Pakistan should ban extremism, not Facebook

[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/images/05/21/pakistan.facebook.protest.jpg caption="Protesters in Pakistan shout slogans against the published caricatures of Prophet Mohammed on Facebook."]

Arsalan Iftikhar
Special to CNN

(CNN) - For a country that has produced five military dictators in 60 years, mourned the 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and struggles continually against its own militant extremists who have killed thousands in their own nation, Pakistan has absolutely picked the wrong fight by banning Facebook and YouTube because of an idiotic virtual campaign called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day."

According to a story on CNN.com, Pakistan blocked access to YouTube - a day after it shut down the social networking site Facebook - after an online group called on people to draw the Prophet Mohammed. In response, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered its operators to shut down YouTube "in view of growing sacrilegious content on it."

Instead of knee-jerk political reactions and impassioned threats of violence, as proud millennial Muslims we should reflect and ponder how our Prophet Mohammed would have responded to such silly faux controversies.

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