Behind The Blog Ban

We may never get to see the 22 pages long actual list of sites intended to be banned, given that the RTI is being amended. Heck, I believe that the priveleged in India may soon have to start worrying about their Right to Exist. The web archive wayback machine is down at the moment and may take up to a week to come back. Meanwhile here is a collection of excerpts and screenshots from the various banned websites. Enjoy.

HinduUnity.org
[1. http://www.hinduunity.org]

While the site contains a lot of inflammatory statements and in some cases just plain bad language, there is no specific call to eliminate a particular community, nor is there a hit list on the site. They do have a black list but it does not ask anyone to kill somebody. Many links are defunct, some point to discussion boards. A commenter on their board asks if banning inflammatory websites was really the intention, why were these sites not banned? Note that there are hundreds if not thousands of Islamic web sites in operation in India. Many of them call out to Muslims to go on Jihad, eliminate infidels and establish the Sharia law.


The Jawa Report
[2. http://mypetjava.mu.nu Actual URL: http://mypetjawa.mu.nu]

The URL on the list was misspelled. It is easy to see the actual target of the ban was The Jawa Report. This is a conservative blog. No inflammatory speech here and the language is quite civil. The only crime of this blog is that it is highly critical of Islamic militancy and their appeasers. According to the site, the name Jawa has its origins here. The site flaunts the following on their logo:

Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil - Thomas Mann.

The Jawa Reports points out that India still hosts websites and TV stations for the terrorist outfit Hezbollah. This is Jawa report's own explanation of the ban:

Why did India ban this website? And what is the larger meaning of this action?

The short answer to the first question is that we offended Islamists and India is afraid of its own Muslim citizens. The short answer to the second question is that, sadly, it is increasingly becoming evident that liberty may not be able to exist wherever there is a large population of Muslims.

What, specifically, did we do to offend Islamists and their supporters in the Muslim world?

Editors in Pajamas
[3. http://pajamaeditors.blogspot.com]


Once again, another right-wing type blog. There are thousands of conservative blogs. We suspect that these were specifically chosen because at one point of time they carried the controversial cartoons or had posts deemed offensive to Islam.


OpiniPundit
[4. http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com]

In their own words:

Excuses from the government for the move were all over the board. First we were a vehicle by which the terrorists were transmitting communication between each other, then we were inciting violence with our "doctrine of hate", Now we are categorized as just "highly offensive" to the Indian Muslim community and hence must be silenced in the name of cultural harmony.

This action by the Indian government is as inefficacious as it is transparent, to pander to a group in their society that has them scared sh!tless in the misguided belief that little gestures like this will mollify these people. In their minds it also has the added benefit of portraying them as "doing something" about the Mumbai bombings. Just how stupid do they think you all are?

Pirate's Cove
[5. http://thepiratescove.us]


In their own words:

Anyhow, it is rather strange to be blocked, considering that I have never posted anything anti-India or Hindu. Lots of anti-Muslim stuff, though, like this and this, and lots of other things that would upset a Muslim. They're so touchy, you would think they were Progressives

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the population of India is only 13.4% Muslim. Well, as Kosbat says, screw 'em (the Indian gov't and the Muslim population, not the other people of India.)

Common Folk Using Common Sense
[6. http://commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com Site moved to: http://www.commonfolkusingcommonsense.com. The provided URL links to a Japanese language blog about Korean films and TV dramas. Well, don't ask.]


According to these folks:

India is still censoring this website. Apparently, India considers making fun of terrorists and their Islamist supporters more dangerous than the terrorists themselves. I'm #6 (but I'll try harder) on India's list of 17 websites that are being censored.

Following the ban the site published a series of wonderful articles on India's historic past.

My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy
[7. http://bamapachyderm.com]


This blogger has a message for you:

UPDATE 3: I don't usually send out a "welcome" to new readers, but for the Indian readers here for the first time who are coming through a proxy, WELCOME! Just so you know, you won't find any anti-Indian or anti-Hindu stuff here. I'm cool with y'all - I even watch some Indian movies and love books from Indian writers (in English, of course) - really. In fact, if I got some moron leaving comments attacking India here, I'd run them off. That's why it's so weird that I'm banned in India. I can definitely see being banned in Pakistan, but India??? OK, whatever; some dhimmi or Muslim fanatic got his panties in a wad (again!). So again, welcome!

Princess Kimberley
[8. http://prinesskimberly.blogspot.com Now defunct and being used by an American teenager. Content retrieved using web archives]



Merri Musings
[9. http://merrimusings.typepad.com Site moved to: http://www.merrimusings.mu.nu]


A personal blog of a woman who writes mostly about cooking and personal stuff:

Apparently the Indian government feels that Merri Musings (albeit my old url that's no longer in service at http://www.merrimusings.typepad.com) is worthy of being censored so the people in India are not subjected to the content of my blog.

She welcomes you to her blog:

But those of you in India who want to read about Rachael Ray, get a few recipes, read about pedophiles and child molesters (oh, and the occasional political rant) - stop over here - it seems you are still welcome to be here courtesy of your government.

Her offense: at one point of time linking or publishing images considered offensive to Islam.

Macker's World
[10. http://mackers-world.com]


This blogger wrote a message to the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India:

Dear Mr. Prime Minister:

As an American citizen, I am truly disappointed at your government's denial of access for my weblog to reach your citizens. I have never said anything detrimental about India's efforts to fight terrorism, which leads me to sadly conclude that your government has taken this action because I dare to criticize and ridicule the REAL enemy in the War on Terror...and you know as well as I do who I am referring to. It is my hope that you can direct your Cabinet Minister for Communications and Information Technology to rescind the restriction not only against my blog, but also the sixteen others listed in the fax dated July 13, 2006.
Thank you for your attention.

He also has an audio message for you, the people of India. A rough transcript:

The following message is to the Government and people of India. Greetings. My name is Macker. If you are hearing this, you have managed to bypass your Governmen't directive which bans this site from your right to examine it. Here is my message to you. To the Government of India, you are wrong in blocking your citizenry's access to my site or any other individual sites which you have seen fit to block. You are letting a minority of your country control what can or can not be seen by the majority. I don't have to say which minority I am talking about. You know as well as I do, who that is. And to the good people of India, the majority of whom will not be offended by what I have to say: Don't let the minority to push you around. Hold your Government accountable for the actions they have taken in the name of appeasement for that is exactly what they are doing. Stand tall and stand proud, good people of India. We the people of the United States, Canada, Israel and every free country in the world will stand with you. Thank you. That is all.

Dalitstan
[11. http://dalitstan.com Now defunct and leads to a site about paintings. ]

Hindu Human Rights
[12. http://hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html Content taken from http://hinduhumanrights.org]

Quite expectedly the site carries gory images and stories about the carnage at Kashmir and places affected by Islamic terrorism. The specific html does not seem to exist anymore. This site seems to be run by British Hindus and primarily focused on protesting images offensive to the Hindu religion. See their petition here.

nndh
[ 13. http://nndh.com defunct]

bloodroyaltriped
[14. http://bloodroyaltriped.com defunct]

Yahoo Image Search
[15. http://imagesearch.yahoo.com Actual site: http://images.search.yahoo.com/]

Probably blocked because it could be used to search for Mohammed cartoons. Just a thought.

imamali8
[16. http://imamali8.com defunct]

Rahul Yadav's personal website
[17. http://rahulyadav.com]

His only offense seems to be linking the VHP and RSS websites. The site being password protected, we could not see much of it.


It is quite clear that the list was prepared many months back and originated from the fatwa issued by some cleric. Most of these bloggers themselves feel that they were blocked because of their anti-Islamic content.