Thu 07 April 2022:
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has called upon YouTube to review its decision to block a TV channel run by the late Dr Israr Ahmed’s foundation over charges of hate speech.
“This unilateral shutdown of Dr Israr Ahmed’s channel, a prominent Muslim scholar, raises questions about the arbitrary limits of online expression,” the PTA said in its appeal to YouTube on Tuesday.
Sources in the PTA said the channel concerned used to broadcast videos of Dr Israr Ahmed that tried to shed light on the socio-economic order envisaged by the Holy Quran.
The PTA pleaded that such videos were only aimed at “educating the viewers”.
Pleads videos on the channel are only aimed at ‘educating the viewers’
YouTube suspended the channel after Jewish groups complained that its programmes carried contents which incited hate against them.
Dr Israr’s channel had almost three million subscribers and his lectures were admired by a large number of people living in the West.
The channel, operated by the son of Dr Israr Ahmed, shows recordings of the late scholar’s old speeches.
These contain his views about the end of the world in the light of Quranic verses and the Jews’ place in history.
A disciple of Dr Israr Ahmed decried the move as a violation of free speech by the West.
Engineer Muhammad Ali Mirza said on his own YouTube channel the move betrayed the West’s double standard. “They acted upon complaints just by Jewish groups, without hearing the other side,” he said.
The complaints lodged with YouTube expressed fears that Dr Israr’s “preaching could trigger violence against Jews in the West by Muslims”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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