After attracting the ire of thousands of Islamic protesters and narrowly avoiding a fatwa, Facebook has today shut down a page titled 'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'.
The removal of the page sparked cries of censorship but Facebook responded saying that the page had suffered from "a small technical issue" and that they believed Facebook was a a place "where people can openly discuss issues and express their views, while respecting the rights and feelings of others."
Depictions of Mohammed are prohibited in the Islamic faith and the page, which encouraged others to send in their drawings, provoked Muslim groups worldwide.
Although it had gained more than 80,000 followers, the page disappeared from Facebook only for it to reappear later on Thursday. A search for the page on Friday afternoon redirected users back to their own Facebook home page and the only results yielded by typing in the search term in Facebook were opposing pages.
One of the main Facebook pages opposing the page, titled Against "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" posted a "congratulations" status update but called on its 120,000 supporters to continue similar action against other pages mocking the prophet.
Facebook access was blocked without warning in Pakistan in reaction to the page. "We are very disappointed with the Pakistani Courts' decision to block Facebook without warning, and suspect our users there feel the same way," a Facebook read. "We are analyzing the situation and the legal considerations, and will take appropriate action, which may include making this content inaccessible to users in Pakistan."
source : http://islamonline.com/news/articles/2/Facebook-responds-to-calls-to-shut-Muslim-offensiv.html
