Why The Jawa Report Was Banned in India and Why it Matters

Perceived blasphemy against a religion which isn't yours and isn't the chief religion of a given foreign nation will get your blog banned in that foreign nation. India is taking steps to block a number of blogs which have upset the Muslims who live in India. Can't have those Muslims getting upset and burning down businesses and suicide bombing schools and subways because of something they read by a some pajama-clad guy in Bismarck.

According to the Beeb (via Malkin), quite a few of those targeted for blockage are hosted by blogspot (does that explain all the woes I had this morning trying to post?) The official list of blocked blogs is as follows:

1. www.hinduunity.org
2. mypetjawa.mu.nu
3. pajamaeditors.blogspot.com
4. exposingtheleft.blogspot.com
5. thepiratescove.us
6. commonfolkcommonsense.blogspot.com
7. bamapachyderm.com
8. princesskimberley.blogspot.com
9. merrimusings.typepad.com
10. mackers-world.com
11. www.dalistan.org
12. www.hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html
13. www.nndh.com
14. bloodroyaltriped.com
15. imagesearchyahoo.com
16. www.imamali8.com
17. www.rahulyadav.com

Living in fear is a really crummy way to live, but if they think they're going to solve their socio-political problems with Muslims in the region by silencing those who speak against radical Islam, they're dumber than the box of rocks I have downstairs. Or, maybe they're simply delusional. All they're going to do is make the fear run deeper, give greater reason to fear.

Look, if nobody in Mumbai reads my blog, it's no skin off my nose -- as long as it's his choice to eschew. I've never dome more than the occasional "when I win the lottery" sort of fantasy in which I'm a world-renowned author/blogger. But, as I said, it should be a personal choice, and not some grand plan by a government to protect its people from discussing ideas and events. When they bring all of those ISPs back to normal (as Rediff.com indicates will happen within 48 hrs), they need to put all of us back up.

All this censorship does is make the killers and their ilk more secure in the understanding that they can force the rest of the world to obey. It's still appeasement, pure and simple, and it's still deadly. It undoes all that the rest, for generations, have accomplished toward a free, open, and wealthy world society, and sends us toward a grand-scale North Korea or Zimbabwe. But don't just take my word for it, read it from the pages of one of the best of the banned: Why The Jawa Report Was Banned in India and Why it Matters