I’ve lost count of the number of times that WordPress has censored part of my site because I committed blasphemy and “hurt religious sentiments”—of Muslims, of course. Usually it’s because I post a Jesus and Mo cartoon and, sure enough, here’s the offending cartoon (which of course will get me censored again):
The letter from WordPress, which continues to act as the censor for the Pakistani government.
(Automattic) Name redacted
Jun 21, 19:49 UTC
Hello,
A Pakistan authority has demanded that we disable the following content on your WordPress.com site:
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010-05-28.jpg?w=500
Unfortunately, we must comply to keep WordPress.com accessible for everyone in the region. As a result, we have disabled this content only for Internet visitors originating from Pakistan. They will instead see a message explaining why the content was blocked.
Visitors from outside of Pakistan are not affected.
You and your readers may be interested in these suggestions for bypassing Internet restrictions.
For your reference, we have included a copy of the complaint. No reply is necessary, but please let us know if you have any questions.
Dear WordPress Team,
It is highlighted that the web pages hosted on your platform are extremely Blasphemous / Hate Speech. The same have also been declared blasphemous under Pakistan Penal Code section 295, 295A, 295B, 295C and is in clear violation of Section 11 and 37 of Prevention of Electronic Crime Act (PECA) 2016 and Section 19 of Constitution of Pakistan.
Keeping above in view, It is requested to please support in removing following URL’s from your platform at earliest please.
The below mentioned websites can be found on following URL’s:- […] 26. https://whyevolutionistrue.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010-05-28.jpg?w=500 […]
Looking forward for your prompt response please.
Regards Web Analysis Team +92 51 9214396
So be it. I have committed blasphemy in Pakistan this Wednesday, and I DID IT AGAIN RIGHT NOW. And I’ll keep doing it every Wednesday when the Jesus and Mo cartoons are posted. Sit and spin, Pakistan.
I applaud your defense of freedom of speech and your justifiable critique of religion and the evils it has inflicted on mankind.
John Stuart Mill and Clarence Darrow would be proud of you.
Onward!
John J. Fitzgerald
Sit and spin indeed!
Good J&M as well…I must have missed this one.
It seems that truth is no defense from censorship.
This probably means that: 1) You will never be able to visit Pakistan; and 2) You may someday find that you are being followed.
Screw ’em, they can’t take a joke.
Futuaris Nisi Irrisus Ridebis.
(Latin for “If they can’t take a joke, f**k ’em”.)
Thx. Think I’ll make that my epitaph. 🙂
Let them sit and spin themselves to oblivion. Bloody fools.
WEIT IS a “blast for me ” site, blowing stupidity, ignorance for six, except these poor saps dont know how to catch!
I’m in Cricket World Cup mode, sorry about that.
Well, laingholm, I reckon those “poor saps” must be fielding at silly mid off, a devilish position to try to catch, especially off Jerry’s pace bowling, wouldn’t you say?
Agreed…clean and bowled!
“Blasphemy is a victimless crime”
Keep up the good work!
“hurt religious sentiments” my foot. They are telling us they are so sensitive and insecure about their beliefs they have to crouch in the corner with ears covered.
Are there more magisteria that shouldn’t overlap? Despite historical mixing should there be separate magisteria for politics or philosophy?
Or perhaps there is only one magisteria – naturalism – and everything else just social memeplexes built upon it?
I think there is a case to be made that there are non-cognitive components to art which might qualify. (People have claimed, in fact, that religion is just this. This is a mistake, both from the semantic analysis of religious language and from the perspective of believers – Christians believe that “Jesus died.” is a statement of fact, not that it is a metaphor …
I think it’s time for a Jesus N’ Mo with all the specifics changed to things like:
Koran -> cat food
Jesus -> … actually Muslims won’t care about that
Islam -> Body slam
Gays -> Willie Mays
…needs work…
I think these censorious idiots are genuinely scared. Atheists or agnostics may be a very small minority in parts of the world but we know there are some. How many is impossible to tell as few will admit to it and I do not blame them but from my experience of people from downtrodden religious countries there were more than I expected.
I worked as an EFL teacher for a while in the UK. I mostly taught one-to-one and as the students could be with us for several months it gave a good chance to get to know them. Several enjoyed extra-curricular activities and went home with an understanding of the Tor browser and TAILS operating system.
Some have kept in contact and have delighted in passing on Tor and TAILS to like-minded friends. Ironically one is a Christian from a place where it is dangerous to be one.
Pakistan is one of the countries ( all of them Islamic*) where blasphemy is a capital crime. So yes there might be more non-believers that keep a low profile. The boundary between unbelief and accusations of blasphemy is wafer-thin.
* Nigeria is not Islamic, but about half the country is. The others: Mauretania, Somalia, Yemen, Saud, UAE, Iran, Afghanistan and Brunei.
There are other countries (again all Islamic) where the state does not mandate the death penalty for blasphemy, but where ‘blasphemers’ are regularly murdered, with the authorities turning a blind eye, such as Bangla Desh, Sudan or Malaysia.
I’m curious. Did you ever show one of those cartoons where Mo is in a burka throughout, and if so was it banned? There is one where neither Jesus nor Mo is identified, so it’s hard to see where the blasphemy would be.
Humorless bunch. Are there cartoons in Pakistan? Examples? Or otherwise what passes for humor in Pakistan>
Once again they admit to the debilitating weakness that results directly from their faith.
Well, I guess that being censored by Pakistan is a Badge of Honour.
That being said, I wonder how much this idiotic and risible censorship is broadly supported by the Pakistan govt. and not the actions of a lone overzealous bigot in their admin.
Wordpress’ giving in is understandable, but unconscionable.