to Facebook

    From the 'Draw Mohammed' page:

    "A great big thank you to the facebook-gang for restoring the page. A great big thank you to all freedom lovers out there. Now we have new persons to handle the media and we will soon release some info about the past few days. And to all of you: One can never beat freedom of speech, opinion and idividuality, because they are all basic human rights."

    "This page was removed two days ago, after one of our moderators had his email and skype

    hacked. His personal data was revealed. He then got scared and deleted the page, the blog and the emails. The rest of us, are now back without him after he backed out. This is another scare tactic from the Islamic extremists. We won't fall.

    Pictures you were unable to post on the 20th? Check the forums for interviews."

    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Everybody-Draw-Mohammed-Day/121369914543425

  29. bothwell
    Paris Hilton

    this really can't end well

    It's obviously a major issue for Islamic countries, but the western mentality is very much "things are even *lolzier* when people get upset about them".

    These two cultural viewpoints are quite, quite incompatible with each other. Whatever are we to do?

  30. Bruce Ordway

    complete censorship of the site in Pakistan

    Wow... sure Draw Mohammed was ill advised but... complete censorship of the site in Pakistan?

    The age of the internet, new culture and controls?

  31. Muckminded
    Happy

    Fear

    Is the greatest stimulus package ever invented. With it, I can be induced to: buy things, sell things, kill things, excrete things, wet things, smell things and completely replace my own beliefs about things.

    So far, there aren't enough Allahs (1) to get me to do any of the above.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Still there

    A quick search on farcebook and the page is still there now with 110,295 followers

  33. spatulasnout
    Grenade

    Blasphemy is a victimless crime

    I think Mark Twain put it rather well:

    "Blasphemy? No, it is not blasphemy. If God is as vast as that, he is above blasphemy; if He is as little as that, He is beneath it."

    As an aside, regarding the selection of a teddy bear costume to disguise Muhammad in the South Park episode, it was pointed out to me that this was likely chosen in reference to the 2007 incident in Sudan where the British schoolteacher was arrested for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7112929.stm

    I didn't make that connection on initially viewing the South Park episode, but it seems plausible.

  34. Michael Tripper
    Boffin

    I wrote this

    My Statement as a North American on Draw Mohammed Day

    You’ll not find any quarter from me on the Islamist agenda or much even on basic Islamic doctrine. Today however on Draw Mohammed Day, we the creators, the artists, the writers and the illustrators in this society who care about free expression and liberty, today we take the cowards way out.

    If anything we should be attacking the people at Comedy Central who censored the South Park episode. We should know their names, who they are and save our artistic ire for them and them alone.

    Instead we needlessly hurt some of our friends and neighbors who are like us but have come from a muslim family background. They too care about liberty and free expression and though they may not like it and wish it did not happen, probably would prefer to ignore the South Park cartoon rather than forbid it outright or ridiculously threaten violence for it’s mere broadcast. No doubt some are even relishing the idea of drawing Mohammed, as Muslims to my knowledge are not monolithic in North America.

    Whatever their opinion on this matter, these fellow citizens are not responsible for the actions of those associated with Comedy Central and there is no reason to attack their traditions for the ill-considered actions of the cable channel.

    It is to those who were responsible for the decision to whom we must direct our energies and efforts. Anything less is simply lazy and cowardly.

    --

    I got a lot of flack for it but I pointed out everyday in the West is Draw Mohammed day and that the old South Park pic of Mo is on wikipedia which has a bigger audience than the Comedy Channel alone.

  35. Nick Gisburne
    Go

    It's back

    This from the re-activated page:

    "This page was removed two days ago, after one of our moderators had his email and skype hacked. His personal data was revealed. He then got scared and deleted the page, the blog and the emails. The rest of us, are now back without him after he backed out. This is another scare tactic from the Islamic extremists. We won't fall."

    Not then a Facebook-led reaction, but an understandably anxious page owner fearing for his own personal safety.

  36. Wombat
    Grenade

    Now that's tolerance for you ...

    ... from the religion of peace.http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/grenade_32.png

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