A cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban that was first published in a Danish newspaper is 2006 was reprinted in 17 Danish newspapers last week, sparking protests by Muslims in Indonesia and other countries. The cartoon has also found its way on to YouTube, prompting the government of Pakistan to order all ISPs in the country to block access to the site due to “the ratio of non-Islamic objectionable videos has increased on it.”

YouTube isn’t the only site to have problems. Wikipedia has received more than 180,000 complains regarding images on the site that show the Prophet’s face. So far, both YouTube and Wikipedia are standing firm and not removing or altering the images of Muhammed.

YouTube has been banned in 7 countries now, including Pakistan. Clearly, banning of YouTube and other sites like it that publish user-generated content are going to continually be banned as Internet access continues to propagate throughout the world. The “free thinking” countries will continue to produce content that is offensive to the more “restricted thinking” countries.

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