Mark Zuckerberg: Pakistani Extremists Wanted Tech Genius Dead

By R. Siva Kumar - 10 Jan '15 06:46AM
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Facebook honcho Mark Zuckerberg discloses it. After the Charlie Hedbo fight, he recalled an incident in 2010. A Pakistani extremist had wanted him sentenced to death, because Facebook had not banned content about Mohammed that was "offensive".The site had a page called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" on May 20.

That idea had occurred after Comedy Central decided to stop an open expression of the Prophet on their show at South Park. It was said to be illegal under Pakistani law, in which it is wrong to deface the "sacred name of Mohammed" under Islamic Sharia law, according to dailymail.com.

Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook: "A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him. There was no charge or sentence to death, yet the Pakistani government blocked Facebook in Pakistan.

"We stood up for this because different voices -- even if they're sometimes offensive -- can make the world a better and more interesting place," he said. "Facebook has always been a place where people across the world share their views and ideas...We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world."

Zuckerberg did not identify the extremist but the mere mention of Pakistan brought that country's online defenders into the fray. ''You can't just blame the whole nation on the basis of one person's act,'' one Pakistani follower said.

To which the Facebook CEO acknowledged: ''You're right. I am friends with several Pakistanis, and I know most Pakistanis are not like the person who tried to have me sentenced to death!''

Officially, Pakistan on Thursday condemned as ''terrorism'' the attack on Charlie Bebdo, even though its laws say that any insults on the Prophet should be punishable by death. ''Pakistan condemns the brutal terrorist attack in Paris that resulted in the loss of many lives and has left several others injured,'' Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Many Muslims are opposing Zuckerberg's post. Aftab Ahmed wrote: "What about all those people in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria died. Never seen you condemned about those barbaric acts talk about standing for right Mr Zuckerberg."

He went on: "Yet you ban countless pages for posting "offensive" things so how can you say that you refuse to let one group silence everyone when Facebook bans pages for posting humor?"

"Freedom of speech and hate speech is not the same.. Go educate yourself please..."

His comment has drawn 10,000 likes.

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