by 
I had often wondered why do I get a joke or an informative text forward spread as two texts whereas it could easily be fit in one single text but has always been clueless that is it the forwarder who wanted it this way so that the cellular company can comfortably charge the sender for two texts instead of one? In a very recent event, I received a forwarded text from a friend of mine, who is educated enough to hold a Master Degree from University of Karachi in Food and Sciences. The text was a suggestive propagation on banning of use of Israeli products as for the very recent attacks by Israel on the Turkish Vessel Flotilla carrying three Pakistani passengers as well.
In return to this text, I replied pryingly, to suggest me of any product available that is Israeli in the market of Pakistan who has no diplomatic connections or even fails to recognize Israel as a country and I am all ready to practice a self-ban however in return I also suggested that since it is another common propaganda, God may only know whether right or wrong, that the very popular social networking website Facebook, is owned by Israel based entrepreneurs, with headquarters in the USA, he go and deactivate his profile for good, and asked him would he be able to do it or refrain from this act? In response, he messaged me what I consider a rather harsh statement, that it seemed to him that I am an Israeli supporter, this response of his, however, informed me that education is not through books but it needs mental grooming as well which in my opinion is lacked by many young Pakistanis. However I deleted his contact details and stopped exchanging texts with this lad, I became more inquisitive that what is the reason behind that our nation is so many ears to propaganda without thought.
In a nation without bars, and where entertainment options such as music concerts are rare, Face book serves as a precious tool for the elite to organize discreet private events with music, drugs and alcohol. It has also helped mobilize social movements, including the lawyers’ march in 2009. As the rest of Muslim world remains largely indifferent, tens of thousands of anti-Face book Pakistanis protested in urban centers by burning American flags. A poll conducted by an IT portal called Pro Pakistani showed 73 percent out of about 8,000 voters favor a permanent ban on Face book resulting in a Pakistani court banning Face book. The ban was in response to a Face book page called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” Sketches of Prophet Muhammad are considered an act of blasphemy by Muslims and this Face book page had already incurred criticism from several Muslims. At a point where Pakistan’s Law Minister Babar Awan said that “this issue will be raised on all international forums.” The fallout had already begun in Pakistan, where in the port city of Karachi protestors were already taken to streets protesting the Face book page.
But recently, a Pakistani court ordered authorities to restore access to social networking site Face book after company officials reportedly apologized for a page deemed offensive to Muslims and removed its contents. Justice Ejaz Ahmed Chaudhry of the Lahore High Court reversed the 19 May order to the Pakistani authorities to block the site. “Restore Face book. We don’t want to block access to information,” Justice Chaudhry told the court. He also requested the government to develop a system to find out how countries like Saudi Arabia were blocking access to “blasphemous” content on the internet. According to Bloomberg / Business Week , the ban was lifted after the court was told the company had exchanges with Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Chaudhry Zulfiqar, the lawyer who asked the court to block the popular social networking site on May 19, told a Bloomberg reporter by telephone:
“The counsel for the state provided documents showing correspondence between the Face book management and Richard Holbrooke. According to those documents, Face book assured the court no blasphemous material will be available to users in Pakistan.”
Following Pakistan, Bangladesh also decided to block Face book but said it would restore access to the site if the offensive material was removed.
But, coming back to my question how did it get to this? I acknowledged that there has been a widespread SMS campaign perpetuating a false narrative that Pakistan’s ban has brought a behemoth anti-Muslim company to its knees. One SMS attributes the recent fall in the Euro to the ban. Here’s another SMS I received:
“THE BOYCOTT MADE BY MUSLIMS AGAINST FACEBOOK SINCE LAST 2 DAYSCHARGE DEM A LOSS OF 2 BILLION EUROS…AND IF IT’S CONTINUED AFTER 7 DAYS IT WOULD REACH AROUND 40 BILLION EURO…. PLZ SPREAD AS MUCH AS U CAN.”
Facts suggest otherwise. Face book is not a publicly traded company; therefore, its earnings are not published. Still, some venture capitalists have valued Face book at about $8 billion. Its annual revenue is estimated between US$500/- to US$800/- million. In addition to the SMS campaign, this week, two new Muslim-friendly alternatives to Face book have been launched.
One of them, www.millatfacebook.com , was inaugurated by the bar association of the same Lahore court that banned Face book. Millat means “Nation” in Urdu. The site wooed more than 20,000 users with its slogan: “A site for Muslims by Muslims where sweet people of other religions are also welcome!!” Members are asked to specify if they drink alcohol. The founders are enraged at Face book for curtailing Nazi-related hate speech while refusing to curb the Muhammad cartoons. Their website says “Let’s prove to the world that if we can generate revenue for Facebook.com then we can also run our own website. Prove to the world that we are independent Muslims…”
Similarly was the case for Turkish-flagged ship Mavi Marmara. I received so many SMS’s in lieu to it. One of them already discussed above and the other one the funniest one indeed was,
“HAVE WE ALL REALISED HOW MUCH BUSINESS PAKISTAN TRADES WITH ISRAEL?PAKISTAN IMPORTS GOODS FOR US$ 1 TRILLION FROM TEL AVIV ANNUALLY LET US ALL AS PAKISTANIS UNITE AND BAN ISRAELI GOODS ONCE AND FOR ALL SO THAT THESE BLOODY BASTARDS COME TO TERMS WITH INTERNATIONAL LAWS AND RESPECT THE PALESTINIAN SOVEREIGNTY AND PAKISTAN’S INDEPENDENCE”
Israeli commandos boarded a flotilla carrying aid and activists to the blockaded Gaza Strip early Monday, with more than 20 activists were killed aboard one vessel during the Israel Military shooting without warning. The incident triggered strong condemnation from Israel’s friends and foes alike, and plunged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into his worst diplomatic crisis since taking power early last year. Israel defended its actions, saying armed activists attacked Israeli soldiers as they were being lowered onto the deck by helicopter. The Israeli army said early Monday that one soldier’s weapon was taken and turned against Israeli forces. It said that in addition to the fatalities, at least twenty activists had been dead. An Israeli military spokesman said later in the day that some activists appeared to be armed with guns, and fired at the Israeli soldiers, though it wasn’t clear who fired first. Now the question is the vessel had women and children aboard it as well as the captain had his wife and a six month old baby aboard as well and people on board were deprived of basic rights as of going to the toilet and access to drinking water, how can such vessel be carrying weapons in normal circumstances?
Sources at the Turkish ambassador in Israel have already been recalled and some in Turkey are urging the government to completely cut off diplomatic relations with Israel. Turkey’s energy minister said that Turkey has suspended all energy and water projects with Israel. Israel has launched its own military inquiry into the events of May 31, but many even in Israel say the military cannot effectively investigate itself to avoid a U.N. Probe. The Geneva-based Human Rights Council on Wednesday announced it will set up its own “fact-finding” panel to look into Monday’s attack. The same group commissioned jurist Richard Goldstone’s 2009 report on fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Israel refused to cooperate with Goldstone, saying the Human Rights Council is an anti-Israel body, and it rejects the report’s conclusions, despite all of the foreigners including the three Pakistani nationals who were on the ship except for a few who remain in Israeli hospitals has been released. Israeli officials said all humanitarian aid on the ship may enter Gaza, but Israel will not allow cement or other building materials in.
Have we as a nation realized that Both Israel and Pakistan are former British colonies that were established as states shortly after World War Two. Some Israeli leaders believe that should diplomatic relations with Pakistan be established then Pakistan could serve as a bridge between Israel and the Muslim world. Although the governments of Israel and Pakistan do not officially have relations with each other. Pakistan forbids its citizens from going to Israel by putting the message ‘This passport is valid for all countries of the World except Israel’ on Pakistani passports. Pakistan, along with leading OIC or the Organization of Islamic Countries, has agreed on the fact that, Israel should not be recognized as it is on occupied territory of Palestine. Thus, they recognize Palestine as a sovereign state under occupation. Therefore, for Pakistan, as for other leading Muslim nations, it is impossible to recognize Israel. Because there is an absence of ties, there are no economic relations between the two states and Pakistan has a complete ban on Israel, ranging from travel, trade direct and indirect and other sectors of bilateral relations so how come the question of importing goods of US$ 1 trillion from Israel arises especially when the total import per annum for Pakistan is US$ 28.31 billion F.O.B? 
If such SMS propaganda continues and we Pakistanis without even thinking for a second as a nation combine and unite as one, I am not very sure whether we will be creating big economic loss for Face Book and or Israel, but definitely the cellular companies most of which are foreign entities in Pakistan are going to benefit most with such half truths party line SMS’s propagating over and around our cell phones.
nicly written…
At least you arose a question to which we should think about. On the other hand in Pakistan masses use this communication channel and the awarness can be easily spread through it and now it’s up to us how we use this medium for our own good. Spreading any news or alerts without any confirmation should be avoided.
I want to add something more related to the same sms world that we send txts regarding Quran, A-hadis and sayings of some Ullama’s without any authentication which should be avoided.
🙂
Dear Sara,
First of all please accept my heartfelt thanks for the appreciation, well I agree with you totally because I strongly believe to never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind, to train it to the use of its own powers, rather than fill it with the accumulation of others. as Confucius said “He who learns but does not think, is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.”
Would you agree with that there is no wisdom without knowledge and half knowledge is fatal? Same is what we are doing? I am planning to do another blog in the issue you raised, definitely soon inshallah, on spreading texts regarding A-Hadiths and Quranic ayahs and Informations… Thanks for highlighting the issue.
Thanking you once again,
Warmest regards,
Mani
I was interested to read your comment, Sara and your response, Mani about the sending of Quranic texts by SMS, and it made me think. I know that, like other religions, Islam holds the Holy Scriptures in high regard. Indeed, I believe that disposal of religious Islamic manuscripts must be done either by respectfully burying the literature somewhere where people don’t walk of by respectfully placing it into a flowing river. However, concerning the electronic storage and transmission of Quranic writings, do you know if there are there any rules or prohibitions regarding the sending or deleting of Quranic texts and if so, what they are? Can, for example, Quranic texts be deleted from a computer or phone in the usual way or is there some ruling which says what to do and how it should be done?
Dear Usman, WAS WR WB,
I hope all is well there by the grace of Allah swt. AlHamdulillah, we are doing good too.
I agree with your fiance’ that the authentication especially of Qur’an and Hadith will definitely increase the confidence of reader, and satisfactionof writer.
Regarding the disposal of religious texts in general and the Qur’anic text in particular, there is no problem in using any method to delete it electronically from a computer, phone or any other gadget. You may also shred non-electronic texts.
Salam to all.
Khalid Siddiqi
(Dear Dr. Holt I asked my Uncle (Papa’s brother cousin in New York) who is a Mufti (A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law (Sharia) In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population.) and the above is what he responded to your query…
FACTS put RIGHT!
and LOGIC put to USE!
i have nothing to say here, as you have already said all.
Nice Article!
Talha boy, thanks for reading the article, and agreeing with the fact that wisdom without knowledge is no knowledge and wisdom with half knowledge is FATAL……
Thanks Mani for a very interesting, informative and thought provoking article.
Propaganda is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as “the systematic dissemination of doctrine, rumour or selected information to propagate or promote a particular doctrine, view, practice etc”. In reality, it is often the presentation of deliberately biased or falsified information in a way that influences the attitude of people to match that of the propagandist, usually by eliciting an emotional rather than a rational or intellectual response to the information being presented.
So is propaganda a good or a bad thing? Well, some may argue that propaganda is a good thing. It is a powerful weapon that has been and is still used successfully to rally people to fight and defeat a common enemy. In conflict, propaganda is often used to dehumanise people and to create hatred towards the enemy by encouraging the building of a false image of them in the mind. This may be done by using derogatory language or the use of offensive stereotypes, by making the enemy appear sub-human. Sometimes the enemy is made to appear a bigger threat than they really are. Indeed, how often has winning the propaganda battle resulted in the defeat of an enemy and the winning of the conflict?
However it can be argued that propaganda is a bad thing, particularly if during a conflict, the false information about one or both sides causes such hatred between them that they are driven further apart, making any compromise or the possibility of a peaceful resolution to the conflict almost impossible. And what if the misinformation about the people at whom the propaganda was aimed, results in them being unfairly but permanently stigmatised long after the conflict has passed?
There is a certain secure feeling that comes from being with the in-crowd making it easy to be swept along on a tide of propaganda. But do any of us really want our views or the views of our family or friends to be founded on “rumour”, our practices to be based on “selected information” and our attitudes to be a result of emotion rather than rational and intellectual thought? Do we deliberately want to spread disinformation amongst our families and friends? I suspect not, and although the propagandists may question our loyalty, we owe it to ourselves not to be manipulated by false information but to search for the truths and discover the facts on which we can base our views.
Besides, let’s consider what may happen to us when we are the ones being isolated or stigmatised as a result of someone else’s manipulative and unfair propaganda.
What else could I say, whatever I missed you added here Doc, thanks for completing the article with your thoughtful comment… Just couldn’t agree more to it!!!
Hi TomBou,
I quite like the insight you have put into forward texting. Same goes for those emails that are forwarded around, I once received en email which warned people from eating sushis because their “skin” is made up of some raw fish (The email had a “Muslim” girl puking out an alive fish because being Muslim she was eating a raw fish). I reckon that person confused “Sashimi” with a “skin” of a sushi because the sushi skin is actually “sea weed” which is quite nutritious. Although I have no problems with Sashimi either.
So the bottom line is, we love to believe in conspiracy theories a bit too much. Maybe we should start giving things a reality check.
I am still waiting for your article on Ahmedis and the massacre. And, please do one on how the Pakistan film industry could be taken out of its dark ages as well.
Fahad
Dear Fahad,
thanks for your comment, well the best was “Muslim girl puking out an alive fish because being Muslim she was eating a raw fish” merci ignorance!!!
Well I am not sure about Ahmedis issue, as for to write a blog I consider one should have sound knowledge on the issue and what would you accept from a person who just found about Ahmedis three or four years back?
Well keep hitting my blog and you will surely read soon the article on Pakistani Film industry 🙂 God Bless and cheers
Usman well done I can’t agree less. Though the fact still remains banning anything or making ppl not to do certain things without given a personal choice is not really a great idea. Though Pakistani court has taken the ban off from facebook however the said content which created a big issue in the land of the pure still is very much visible to the users of the rest of the world. I for one have deactivated my Facebook page. Not because I am anti Israel but because I don’t think I need to be on any social networking site to keep in touch with my loved ones.
Again great work!!!!
Dear Samreena, thanks for commenting, I agree with you, I quit accessing and deactivated my facebook account just for one reason, it is a useless waste of time, many people on my facebook account are those I have not met and may not be meeting them even, same is the case with some celebrities, well what difference would it make whether they are there or not… If I am friends with Tom Cruise on facebook and if ever I am going to meet him will I be saying, hey due u r on my facebook yo…??? Never, so, in short the excuse people say that contacts are made on facebook I am sorry it is as stupid an excuse as the debate whether egg came first or the chicken… The truth as per my incite the contacts are only added and time wasted on facebook, the people who care and love me like you and others are constantly in touch with each other.
I dont agree Sameera and Tumbou, I at times find texting a bit too intrusive. So for me social networking is a bit like keeping in touch but perhaps in a more passive way. Its like “I care for you but I also understand that you might be busy but how are you anyway reply whenever you are free to do so” haha maybe its just me
Haha thats Samreena not Sameera Fahad, I can see the magic of Sameera Reddy on u already lol… Well I respect your opinion and well that can be your perspective, very well, but for me I still stick on with my opinion 🙂
damn thought it was really her!
Samreena please accept my apologies for misspelling your name.
I found this informative and want to share with such a knowledgeable people like you
———————————————————————————————————————
Below is some information from a reputable site which you may find exciting.
An Extract of the information from the link below (as of 18th October 2010 – there are slight daily fluctuations):
• If Millatfacebook.com was a country it would be bigger than Greenland and Cayman’s Islands based on daily traffic
• 1 in every 29,070 internet users visits MFB daily
• Per CONSERVATIVE estimate, app 60,000 Unique visitors Daily
http://www.sharenator.com/w/millatfacebook.com
You will find more information including the geographical breakdown from the link above.
In addition, it might be worth mentioning here that MFB is ONLY social networking site in the world where more than 2/3 rd of the users spend OVER 2 Hours which is pretty unique.
It is also worth mentioning here that MFB is constantly improving and innovating. Not only does MFB offer all the features that any other social network does but many additional and unique ones like:
• Free Live TV
• Bulletins
• Shout Box
• Public Chat Rooms
• Recipes Feature
• e.t.c
This is in additional to all the usual features where all members have their walls, ability to search and/or invite their friends, emailing, creating groups, fan pages, blogs, polls, putting status, sharing videos, sharing pictures, staying connected, e.t.c
We know the journey is long but one we are well onto and with our strict respect for User’s privacy, MFB is placed well ahead of any social network.
Kind Regards,
Omer Zaheer Meer
ACCA (UK), BSc (Hons) (UK), CAT (UK), Adv. Financial Diploma (UK),
Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (UK) & Certified CSM (LCCI & SMEDA – PAK)
Professional Associations: PRIMA (USA), ACCA (UK), PRMIA (USA), UKSIP (UK), CFAI (USA), LCCI (PAK) & MPDD (PAK)
Join this Group “United against Facebook’s ridiculing Prophet
(P.B.U.H) Islam & now Holy Quran.
[link=’http://millatfacebook.com/ad/id_10/’]Click here[/link]
I hope you will do this , it takes not more then 2 minutes or
5 minutes if you have very slow internet connection.