Pakistani police to investigate Zuckerberg for blasphemy

Published 18 June 2010

Formal proceedings started against chief executive and co-founder of Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive and co-founder of Facebook, is facing a police investigation for blasphemy in Pakistan, BBC Urdu reported Thursday.

Police in the country's Punjab province have confirmed they have initiated formal proceedings against the owner of Facebook.

Last month, the social networking site featured a page that invited users to post drawings of the Prophet Muhammad. Islam considers any drawings of the Prophet as blasphemy.

According to the Pakistani newspaper the News International, a Pakistani High Court judge asked for police action after lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique filed a First Information Report claiming that Facebook had committed a heinous and serious crime under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The Section says that defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and a fine.

Get the full magazine for just £1 a week with a trial subscription. PLUS get a free copy of Penny Red: Notes from the New Age of dessent by Laurie Penny

Post this article to

4 comments from readers

Ricardo
18 June 2010 at 11:47

FFS how utterly pathetic can a country be?

/|\

/ \

Oh dear what is this? Why it's the great undrawable prophet himself in stick figure form. How many people died or suffered because I've posted that? And will any New Statesman staff be prosecuted for such a heinous (yet victimless) crime being perpetrated on their website?

Ricardo
18 June 2010 at 11:50

I didn't count on the large spaces between paragraphs, now it looks like Mohammed's been chopped up into three pieces! Surely that's even worse?!

Philipa
18 June 2010 at 11:55

Is Zuckerberg the new Salman Rushdie? Will he be given a knighthood soon? I remember CH speaking about that on QT http://youtu.be/gEVA4EAP_S0

How can Peter Hitchens say "theology, about which I know little and in which I have no great interest" and still be an "anti-atheist"? That's like saying you are promoting a political movement but don't know what it's about and you're not interested in finding out, but you like their music. Bonkers. This news story and the one yesterday in the DM about a baby being killed is precisely the stuff Chris Hitchens writes about and Pete H. says he addresses in publishing his 'Rage against God', yet doesn't. The Christian church is promoting Pete's book but won't say why and Pete seems to think better to be religious than not. Given that "defiling the sacred name of the Holy Prophet shall be punished with death or imprisonment for life and a fine" can anyone tell me why? It's hardly surprising religion is getting a bad press when terrorism seems borne out of a religious fervour. People mostly don't want to play 'my God's better than your God' in this country, they just want to get on with living. It's a shame the Pakistanis in this country don't export that idea.

John Nagle
19 June 2010 at 19:33