Is Wikipedia too Banned in Pakistan?

Its unofficial right now, but Wikipedia has also been banned in Pakistan.

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As of this moment, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has not issued any formal statement, but millions of users concur that the world's arguably most visited site has been closed as part of the government's measures to ban "blasphemous content" in the country.

Now on the surface this seems as perfectly harmless, since banning blasphemous content is absolutely justified...after all, we hold our religion with pride, and there should be a zero-tolerance policy on objectionable material.

But why close an ENTIRE INFORMATION PORTAL?!?! I fail to understand why the government would close an entire plethora of knowledge on such grounds. Why not just ban the objectionable URLs, and let the site remain as it is? But apparently the government has chosen to stop going into the nittygritties of things, and go for the big swipe.

Let us consider a few facts while looking at these bans:

1. Just because part of a website is banned, does NOT mean that the entire site can be blocked, especially since there is so much other information provided that is of invaluable help to millions. Websites like Youtube and Wikipedia cannot be shut down this way.

2. Shutting sites like this is not the way to go. People will always find a way. For every Facebook, there is a MySpace, Hi5 or Orkut. For every Youtube, there is a Dailymotion, Myvideo, or Metacafe. And for every Wikipedia, there are a number of online encyclopedias.

3. We are shunning away from our own responsibilities as well. We should be strong enough to stay away from such material, REGARDLESS of such a ban. Everyone in the world isnt going to agree with one interpretation of religion, so it is upto us to choose what path we take. Blaming the website is deflecting that responsibility, like the oft spoken dictum "Guns dont kill people...PEOPLE kill people"

4. Because of the vague directives issued, which is the banning of websites with "objectionable" or "blasphemous" material, the number of websites runs into thousands, or even millions....which makes the next "logical" step of the PTA to BAN THE ENTIRE INTERNET! This makes our actions even worse than what China did, which is saying something!

Kindly post and comment on this as much as you can. We need to rally for the cause of the internet, a cause which involves not just the rights of Pakistanis, but also the rights of every human being, to exercise his freedoms.

Note: I have just heard that Flickr has also been banned. God knows what'll happen next.