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THIS refers to the ban on YouTube by the PTA on the advice of the government.
Even though violence after the release of the blasphemous video on YouTube is condemnable, it must be realised that the ban on YouTube has adverse effects on students.
I use YouTube for my MBA studies. Not-for-profit academic web sites also use YouTube as a backend platform. As a result of this ban in Pakistan, such informative and academic videos are not available to aspirants of higher education as well.
By banning YouTube, we are effectively prohibiting spread of knowledge and information. By keeping such material from the people, what are we going to gain? If the objective is for the hate speech to cease, that won’t happen. Pakistan simply doesn’t figure as big enough to worry about in the equation for giants such as Google and the various stakeholders.
We are not China or India in terms of technological growth, so we must act smart, not stupid.
By banning YouTube, the subsequent inability for Pakistanis to access academic material is a gross injustice to the core injunctions of Islam itself, the essence of which may be summarised by ‘Iqra’.
It may be mentioned here that being an IT engineer, who is familiar with how networks work, I am able to circumvent and bypass these filters very easily.
It is trivial to do so. Yet, I prefer to request the authorities to lift the ban on YouTube so that everybody is able to benefit from this electronic library.
RAFAY BIN ALI Karachi
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Comments (23) Closed
Oct 11, 2012 03:09am
Geat comments! I wonder how people use to do their MBA,Phd when You Tube was not their? This is called resourcefulness not being handicapped by the lack of tool and use the alternative.
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Oct 11, 2012 07:50am
well said my brother.banning youtube is creating alot of problems for the students.we are facing alot of difficulties.i am a student of computer science,and in past youtube videos have helped me alot.
but now due to the ban we are facing problems and blasphemous video on YouTube is condemnable.
thanks .
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Oct 11, 2012 06:35pm
Kindly name these few alternate sources which are readily available ( without hurdle) and almost free of cost.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:34am
There are numerous alternate sources of information available which can be used..
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Oct 11, 2012 03:15am
I do agree with the writer.
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Oct 11, 2012 06:31am
From my humble knowledge of youtube, I must say that it is not an educational web site. I don't understand why the writer of this letter is trying to misguide others? It is not logical to ban an entire web site that contains videos on all topics based on the fact that one video or one topic is unwanted. Selective disabling of some material should have been enough. But how a ban on youtube becomes 'gross injustice' to seekers of academic material and how it is contrary to 'core injunctions of Islam' is beyond my limited comprehension. I wish people were more direct and honest about what they want.
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Oct 11, 2012 04:13pm
Please delete the above comment or do not publish it. I took a hasty approach and did not read the whole title. Sorry about that.
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Oct 11, 2012 06:50am
I DO NOT AGREE WITH SAM.... THE ACADEMIC BENEFITS OF YOUTUBE ARE EVIDENT TO EVERY STUDENT......IT MUST BE OPENED....
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Oct 11, 2012 02:26pm
It is the availability of alternatives that makes the modern world possible. If we go by your reasoning, why not then just go ahead and start using camels and horses for transport, or why even make the switch from black and white tv to color, etc. etc. etc.
Please read my comments on the 1st comment above to understand what I was referring to in the article. Thanks!
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Oct 11, 2012 02:23pm
Thanks for your reply observer. Youtube is a media portal. Academic videos are part of it. You would find complete full session lectures from universities like Princeton and Stanford on youtube.
An analogy is in order: youtube is analogous to a mall. You find book stores, clothing, shoes, electronics, etc. etc. at a mall. Youtube is similar.
The core injunction of Islam is all based on education: critical thinking, reasoning, logical debates, rationale etc. etc. If you think about it why would Allah reveal the very first verse of Quran based on these principles. And that too to a man who was illiterate? There were far more learned men in Arabia of that time. Try to use some rationale and try to deduce the reasoning behind Iqra and revelation on Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and thing would become ample clear why I said so :)
You can always drop a comment to my email as well and i can try to explain the concept further!!!
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Oct 11, 2012 02:16pm
Thanks for your insightful comment Hassan. The point of the post is two-fold. The deeper perspective is that prohibition is only a form of self inflicted wound. It has never worked in the past, and never would. The purpose is for the hate speech to stop - that is only possible if we educate ourselves and build a progressive nation based on the principles of Islam.
It is not a handicap at all. I was merely addressing the fact that a potential source of wealthy information has been robbed off from us.
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Oct 11, 2012 02:09pm
Not of that magnitude.If we shun Youtube in Pakistan what difference going to make to it with billions of users world over and increasing day by day. The sufferers in the ultimate analysis will be Pakistanis living in Pakistan not to be in line with their fellow brothers elsewhere.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:39pm
Dude it is also used for educational purposes by students. It had documentaries and online lectures that can be useful for students. Learning by visual aid always makes it easier to learn and understand concepts of different subjects.
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Oct 11, 2012 04:07am
Agreed. I have said from day one, banning entire youtube was unnecessary
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Oct 11, 2012 04:05am
The writer is correct. Ban being self destructive and will continue bringing added disadvantages and irrepairable harm unless removed should be lifted forthwith.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:46am
There are thousands or even more videos on youtube highlighting teachings and virtues of Islam. We find videos of Tahirul Qadri, Javed Ghamdi, Zakir Naik and all renowned scholars, on Youtube/
There are several videos where Jews and Christians are accepting Islam. Contrarily there arel also videos derogatory for Christianity, Judaism, hinduism etc..
Blocking Youtube will amount to depriving people from the benefits of informative literature.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:39am
Indeed Youtube is not an educational website but its serve as a educational website. Youtube is one of the option.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:39am
I agree with your comments. But it also exposes the fact how addicted and handicapped have we been made by this one website.
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Oct 11, 2012 07:24am
i utterly disagree over the writer issue, One should refrain from such webseites which dont care about others religion.
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Oct 11, 2012 12:49pm
i totally agree with this letter, why should we choose to go and watch the offensive stuff if that's not our desire.At the end of the day it's a personal choice and we should also realize this same website is a great resource of knowledge as well the question really is what we choose to watch.On a personal note i have become quite interested in islamic thought in the last couple of years and youtube has served as great resource for me to listen to great islamic scholars who are all available on this medium.
We are week when we make ourselves vulnerable to third class attempts.
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Oct 11, 2012 09:30am
Thank you brother, it is working beautifully !
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Oct 11, 2012 02:36am
Youtube is not an educational website.It will have no impact on student.
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Oct 11, 2012 08:03am
By installing HOT-SPOT shield software,one can access Youtube.
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