One wonders if the UAE and other Muslim countries that may follow the UAE’s lead in this will really be able to keep non-Sharia influences from creeping in. Of course, with the West so supine in the face of Sharia’s advance, that question may be moot within a few decades anyway. Sharia Alert from the forward-thinking United Arab Emirates: “UAE Blocking Blackberry Services, Other Islamic Countries to Follow?,” by Geneva Robinson at Execte News, August 1:
Although days prior, the UAE had given a warning that it viewed the Blackberry to potentially pose a vast threat to not only national security, but ‘social values’, it has announced it will begin blocking Blackberry Services. Beginning on October 11th, the UAE will begin frustrating users by blocking their email, messaging, and web-brower. The UAE regulators are saying that the Blackberry’s abilities allow users to access items outside of their laws, which were enacted after the introduction of the Blackberry into the country. […]
Although security concerns are quite understandable, the ‘social’ concerns are more unusual, to most countries. The countries which are expressing similar concerns, and considering similar bans, are all largely Islamic, and include India, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. It remains to be seen if these concerns have a solid solution for the countries it is threatening to leave without Blackberry service.
India, of course, doesn’t not have a Muslim majority and is not an Islamic country, but it does contain the second largest Muslim population of any country in the world.