Oh, the opportunities for mischief: “الله became a fan of Emerson, Lake and Palmer.” “الله became a fan of tube tops.” “الله and the Flying Spaghetti Monster are now friends.” “الله is attending Monster Truck Mayhem.” But alas, Khomeini’s pronouncement rings true again: there is no humor in Islam. There is, on the other hand, a whole lot of suppression of free speech, and here we go again.
An update on this story. “Facebook row as Middle East officials ban user ‘who insulted Islam’,” by Andrew Hough for the Telegraph, March 19:
A row has erupted in the Middle East after officials banned a Facebook user in Abu Dhabi for breaking the law after they “insulted” Islam by claiming to be Allah.
All internet providers in the United Arab Emirates have been ordered to block the unnamed user behind the site, after he alleged his claims were supported by verses of the Koran.
His actions sparked a wave a protest, with many calling on users to boycott the social networking site unless the site was removed.
After dozens of complaints about the Arabic-language site, titled “God and Prophets”, the country’s Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) announced this week it would ban the user from holding an internet account.
But that decision was met with more protest from what some viewed as censorship of the internet.
The user claimed they were an atheist and believed in no God but him/herself, reports in the Middle East claimed.
They said that Muslim prophets would be able to connect with users through the site, which contained Koranic verses and also appeared to mock Islam, as well as answering their questions.
The site soon had more than 600,000 followers, with many critical of the site.
Mohammad Al Ganem, the authority’s General Manager, defended the authority’s decision to ban the site, saying it “insulted” Islam.
“TRA received numerous calls and complaints from internet users expressing their anger against unidentified people who created a site on Facebook that is offending to God, prophets, messengers, the Holy Koran and even to all God’s books,” he told Gulf News.
“The creator of this site which he named ‘God and Prophets’ Site’, attributes divinity to himself and spreads distorted writing pretending they are verses from the Koran.
“He also declared writing a new book falsifying himself as a god.”
He added: “He spreads talk that is insulting to the prophets and to their holy stature.
“This is considered to be a felony according to the federal law.”
He warned web users to be cautious about what they created or viewed.
“[The] internet is too vast to be controlled daily. There are unethical racists everywhere who do not recognise or honour religions or values,” he said.
Hold it right there: Which race is Allah?
“They intentionally spread what destroys the country’s symbols and values, and we should not spare any effort to combat them fiercely.”
To which he might have added: “الله and 8 other people like this.”