JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has temporarily banned YouTube to block access to a video that many Muslims consider anti-Islamic.
Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister sent a letter to all Internet providers ordering them to block the video-sharing Web site until further notice, a ministry spokesman said Tuesday.
The minister has asked YouTube to remove the 15-minute movie "Fitna," but has not received a reply from the company, the spokesman said.
"Fitna," which is the work of Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilder, features disturbing images of terrorist acts juxtaposed over verses from the Quran to paint Islam as a threat to Western society.
It has been posted on several Web sites, including Google Video and YouTube.
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For all intents and purposes, Islam and Sharia are essentially governing your community. Freedom of speech and expression have been trampled by the porn law; and now freedom of the press is verboten.
Any state that has a ministry of Information historically has used it for propaganda and control of the masses; almost always by fearful dictators and communist regimes. It has now established a de facto state religion.
The other 'religions' should now band together and fight for liberty before they too are declared to be against the state.
I have informed my internet provider that I will cancel my subscription when I find one that believes in liberty.
(Are there any out there?)
The really amusing thing is that the Minister was stupid enough to take the bait, hook, line and sinker. Wilder essentially made no commentary in the movie. There were only quotes from their own holy Islamic book with vicious hateful speeches by Imams. He managed to make them their own fools if they objected.

Yes, loads of them.

Yes, I was surprised when I saw it. It seems pretty tame. No frothing Western hate mongering, only the words of Muslims themselves and their holy book overlaid on footage of 9/11 (which was perpetrated by Muslims). The problem is the eliding of racism, homophobia,etc. with religion into this new word Islamophobia which I completely reject. One doesn't choose one's race or sexuality. But one SHOULD be free to choose one's religion. Religion is not biology, it is a symbolic belief system and should not be above comment. A phobia implies an irrational fear (of heights, of blacks, etc.) but religious systems can be argued against and refuted on strictly rational grounds. People don't have the right NOT to be offended for their irrational beliefs. Free speech is absolute. It is actually mainly the religious who are the most 'phobic' and irrational people in this world, increasingly so as their bronze age paganism suffers hammer blow after hammer blow from the world of science.

Glum news for youtubers...not sure if i understand it all but i think i get the gist..the proxy servers are an alternative but they don't work great.


From Indonesiakini

Rabu, 09/04/2008 12:05 WIB

Menkominfo bersikeras terhadap YouTube

Kementrian Kommunikasi dan Informasi pagi tadi mengeluarkan pernyataan baru prihal pemblokiran situs-situs internet yang menyiarkan film Fitna.

Dalam pernyataan ini Menkominfo Muhammad Nuh mengatakan bahwa penutupan salah satu situs, yaitu YouTube.com, akan terus dilakukan hingga kementrian tersebut menerima surat permohonan ma'af dari YouTube. Sedangkan situs-situs lain akan dibuka lagi sepuluh hari ke depan atau pada tanggal 12 April 2008.

Pernyataan baru ini menekankan tersinggungnya pemerintah atas surat penolakan YouTube ketika situs itu diminta memblokir film Fitna. Rupanya, surat penolakan dari YouTube itu menggunakan kata-kata yang dianggap tidak sopan atau layak.

"Saya puas dengan tanggapan semua website kecuali YouTube", papar Muhammad Nuh ."Kementrian Kommunikasi dan Informasi telah memberitahukan semua ISP (internet service provider) bahwa, sebagai hukuman berat, penutupan YouTube akan berlaku seterusnya sampai kami terima surat permohonan ma'af dari pengelola situs itu. Indonesia adalah negeri daulat yang bangga dan kami tidak boleh terima surat dari YouTube yang jelas tidak hormati kebijakan pemerintah. Saya menanti surat baru dari YouTube yang mohon ma'af atas surat sebelumnya itu.Apabila kami terima surat ini akan kami mempertimbangkan lagi keputusan kami", lanjutnya.

Menurut seorang anggota kementrian yang bersangkutan surat penolakan dari YouTube itu memang tidak sopan.Katanya,"Demikian intinya. Silakan bergabunglah dengan pemerintah negeri lainnya yang juga ternyata ketinggalan zaman dalam memblokir situs kami. Persentasi pengguna YouTube di Indonesia merupakan 0,2 % dari total di seluruh dunia. Karena itu kehilangan pelanggan dari Indonesia tidak begitu mempengaruhi YouTube. YouTube berpendapat bahwa hak kebebasan berekspresi semestinya lebih diprioritaskan berbandingan dengan kepentingan kepentingan sejumlah pejabat tinggi serta kelompok kelompok beragama ekstrim yang cara pemikirannya sangat picik"

the climbdown continues! the spineless wimp!

now it seems all sites except youtube will be blocked only until the 12th of April. youtube will continue to be blocked until the minister receives a letter asking for his forgiveness. ah, yeah, right.

I love how they answered him. Why banned you tube? Government people should stop acting so dumb.

They should ban organisation like FPI.

they should ban 6'8" people from toilets

Youtube never showed much cock in the first place, so the fuck are you worried about?

well for one, i can't repeatedly watch the video of James botak's baby being born

Ironically Youporn & Redtube are still up!

As is:

Indonesia: Hezbollah-owned TV begins broadcasts
Jakarta, 9 April (AKI) - The Hezbollah-owned Lebanese television channel Al Manar has begun broadcasts in Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Sunni Muslim population.

The transmissions are broadcast via the Palapa C2 satellite owned by the Indonesia Telkom company, in which the Indonesian government holds a majority shareholding, BBC Monitoring reported. It quoted information published by Lyngsat Satellite website.

Al Manar, Arabic for "The Beacon", has been broadcasting from Beirut since 1991. The self-proclaimed "Station of the Resistance" is a key player in what Hezbollah – a Shia Muslim militia organisation - calls its "psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy’.

It is also considered an integral part of Hezbollah's plan to spread its message to the entire Arab world.

According to Al Manar's news director, Hassan Fadlallah, Al Manar does not aim to be neutral in its broadcasting.

"Neutrality like that of Al Jazeera is out of the question for us," Fadlallah said, quoted in a 2007 article in The New Yorker magazine.

Al Manar was designated a 'terrorist entity', and banned by the United States in December 2004.

It has also been banned by France and Spain, and according to several reports it has also runs into some service and licence problems abroad, making it unavailable in the Netherlands, South America, Canada and Australia.

In Southeast Asia, Al Manar TV launched on the Thai Shin Corporation's Thaicom satellite in January 2008, but transmissions were halted after a few days when the channel's links to Hezbollah were revealed.

From Indonesiakini

Kamis, 10/04/2008 12:05 WIB

YouTube Mengalah

Sehubungan dengan kasus pemblokiran situs internet populer, YouTube, diberitakan bahwa surat permohonan ma’af resmi dari YouTube telah diterima oleh Kementrian Kommunikasi dan Informasi. Ini menurut juru bicara Kementrian tersebut, Esra Illis, yang mengadakan konferensi pers di gedung Menkominfo pagi tadi.

Illis mengatakan bahwa isinya surat itu akan diumumkan pada hari-hari mendatang.
“Tinggal kami periksa dulu detil-detilnya secara tuntas. Pokoknya YouTube minta ma’af sedalam-dalamnya atas tindakan mereka”

Ditanyakan apakah YouTube akan menggeserkan film Fitna dari situsnya ia menjawab “Jelas tidak. Tapi yang penting, YouTube menyesali aksi mereka dan ingin minta ma’af dari seluruh rakyat Indonesia, terutama Menkominfo Bapak Muhammad Nuh,karena sudah mencemarkan nama baik Indonesia”

“Memang ini bisa dianggap sebagai suatu kemenangan Pemerintah Indonesia dan saya yakin citra negeri ini akan tambah cerah di mata dunia.”, tambahnya.

Di ruang pers konferensi para wartawan terlihat lega setelah Illis berkomentar, “Kawan-kawan. Kita semua penggemar YouTube. Saya janji, tak lama lagi, akan dibuka kembali . Saya juga senang ngedownload video yang lucu-lucu dari YouTube”.

go figure?????????? can anyone give a brief translation of the above for those of us who are indonesian-challenged?

it's basically claiming that youtube has apologied to "all the people of indonesia". nonetheless, they will continue to host the Fitna video ...

to me, sounds like youtube have issued a bland "sorry you feel offended but get fucked" letter.

i wanna see the detail ...

I want to see that horrendous Christian channel banned from Indonesian television. How is it possible that stations are allowed to broadcast quacks purporting to bestow financial and medical miracles on believers who demonstrate their faith by donating cash. “Mrs Smith of the western Philippines. Your cancer is gone. Praise the lord. Dilli, your legal problems resulting from your recent activities in southern Jakarta have vanished. Blessed is He.”

Makes me sick to my stomach. Particularly the bit about Dilli.

Here is the translation (and the commentary in bold) for the Bahasa Indonesia-challenged.


YouTube Surrenders

In relation to the case of the blocking of the popular internet site YouTube, is is reported that an official apology letter from YouTube has been received by the Communication and Information Minsitry. This was conveyed by the Ministry Speaker, Esra Illis, in a press conference in the Communications and Information Minsitry building this morning.

Illis said the contents of the letter will be announced in the next few days. (why not now?)“We have to check the contents of the letter thoroughly. In short, Youtube has offered their deepest apology for their action” (just read the damn letter. what's there to check? ask a sworn translator's help if they can't understand english. youtube's action? what action? last time i checked, Fitna was not made by youtube)

When asked whether YouTube will be removing Fitna from their site, he said, “Of course not. But what is important, YouTube has regretted their action and would like to apologize to the entire Indonesian people, especially the Minister of Communications and Information Mr. Muhammad Nuh, for having tarnished Indonesia's good reputation"
(1st. why is it that youtube is reported as having surrendered when they are still not removing the film? 2nd. this will be another saving face tactic of the indonesian govt when they announce to they people that in several days, they will no longer block the site 3rd. why apologize to the entire indonesian people when the only ones who are fussing over this are the idiot govt and 4th, what good reputation?)

“This can be considered as one of Indonesian Government's victory and I am sure that the reputation of this country will be better in the eyes of the world,” he added.
(this is a victory, how?)


In the press conference room, the press looked relieved when Illis said, “Friends, we are all YouTube users. I promise, it will be unblocked not long from now. I also like to download funny videos from YouTube".
(by funny he meant porn, and by YouTube he meant porn sites)

Can anybody give the link to the original article? I googled indonesiakini.com but it doesn't exist. thanks.

Clam Lappers volumes 1 through 90
Weapons of Ass Destruction.
Shaving Private Ryan.
Good Will Humping.

All these and more are still available via download. Spread the love.

Dickman and Throbbin

Well I for one feel much better that the most powerful Indonesian Govt. has brought the lowly porno broadcasters (YouTube) to their knees and have defeated the evil Satan/CHirstians again, all hail the Indonesian Govt................


Oh and Roy.........Weapons of Ass Destruction? Please don't bring the sex life of the Brokeback Mountain Double R Ranch in to this.........


















For those unknowing, The Double R is the Richard & Roy Ranch

Then the article would appear to be fake. Perhaps written by twitty handle.

thanks.

Oh, and depkominfo's website finally has its downloadable porn filter up, only for fans of .rar files:
http://www.depkominfo.go.id/datafile/

I would have to agree with Kenyeung. A hoax seems to have been perpetrated. Not only is the whole story extremely improbable, but as bruxellois said, the website indonesiakini doesn't exist (modelled on malaysiakini i'd guess). The clincher though is the name of the "ministry speaker" Esra Illis when spelt backwards.

No, I happen to have a very good friend named Esra Illis. The real giveaway was "minta ma’af". Only bules tend to put an apostrophe in "maaf".

thanks.

Michael Notlob?

Jakarta, 10 April (AKI) – Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, has recorded the greatest international interest in the controversial and anti-Islamic film by the far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

Wilders posted his film called Fitna on the Internet last month.

According to Google Trends, a tool that monitors Internet traffic, Indonesia-based web surfers lead their Dutch and Malaysian counterparts in the list of countries where Fitna has been accessed.

Google Trends show that Indonesian interest beat the Netherlands by a comfortable 20 percent, while Malaysia trails much further behind.

The Indonesian lead comes despite the fact that the country’s information minister, Mohammad Nuh, recently ordered Internet providers to ban access to popular sites like YouTube and MySpace in order to prevent Indonesians from accessing a Dutch anti-Islam film.

Indonesia's attorney general's office is now looking at the possibility to take legal action against those who try to distribute the movie within the country.

Wilders posted his 17-minute film on the Internet last month. In the film, he associated Islam with violence by presenting verses from the Koran that apparently call for the use of force and running them alongside video clips of the 9/11 attacks.

Fitna solicited a moderate and largely non-violent response in Indonesia where 88 percent of the 240 million people follow Islam.

Several demonstrations were staged outside the Dutch embassy in Jakarta and – in what was the only violent response – students damaged the Netherlands’ consulate in Medan, the capital of the province of North Sumatra.

Indeed you would know kenneth. i remember you as a great exponent of the word