"The URL you requested has been blocked"

We are informing you that our IIUI readers are currently experiencing some problem in accessing this blog site from International Islamic University Islamabad. Whenever the blog’s URL is launched in web browser from IIUI, a message pops up: The URL you requested has been blocked. URL = iiuiblog.blogspot.com. Apparently it looks that I I U I Blog has been blocked at IIUI’s internal network. We have been trying to understand this situation realising the fact that there might be some technical bottlenecks behind this restraint but now it looks that this blog site is deliberately blocked. We have contacted IIUI web & IT team and asked them about this matter but so far we could not get any response from them.

Since the day we started this blog, we have struggled to keep it as diverse in opinion as possible but alas!! The narrow-mindedness of a few people has apparently prevailed and the authorities at IIUI have resorted to censorship and blockade of blog which is condemnable and lamentable in today’s free, democratic Pakistan. It also reflects their sheer bad taste as such technological measures can be easily circumvented these days.

There is no doubt that a few posts were critical of the policies of IIUI administration but we don’t think that the step taken by the authorities is in any way justifiable. Our purpose has always been to generate a healthy and candid debate within IIUI and we are of the view that dissent is necessary for the intellectual life of an institution.We’ll request Dr Manzoor Ahmad ("learned Islamic scholar " and “the greatest living philosopher of today’s Pakistan”) and Dr Anwar H Siddiqui (“the visionary president of IIUI”) to please look into the matter and see who are those that are responsible for strangling our voice at IIUI campus and let them share some wisdom and vision that God has bestowed to you both.