King orders blocking of web links to anti-Islam film

JEDDAH: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has ordered Saudi telecom authorities to block the websites that show the nefarious film that denigrates Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and Islam.
“On the basis of the king’s directives all Internet service providers in the Kingdom have been instructed to block the film on users in Saudi Arabia,” said the Telecommunications and Information Technology Commission.
“We have told Google to block all YouTube links containing the film. If the company fails to do so we’ll block YouTube completely,” said TITC, the Kingdom’s telecom regulator.
People have been advised to inform TITC if they found any Internet sites showing the film by either contacting www.Internet .gov.sa or www.citc.gov.sa to block them.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) earlier urged its 57 member countries to speak in one voice against the filthy film that tarnished the image of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
“All member countries should speak forcefully in one voice on this vital issue,” said Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu told a press conference, which was held to highlight OIC’s efforts to take up the issue.
He said the upcoming OIC foreign ministers’ annual meeting in New York would discuss all initiatives to set out a complete plan to confront growing provocative incidents such as the nefarious film.
Ihsanoglu said he had contacted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Arab League Secretary-General Nabil El-Arabi and Catherine Ashton of the European Union on taking international measures to avoid a repetition of such provocative incidents.
The OIC has been pushing for years for some kind of a global law against defamation of religion at the UN Human Rights Council.
But it was not passed due to opposition from the US, Europe and some Latin American countries which argued it would violate free speech and the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.