It is indeed undeniable that the hatred towards Muslims in this time of age is at a level never seen before. Thus it is not shocking that every day we see Muslims are being made target of massive isolation and crimes. Ranging from levels like the war against terrorism and the bombing and the killings of innocent Palestinians , Afghanis , Iraqis & Pakistanis, the toll of which has far far exceeded the number of deaths of in the 9/11 World Trade Center Bombings. This even extends to the banning on the veil in France and breaking of the pillars of mosque and quite recently the controversy of the Facebook group.
There is no doubt that such actions enrage the Muslims and we believe that it is a mockery of our belief and the holy men that we follow. There is absolutely no excuse that this should not have been done and should be condemned.
However my question or rather my problem is with the emotional response to a rather logical problem. We as Pakistanis lack the ability to think through with rationale and logic in any situation of crisis , and the same phenomena occurred after the creation of the facebook group. Lets first see the timeline of events of what happened as soon as the knowledge of the group was made public. It first started with formation of a group that facebook should ban this group and everyone was sending each other the invitation to join this group.It then translated to statuses where everyone showed their unhappiness about this group and changed their DP to have a picture of the boycotting group and date.Things were pretty much acceptable till this stage. Every Muslim has a right to freedom of speech and we have the right to protest against what we strongly feel is wrong and should not have been done.Thus our opposition to this group was justified.
However what followed next was typical “jazbati” and baseless reactions that has become the trademark of Pakistani sentiments and reactions. Very soon every cell phone in everyone’s house were ringing to the tunes of smses and immediately people made sure that they forward the sms to be a part of the group that “caused economic loss” of facebook. According to the sms “there are 2359620 users from Pakistan and per user click $2.39 are earned by facebook meaning that we give $5,631,281,29” . Now lets analyze this with a little facts. Total users on Facebook are 460,923,300 out of which Pakistan makes only 0.51 % of the total users.Infact the Top 10 Muslim countries of the world contribute a total of 12% of overall facebook users. Secondly the $2.39 is an average per user revenue, however this does not take into account the distribution of revenue per region.In order to get the correct per user revenue we need to use the gini index based on the variable factor of income per region of facebook. With simple math you can easily understand that per user a Pakistani contributes much less then $2.39 per user, and most of the revenue comes from the western countries who have a much more internet penetration. So I am sorry to disappoint you that by not visiting facebook the purpose of “economic loss” of facebook is next to nothing.
However the only economic loss that was faced was by our very own Country Pakistan , thousands of protestors made sure that city centers were closed during their show of strength meaning that business suffered in Pakistan , at the same time lawyers boycotted their day in court to protest, when as it is the backlog of cases is so much that many people are waiting impatiently for their hearing.A purpose well served ; given that most of the protestors were laborers who didn’t even know what Facebook is but held banners asking for facebook to be banned.
The whole purpose of the retaliation is so that people don’t join the group and that it gets deleted. The irony of it all is that as it is no god loving Muslim would even join this group , whereas the people who are joining these groups are not from Pakistan but rather reside in the western countries , thus banning facebook in Pakistan makes no difference on the existence of the group since the users in the west continue to join it while it remains blocked in Pakistan.Infact the group it self is not made by facebook but is made by an individual , similar to the groups that are available such as “There was no Holocaust” which would enrage Jews , however unlike us Pakistanis they did not make a racket of it and nor did they react in a way we did.
A lot of people “mullas” also argued that we should not visit facebook to show respect to the prophet, this I find is just just sad cause we as Muslims respect Prophet (PBUH), as long as we follow the sunnah and the teachings of Quran , and if this were the case then being or not being on facebook does not make us disrespect Islam, and very soon facebook and youtube will be unblocked and 99% chances is that if not this group then some new group would show up , would that mean that everytime by being on facebook we would be disrespecting Islam?.The current petition in LHC states that facebook be banned since they disrespect Islam , and if this is true could there be a justification then do open facebook again in the near future?
The latest sms also talks about “Durood – E – Paak Day” , where on this day we would say durood e pak and this sms originates from the same mullas who say that “Valentines Day” and “Parents Day’ are illogical cause they only show love for one day . May I ask then why are we having a “Durood E Paak Day” to show love for prophet(PBUH) for one day?.Should we not say the durood everytime we get a chance to?and why only on this day?
So please understand that gone are the days when “jazbaa” and “junoon” used to win wars.Now the wars are much more complex and we as Pakistanis would not win any battle if we continue our “emotional warfare” without any “logical rationing”.Nothing can justify the exhistence of the group , it is indeed a very low act of insecure people who can not stand the spread of Islam . However at the same time the insanity of us Pakistanis can not be justified either.
The following is an excerpt from a blog by “Adnan Ali” and it shows much better ways through which we could have shown our respect.
“Here is what I would do if I was so inclined to do so:
1. Instead of promoting the blasphemous content by adding the link to my status message and creating groups and pages that showcase this content, I would sit and contemplate why this is happening.
2. Have no confusion; this is another organized attack just like the original cartoons. They know how we will react to such outrageous behavior. They know that we will boil our blood in emotional outrage and then destroy our own properties, kill our own citizens and provide another body blow to our weak economy.
3. As a reply, I would create a Facebook Group or Page to praise the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, highlight his teachings, his achievements, and his famous sayings, how he taught us to treat the poor and the children and the women. How the Prophet Muhammad PBUH urged caution and care and taught rules even for war.
4. I would ask people to record 1 minute videos about why they love Prophet Muhammad PBUH and recite their favorite Hadeeth.
5. I would narrate how Islam teaches respect for all Prophets of Allah and our faith is incomplete without believing in the Prophets of Allah.
6. I would encourage western and non-muslim scholars to visit the page and add their comments about this issue.
7. I would hope and encourage all Muslims to join this page rather than having small silos of their own. In fact, unity is the only solution here.”
So please my dear Pakistanis, come out of your ignorance and start thinking.Please Please Please.
