For years
numerous internet sites, such as the social media site YouTube (see BBC article), were closed
down in Turkey for containing videos that insulted the memory of the founder of
the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (among other reasons). Of
course, for the desperate ones who could not live without it, they simply found
a user friendly “back door” entrance to enter the site. In a 2011 blog of mine,
which covered the massive demonstration against goverment censorship of the internet, I even commented how at times the Turkish President and Prime
Minister ridiculed the law claiming they themselves used the banned site.
Two years
later, upon an initiative of a government minister, You Tube is once again in
danger of being banned from Turkish internet space. A court has ruled that
Turkish authorities have the right to ban internet sites which show any part of
the controversial movie the Innocence of Muslims. I will not expand here concerning my thoughts of the movie itself (see my previous blog); however, I will say that just like
the previous bans, in no way will this block the movie from being seen. It is
almost as if the government believes the banning of the video will protect
someone or some group from the unknown, especially when the unknown is nothing
more than a shoddy production which does not deserve the time of day. The move
on behalf of the Turkish government is sensationalist since I
am sure before the movie there were plenty of clips on YouTube, which degraded
Islam; just as there is plenty of anti-Semitic material on the site (some
originating in Turkey). So, go ahead and
ban the terrible blasphemous video, and see that countering Islamophobia, and
hate, cannot be solved by closing eyes of your own citizens.
*For more on the possible see the Hurriyet Daily News article.
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