badrobot14
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Blocking YouTube in the name of religion, does it add up…?
By badrobot14
Ok, these are my personal thoughts, not a fatwa or anything worthy… so you have full rights to disagree with it, to take it or leave it.
I personally think it is quite unwise to block YouTube because they let some content stay upon their site that is disturbing to us. See, I consider YouTube as a tool and a tool can be used for good or for bad it is upon the user (you don’t ban a knife just coz someone can use it to kill unjustly). So, if you use YouTube to watch music videos that are harmful to your aakhirah (next life) then the ban is actually good for you… but if you use it to learn things, educational stuff or your gain religious knowledge then it is bad for you… How many times has it happened that someone will ask me something about Islam and I know a nice vid about it is on YouTube BUT the site has been blocked by person’s country so the link would be useless for them… Now I’d have to transcribe it for them (which is tedious for me) plus that person would also have to read, and most people now prefer watching a video over reading. It is actually hindering me spreading knowledge. So that’s the first reason.
Second reason that I think its illogical is because if they let that video be on their site and not remove it, it’s coz they don’t see it bad as you do… Everyone doesn’t see the world like you do, deal with it. Let me explain by an example so it makes sense: Say two countries are at war (one of them is yours), and there is this third country that is neutral and is well known for its high quality weapons (no we aren’t promoting violence here, it’s just hypothetical!). If your country says, “we are not going to buy weapons from the 3rd country coz they sold it to our enemies, we are boycotting them.” Now, I’d say your country is being a little bit stupid coz it is not going to help them win the war rather it would be detrimental to them. And if you want to do anything to change how they see it and make them realize its bad, then do Dawah! Enlighten them. You know, just recently on my favourite show (the Deen Show, it educates people about purpose of life) which, primarily, is available on YouTube a guest came. And he mentioned how he knew a person whose life was in a pretty bad shape and one day he was browsing YouTube and saw link to a Deen show episode; he started watching it and then got hooked… he watched all of the Deen show episodes he could find and became a Muslim (because it made sense). Now that is something to be proud of; that is something from the Sunnah, spreading the message of Islam. And that is what made the host, Eddie, start crying with emotions… May Allah S.W.T always keep him guided and grant him sincerity for the sake of Allah. Aameen.
Thirdly, you might argue they are a business and the ban hurts them, then I’ve got news for you. See, if you are an individual avoiding it then I think we don’t need to discuss it coz for them you are like a drop in the lake. If a country blocks it, what about that…? Well, YouTube was blocked by Pakistan and that means almost all the traffic they were getting from Pakistan stopped coming to them. I’d argue the YouTube people would be celebrating, coz I know how online advertisement works and traffic from Asian countries is useless, coz it doesn’t earn you much. People from countries like USA are more likely to buy stuff online when they see an ad so traffic from there is worth much more, it translates in to revenue. But as for Pakistan, I’d say Pakistan is more of a resource hog on YouTube servers than a revenue generator. Not to mention when you see embedded videos, like those here, then they don’t even show you ads with it so they don’t get anything from you while you get service… its win-win situation for you. In short, your boycotting them isn’t going to harm them enough for them to be concerned. (They have not yet removed it (after months), that should be a good indication of its effectiveness.)
Lastly, you need alternative for a block/ban, we can’t just let such disgusting stuff reach our people and our kids browsing YouTube and I completely agree. But YouTube does offer governments options to make a particular vid unavailable in their country. Opening the link generates error “This video is unavailable in your country” as far as I know. Plus, if a country can block a site, I’m sure they can find ways to block links to that ugly content. This makes more sense, in my honest opinion.
O Allah! Let us see the good/truth as good/truth, and bless us with following it. And show us the falsehood as falsehood, and bless us with staying away from it.
P.S. Extra material on related issue of how to respond/act:
http://www.xtremepapers.com/communi...and-i-feel-terrible-inside-some-muslim.19864/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zuKbBlmRo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-lKpwkqISw
By badrobot14
Ok, these are my personal thoughts, not a fatwa or anything worthy… so you have full rights to disagree with it, to take it or leave it.
I personally think it is quite unwise to block YouTube because they let some content stay upon their site that is disturbing to us. See, I consider YouTube as a tool and a tool can be used for good or for bad it is upon the user (you don’t ban a knife just coz someone can use it to kill unjustly). So, if you use YouTube to watch music videos that are harmful to your aakhirah (next life) then the ban is actually good for you… but if you use it to learn things, educational stuff or your gain religious knowledge then it is bad for you… How many times has it happened that someone will ask me something about Islam and I know a nice vid about it is on YouTube BUT the site has been blocked by person’s country so the link would be useless for them… Now I’d have to transcribe it for them (which is tedious for me) plus that person would also have to read, and most people now prefer watching a video over reading. It is actually hindering me spreading knowledge. So that’s the first reason.
Second reason that I think its illogical is because if they let that video be on their site and not remove it, it’s coz they don’t see it bad as you do… Everyone doesn’t see the world like you do, deal with it. Let me explain by an example so it makes sense: Say two countries are at war (one of them is yours), and there is this third country that is neutral and is well known for its high quality weapons (no we aren’t promoting violence here, it’s just hypothetical!). If your country says, “we are not going to buy weapons from the 3rd country coz they sold it to our enemies, we are boycotting them.” Now, I’d say your country is being a little bit stupid coz it is not going to help them win the war rather it would be detrimental to them. And if you want to do anything to change how they see it and make them realize its bad, then do Dawah! Enlighten them. You know, just recently on my favourite show (the Deen Show, it educates people about purpose of life) which, primarily, is available on YouTube a guest came. And he mentioned how he knew a person whose life was in a pretty bad shape and one day he was browsing YouTube and saw link to a Deen show episode; he started watching it and then got hooked… he watched all of the Deen show episodes he could find and became a Muslim (because it made sense). Now that is something to be proud of; that is something from the Sunnah, spreading the message of Islam. And that is what made the host, Eddie, start crying with emotions… May Allah S.W.T always keep him guided and grant him sincerity for the sake of Allah. Aameen.
Thirdly, you might argue they are a business and the ban hurts them, then I’ve got news for you. See, if you are an individual avoiding it then I think we don’t need to discuss it coz for them you are like a drop in the lake. If a country blocks it, what about that…? Well, YouTube was blocked by Pakistan and that means almost all the traffic they were getting from Pakistan stopped coming to them. I’d argue the YouTube people would be celebrating, coz I know how online advertisement works and traffic from Asian countries is useless, coz it doesn’t earn you much. People from countries like USA are more likely to buy stuff online when they see an ad so traffic from there is worth much more, it translates in to revenue. But as for Pakistan, I’d say Pakistan is more of a resource hog on YouTube servers than a revenue generator. Not to mention when you see embedded videos, like those here, then they don’t even show you ads with it so they don’t get anything from you while you get service… its win-win situation for you. In short, your boycotting them isn’t going to harm them enough for them to be concerned. (They have not yet removed it (after months), that should be a good indication of its effectiveness.)
Lastly, you need alternative for a block/ban, we can’t just let such disgusting stuff reach our people and our kids browsing YouTube and I completely agree. But YouTube does offer governments options to make a particular vid unavailable in their country. Opening the link generates error “This video is unavailable in your country” as far as I know. Plus, if a country can block a site, I’m sure they can find ways to block links to that ugly content. This makes more sense, in my honest opinion.
O Allah! Let us see the good/truth as good/truth, and bless us with following it. And show us the falsehood as falsehood, and bless us with staying away from it.
P.S. Extra material on related issue of how to respond/act:
http://www.xtremepapers.com/communi...and-i-feel-terrible-inside-some-muslim.19864/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6zuKbBlmRo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-lKpwkqISw
The thing you said about banning a video by one country does work btw, cuz some things are blocked by UAE and we get the error message. 
