VIEW: ‘Un’social networking —Andleeb Abbas

The reckless interpretation of freedom by the West and the vengeful response of the Muslim world have created an endless battle of the aggrieved and the griever

It is a faceless world. Technology has always been two-faced; it can be a threat or an opportunity depending on which side you want to see. The 21st century is an era that will go down in history as when technology blew away geographical and cultural differences and made the world a truly global village. Distances and time zones vanish with a click, friends are made with a simple click and enemies are made with a mocking caricature. Such is the speed and power of the printed word in the virtual world.

Facebook, with over 400 million users in the world, is the largest growing social networking site in the world. It started as a teenager’s virtual hangout and has ended in ensnaring every age segment you can imagine. There are 3-year-olds pretending to be 30-year-olds and there are 50-year-olds pretending to be 20-year-olds; such is its universal and irresistible appeal and zeal. The reason for its popularity is its harmless, seamless and almost aimless connectivity to anybody and everybody. The showing of faces is its top attraction. Picture uploads of those crying in despair over Pakistan’s shocking loss against Australia in the T20 or those yawning in a boring class lecture are all up to see minutes after these monumental events have taken place. This very seamless connectivity has also facilitated information sharing. Knowledge can be posted and exchanged at a pace unimaginable. Products can be launched, tested and advertised with minimum cost at the maximum scale.

The objective of the virtual world is to give access to the inaccessible. That itself creates the dilemma. The freedom to roam, rove and write is bound to lead to consequences undesirable. The recent controversy over the blasphemous material on the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is a typical example of the misinterpretation and abuse of this freedom. The response to this blasphemy is also a typical short-fix approach for which our government is truly famous. The government banned YouTube as well and the public has taken to the streets giving death sentences to the offenders, trying to burn tyres, block roads and damage property to somehow take their anger out on this blasphemy. The courts have ordered a ban on these websites to appease this public rage. History has shown that such reactions are not fruitful in the long run.

The western value of freedom of expression is sometimes in direct clash with the value of mutual respect and thus, at times, the word freedom becomes a license to hurt and abuse. Many times in the past this has become a reason for endless friction, which has been debated by think tanks but not really taken any action upon. The East, on the other hand, reacts furiously on such issues and the Islamic values of tolerance are blown to pieces with the almost murderous reaction to such provocation by the West. Thus the reckless interpretation of freedom by the West and the vengeful response of the Muslim world have created an endless battle of the aggrieved and the griever.

As Muslims, it does hurt immensely when such acts of blasphemy take place but then we must remember that our responses cannot violate the principles taught by the great Prophet (PBUH) himself. A woman regularly used to throw garbage at the Prophet (PBUH) in an effort to rile him up but without success. When the woman stopped throwing garbage for a few days, the Holy Prophet (PBUH) got worried and upon inquiry found out that she was ill. He took care of her during her illness. This act of greatness made her convert to Islam. It was not an act of anger and destruction but peace and tolerance that made her feel guilty and won her over. Imagine if he had asked the Muslims to retaliate, come out and punish her, we would never be where we are today. Our true love for him is not by destructive retaliation but constructive practicing of his teachings.

Each stakeholder needs to understand that freedom with responsibility is the real principle. The almost three million Facebook users in Pakistan and over 400 million Facebook users in the world have become addicted to it at the cost of their studies, work and relationships. The amount of time spent on viewing each other’s endless photographs and posting meaningless comments on each of them is stupendous. In their race to put up all parts of their life on Facebook, they also give away material that becomes fodder for exploiters. Many a relationship has been destroyed due to indiscreet and careless sharing of information leading to communication miscarriages.

For the owners of Facebook, it is necessary to make a stringent code of conduct on what is and what is not permissible to be paged on it and a violation of such a code needs to be dealt with utmost stringency and indiscrimination. What enrages people is that when any mention of the Holocaust is dealt with in a non-sparing manner, why is this code of respect not applicable to the feelings of the Muslim populace?

To ban is the easiest yet the most futile of punitive actions. American sanctions on Iran, the French ban on women wearing a hijab or the Pakistani courts banning Facebook are all counterproductive measures. In an era where information is the lifeline of any individual or nation, cutting off two of the biggest mediums of information sharing will never be an act of wisdom. What is needed is a pressure dialogue with the management of Facebook and other social media to develop an all inclusive, non-discriminatory code of conduct and ethics that safeguards against the recurrence of such offensive actions and ensures that the violation of these actions is ruthlessly pursued to discourage offenders from such antics in the future.

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, Flickr and so many others are supposed to be facilitators of enhancing social networking throughout the world. The danger is that that they may be making you social towards strangers and unsocial towards your near and dear ones. If our face-to-face interaction with our family and friends is adulterated with quick sneaks at our computers and cell phones, then the saying that when blackberry and apple were fruits, life was much better, would hold true.

The writer is a consultant and CEO of FranklinCovey and can be reached at andleeb@franklincoveysouthasia.com