The whole "Draw Mohammed" thing has kind of picked up lately. An axe wielding Islamist breaks into Kurt Westergaard's house, South Park does the whole Mohammed in a bear suit thing and Pakistan ha another round of web site bannings and a big Facebook page magically vanishes... It's 2006 all over again.
Well, I ended up a bit more involved in things last time around than I realized I would be. All I did was draw a stick figure and write a editorial to show my support, but dissenting voices such as myself were in the minority to the point that we were easy to single out. Hackers targeted our sites, the government of Pakistan banned 12 of our sites and basically they were able to silence the issue in short order. It wasn't until South Park took a stand again that people got motivated at all (including myself).
I took a look at those banned sites, and to my dismay I saw only 4 (including mine) that were still active. This is pathetic and a sign of, even on the internet, how easily we allow ourselves to be silenced.
Here's a blog post I made on the issue (too much to repost here):
http://asylum.rydas.com/draw-mohammed-free-speech-a-war-the-west-is-losing/
Well, I ended up a bit more involved in things last time around than I realized I would be. All I did was draw a stick figure and write a editorial to show my support, but dissenting voices such as myself were in the minority to the point that we were easy to single out. Hackers targeted our sites, the government of Pakistan banned 12 of our sites and basically they were able to silence the issue in short order. It wasn't until South Park took a stand again that people got motivated at all (including myself).
I took a look at those banned sites, and to my dismay I saw only 4 (including mine) that were still active. This is pathetic and a sign of, even on the internet, how easily we allow ourselves to be silenced.
Here's a blog post I made on the issue (too much to repost here):
http://asylum.rydas.com/draw-mohammed-free-speech-a-war-the-west-is-losing/