"Obscene" Text Messages Blocked in Pakistan
Next time you are visiting Pakistan, be sure to watch what you are texting on your cell phone. For example, if you tried to send the following message “Don’t forget to lock the back door and pick up my Athlete’s Foot powder. Thx” you’d soon discover your message had been intercepted and blocked under order of the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) who have reportedly instructed all Pakistan’s mobile phone companies to block messages containing “obscene” words.
A letter dated 14 November, apparently written by Muhammad Talib Doger, an official at the PTA, has been leaked to Pakistani media.
It states that mobile phone operators should begin screening the words, provided on a list attached to the letter, within seven days.
"We have received both the dictionary and the memo and we're discussing a way forward," said Anjum Nida Rahman, corporate communications director for Telenor Pakistan.
Some of the choices on the list have baffled Pakistani mobile phone users, many of whom have taken to Twitter to ridicule the move. Syed Adnan Yousuf, tweeting as @AdnanWhy, asked: "Why is 'head lights' banned? What am I missing here?"
Some people have suggested bypassing the ban by replacing words with their number on the PTA's list.
Here’s a partial list of the alleged “obscene” words list:
- Athlete's foot
- Flatulence
- Jesus Christ
- Monkey crotch
- Back door
- Bewaquf (foolish)
- Bakwaas (nonsense)
- Wuutang (a presumed reference to American rap group the Wu-Tang Clan)
Wouldn’t it have been fun to be a fly on the wall when the geniuses at the PTA sat down and came up with this list?
Floor Tile Blasphemy
One person was killed and four were injured in a suicide bombing on a bank in Islamabad last week. The bank was targeted because the design on the floor tiles was similar to the name Allah, and the bank did not change the tiles despite complaints.
The bank’s president said the floor design does not resemble the name Allah and said, “We are Muslims and can never think of the disrespect to the name of Creator.”
Interesting priorities…committing suicide in order to commit murder over floor tiles…
Rape because "Women have no Rights"
A young girl in Norway was raped and threatened by a Muslim man. He told her that he could do whatever he wanted to her because “this is how it is in his religion.” He said that in his religion, women do not have rights or opinions, and that he was “in charge.”
Miami Imam's Support for the Taliban
A Miami Imam and his 2 sons have been arrested for financially supporting the Pakistani Taliban.
Watch AP's coverage below:
Osama's Sons Condemn Obama
Osama Bin Laden's sons have lashed out at President Obama over the death of their father saying the U.S. violated basic legal principles by killing an unarmed man.
They added that "arbitrary killing is not a solution to political problems."
Maybe they should have shared that thought with their father.
See below.
Paper for People
Islamic extremists in Pakistan killed 2 Christians and burned churches in response to the burning of Qur’ans in Florida, by pastor Wayne Sapp and preacher Terry Jones on March 20.
Although the Qur’an-burning was repeatedly condemned by Christians in Pakistan, these extremists felt that the killing of innocent people was an appropriate response.
Is there no end to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws? Someone of your religion, halfway across the world burns a Qur’an, so we burn your church, we burn your Bibles, AND we kill you??
Pakistan's Blasphemy Law meets its Next Victim
Shahbaz Bhatti, the sole Christian member of the Pakistani government was murdered yesterday, merely 2 months after the assassination of Salman Taseer.
Bhatti, the Minister of Minorities, in a country which is 95% Muslim, was also murdered as a result of his disagreement with the Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which includes the death penalty for those who speak negatively of the Prophet Muhammad.
This incident raises questions about how strongly the government of Pakistan is working against Islamic extremism…
"Blasphemy" against Blasphemy Laws in Pakistan
Yesterday, tens of thousands rallied in Pakistan in support of the country’s blasphemy laws, and Islamic clerics threatened to murder anyone who contested the laws.
The rally also supported last week’s assassination of Governor Salmaan Taseer in Islamabad, by his own security guard, who opposed Taseer’s criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy law.
Thursday, an Islamic extremist group announced plans to attack a prison in order to kill one of the prisoners – Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death for "blasphemy".
Death fatwas have been issued against other officials who dared criticize the law. In the past decade, 35 people in Pakistan who were accused of blasphemy or opposed the laws in any way were murdered in extra-judicial killings.
Pakistan's Blasphemy Laws are Back
A Muslim doctor in Pakistan was arrested yesterday on suspicion of violating blashpemy laws, for throwing away a business card of a man with the same name as the prophet Muhammad.
This is another example of Pakistan's scary implementation of blasphemy and sharia law.
Sounds like a good job networking tip though - change your name to Muhammad, no one will throw away you business card...
Remembering Mumbai
Today is the second anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks in which hundreds were brutally murdered or wounded, in shooting and bombing attacks across the city by Islamic terrorists from Pakistan.
Although 2 years have passed since this tragic event, the threat posed by radical Islamic terrorists is still very much at large. We cannot allow ourselves to forget that radical Islam continues to jeopardize innocent lives on almost a daily basis. We owe it to those killed in the Mumbai attacks to keep ourselves educated about this threat.
For details on the causalities of the attack, and a list of the deceased, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_2008_Mumbai_attacks
Let us all take a moment of silence to remember the innocent victims of the attacks.
