Censorship in Islam, Pt 276

From our friends the Saudis comes this story, and you may want to read this sittng down.  As we are told time and again, there is no such thing as sharra, and that even if there was it is so complicated and detailed, no one can understand exactly what is entails.  Also, we are told that Islam is peaceful, a practitioner of tolerance for other faiths, and that Muslims just want to get along. 

Somewhere along the line, someone has gotten it all wrong, wrong, wrong.

There is no reason, other than pure censorship through control, to create what is essentially a political propaganda wing of Islam, similar to Goebbels propaganda machine during the Nazi era.  If you control the message, you control the people.

This is a very dangerous precedent, and can only result in more stifling of speech on Islam and the chilling effect across the Muslim, as well as Western world will serve no one but those bent on killing and being killed for Allah (9-111).


From Fast Company Jan 12 by Neal Ungerleider

Saudi Arabia Now Forcing News Bloggers to Obtain Licenses, Promote Islam

The Middle Eastern kingdom has just enacted one of the world's most stringent sets of blogging regulations: Non-citizens can't write about news, chat room users are encouraged to register with the government, and everyone needs to be very careful about religion.

 

Let us now update George Orwell's "1984"

Saudi Arabia has enacted stringent new regulations forcing some bloggers to obtain government licenses and to strongarm others into registering. In addition, all Saudi news blogs and electronic news sites will now be strictly licensed, required to “include the call to the religion of Islam” and to strictly abide by Islamic sharia law. The registration and religion requirements are also being coupled with strict restrictions on what topics Saudi bloggers can write on--a development which will essentially give Saudi authorities the right to shut down blogs at their discretion.

There is no separation of mosque and state in Islam.  The Saudis are doing nothing in violation of Islamic doctrine or the behavior of Muhammad.

What the new regulations center around is a legal redefinition of almost all online content created in Saudi Arabia. Blogs are now legally classified as “electronic publishing” and news blogs (the term is not explicitly defined in the Saudi law) are now subject to the same legal regulations as newspapers.

Under the regulations, any operators of news blogs, mobile phone content creators or operators of news sites in Saudi Arabia have to be Saudi citizens, at least 20 years old and possess a high school degree.

The operative word there is "citizen".  In this context it means you must be a Muslim.

Welcome to the "Animal Farm"

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