novum opus hominum

A note on Government censorship regarding pornography, gore, and violence etc

Violence, nudity, gore etc in this materialistic society, are things that make money. Hence they are defended by core principles of freedom and choice/ If a governments role is just to keep people happy (which is true for a society based on materialism, which is the govt of society) then i agree that the government should not censor these things. It goes against the “government keeping people happy” model of rule, which has its problems, but nonetheless is the model accepted by and applied by the people of this society.

But as a Muslim who believes in the Islamic role of government (which is to take the society towards God) Government regulations and restrictions on violence, gore, nudity etc are key to fulfilling that duty. Happiness of individuals can be sacrificed for the purpose of society reaching closer to God and living on Islamic principles. Hence in countries such as Iran, the issue of censorship takes a whole different meaning. The role of the government of Iran is not to keep its people “happy”, it is the establishment of a just society based on Gods laws.

In that process, happiness, freedom, or choice of individuals who transgress those laws, and promote desensitizing pornography and violence, becomes expendable. The same essence can be seen through not just censorship laws, but other societal laws as well such as hijab among others.

Reports about Iran bringing a National Internet in 5 months…

So i am talking to this one amazing blogger who is blogging from Iran and this is what i find out. It was an April fool’s joke. He told me that the Irani newspapers ran the story as an April fool’s joke. They actually run a story like that every year. Not only did the ministry of communications deny these ridiculous statements, but the person who was “quoted” to have said this actually had never given this statement.

But the Western newspapers ran with the story anyways saying how many Irani Newspapers are saying this without actual research. What’s more? the Sabzis (or green movement people) went with it too and used it to show how terrible the regime is. It shows how out of touch the Sabzis are with Iran and Irani society that they did not even know it was a joke even though Irani newspapers have been running such articles every April 1st for a while now.

In other news that was not a joke, the son of Reza Shah Pahlavi actually has been quoted to have asked Israel to attack Iran. I guess treachery runs in the blood.

Iran claims internet censorship is Western propaganda

I have been seeing tumblr reports recently about Iran replacing internet with National alternatives recently. These reports are bullshit. As the Iranian Communication Ministry says.

By Lawrence Latif

REPORTS that Iran is planning to shut down the internet and replace it with home-grown web sites have been rubbished by the country’s communications ministry.

Iran had reportedly planned to block access to the internet and replace web sites such as Google and Facebook with Iranian alternatives, but the Iranian government called such reports Western propaganda. Reza Taghipour, Iran’s Communications and Information Technology minister reportedly said in an interview, “All Internet Service Providers (ISP) should only present National Internet by August,” however his department distanced itself from the claim by not confirming the minister’s comments.

Iran’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said, “The report is in no way confirmed by the ministry” adding the reports of Iran planning a complete internet blackout was “completely baseless”, adding that the claims were from “the propaganda wing of the West”.

Iran already blocks access to a number of foreign web sites and in the past has blocked web sites such as Facebook, Google and the BBC.

Even if Iran does go down the route of blocking foreign web sites and pushing its citizens onto web sites it can control, history has shown that it is very difficult to stop users from viewing foreign content. Services such as proxies, TOR, SSH tunnelling and virtual private networks can make it very difficult for governments to track and decipher what network users are doing

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/196ox)