Pakistan to restores YouTube, block certain videos

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan have restored access to YouTube but will block videos offensive to Muslims that are posted on the video-sharing site, the government said Wednesday.
A number of high-profile websites were blocked in Pakistan last week over offensive content, such as a Facebook page that urges users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Many citizens supported the crackdown, but some questioned why entire sites were blocked rather than specific pages or videos.
The government seemed to move in that direction Wednesday by deciding it would restore access to YouTube but continue to block videos "displaying profane or sacrilegious material," said Najibullah Malik, the secretary at Pakistan's information technology ministry.
The government is issuing orders to Internet service providers to implement the decision, he said. YouTube was yet not available as of Wednesday evening in the capital.
Facebook is still blocked, and Malik said no decision on it would be made until a court hearing at the end of the month.
Most Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
Large and sometimes violent protests erupted in Pakistan and other Muslim nations in 2006 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad, and again in 2008 when the cartoons were reprinted.

Facebook ‘Draw Mohammad Day’ a Victory for Muslims – Cartoonist Molly Norris Apologizes

Molly Norris the Cartoonist behind the condemned Facebook “Draw Mohammad Day” have apologized to the Muslim world and have realized it to be her biggest mistake out of ignorance.

Following is what she says on her website:

I did NOT ‘declare’ May 20 to be “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.”
I made a cartoon about the television show South Park being censored. (I wish that was what our energies were going toward — protesting revolutionmuslim.com’s threat to Comedy Central, and Comedy Central’s over reaction to it which set America on a slippery slope toward censorship!)
At any rate, my satirical poster, with a fake ‘group’ behind it (Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor) was taken seriously, hijacked and made viral.
I never started a facebook page; I never set up any place for pepole to send drawings to and I never received any drawings (I see that two European graduate students and another woman started the facebook pages).
My one-off cartoon does not work well as a long-term plan. The vitriol this ‘day’ has brought out, of people who only want to draw obscene images, is offensive to Muslims who did nothing to endanger our right to expression in the first place. Only Viacom and Revolution Muslim are to blame, so…draw them instead!
I apologize to people of Muslim faith and ask that this ‘day’ be called off.
Thank you to those who are turning this crazy thing into an opportunity for dialogue.
Oh, and screw all of you who are mad at me for not leading a ‘movement’. My cartoon was the beginning and end of what I had to say about this creepy, historic censorship. (By the way, where is Cowardly Central now? Pretty dang quiet. Guess they can dish it out but can’t take it.)

Sincerely,
Molly

P.S. The nicest email I have received have been from Muslims.
(I regret going on the Dave Ross radio show on April 25th, before my cartoon went viral; my ego took me there. It was a mistake to go there when I wasn’t clear about things. I let myself get side-swiped. Crap!)