Millat
Facebook
Join the Millat
Facebook . This book is
for all muslims of the world
and ready to use. Pakistanis
outraged with Facebook over
blasphemous caricatures
of the Prophet Mohammed
have created a spin-off
networking site that they
dream can connect the world’s
1.6 billion Muslims.
A group of
six young IT professionals
from Lahore launched www.millatfacebook.com
on Tuesday for Muslims to
interact online and protest
against blasphemy.
“Millatfacebook
is Pakistan’s very
own, first social networking
site. A site for Muslims
by Muslims where sweet people
of other religions are also
welcome,” the website
tells people interested
in signing up.
Dubbed MFB,
after Facebook’s moniker
FB, its founder says professionals
are working around the clock
to offer features similar
to those pioneered by the
wildly popular California-based
prototype.
Each member
has a “wall”
for friends to comment on.
The site offers email, photo,
video, chat and discussion
board facilities.
The Urdu word
“Millat” is
used by Muslims to refer
to their nation. The website
claims to have attracted
4,300 members in the last
three days — mostly
English-speaking Pakistanis
in their 20s.
The number
of aficionados may be growing,
but the community is a drop
in the ocean of the 2.5
million Facebook fans in
Pakistan and there have
been some scathing early
reviews of the start-up.
Neither has
Facebook been immediately
reachable for comment.
“We
want to tell Facebook people
‘if they mess with
us they have to face the
consequences’,”
said Usman Zaheer, the 24-year-old
chief operating officer
of the software house that
hosts the new site.
“If
someone commits blasphemy
against our Prophet (PBUH)
then we will become his
competitor and give him
immense business loss,”
he told AFP, dreaming of
making “the largest
Muslim social networking
website”. Once signed
up, members are a click
away from debate on the
bulletin board.
For example,
“Enticing Fury”
wrote: “The reason
is that this forum must
be reserved for ALL MUSLIMS
OF THE WORLD and not only
Pakistan. So using the word
MILLAT is very good!
“Well
done guys. You have made
a great alternative for
the whole Muslim ummah (nation)!”
But the nascent
quality of the work-in-progress
website has preoccupied
and dismayed some, as well
as drawn at least one damning
newspaper review.
One member
wrote: “they need
2 hav more info”.
Another posted a mournful:
“need games here as
well. I missed cafe world”
— referring to the
popular Facebook page where
members can run their own
virtual cafe.
“It
was a good idea… as
it can give us a forum to
connect, but its reach is
too limited,” Mohammad
Adeel, a 31-year-old pharmacist
told AFP in Karachi, who
joined to keep up with friends
he missed due to the Facebook
ban.
Local newspaper
The Express Tribune was
crushing.
“The
quality of user experience
is so abysmal that it does
not merit the humble title,
‘Facebook clone’,”
it wrote online.
“To
sum up, MillatFacebook is
a bold effort… but
it is unlikely to capture
a large audience, judging
by the online experience
it offers currently.”
But Zaheer
is pleased with his handiwork,
saying the site has already
attracted members living
in Britain, Bulgaria, Canada,
China, Russia, the United
Arab Emirates and the United
States.
Pakistani
law student Rana Adeel,
21, signed up to MillatFB
in Lahore after receiving
invites through SMS and
email from friends.
In two days,
I got more than seven friends.
If the Facebook ban is lifted,
I’ll keep networking
on both,” he told
AFP.
