Smarter than a seventh grader?

"What would you do if they banned facebook here?" I asked Zainab, 13, whose parents, old friends from Pakistan, are posted in Delhi. I was here for an Aman ki Asha conference of Indian and Pakistani CEOs and entrepreneurs, where high-powered delegates affirmed the need for economic cooperation between the two countries. 

The Lahore High Court order had banned facebook in Pakistan, in response to a petition ahead of May 20, which some juvenile minds had designated as 'Everybody Draw Mohammad Day' (EDMD) - an idea floated by a Seattle-based cartoonist in support of a TV cartoon in which Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) was disguised in a bear suit. The cartoon had drawn the ire of some Muslim groups in America. The EDMD group, formed subsequently on facebook, attracted thousands of members - all geared up to draw the Prophet of Islam. 

There are shades of opinion within Islam on the issue of representation. One end of the spectrum does not allow representation of any living thing, not even photographs, as idolatrous and/or a prerogative of the Supreme Being. Others allow representations of animals or landscapes, even people, but not holy personages. A few even allow idealised representations of holy personages including the Prophet. 

Facebook, which has a policy against hate speech or offensive material, belatedly removed the provocative group, which had no restrictions on the type of representations being sent in, including caricatures. Other pages have cropped up, which are also likely to be removed. But the damage has been done.

"I would raise a petition against the ban," pronounced Zainab. "Why should they ban facebook anyway? Facebook is not the culprit, it's the people who created the group who should be stopped."

Clearly, those upholding the facebook ban are not smarter than this seventh-grader, who immediately grasped the essence of the fact that facebook was just a vehicle for an offending group. Certainly, facebook should have been quicker to take action - and perhaps would have - had it had been a group lampooning a sacred cow, like the Holocaust.

The initiators of the provocative EDMD group arrogantly asserted their right to 'freedom of expression', expecting a level of maturity from the 'other' side that was missing in their own actions. They must have known the offense their initiative would cause. The reaction, unfortunately, was totally predictable: demonstrations, speeches, and 'death to facebook' threats. 

All this puts people like me in a difficult position. I believe in freedom of expression, but I also believe in respecting others. Smokers uphold their right to smoke, but a non-smoker should not have to inhale second-hand smoke. The EDMD folk had no business initiating something that essentially lampooned what millions hold sacred. But those who disagreed could have simply stayed away from the offending page - and many did.