Freedom and Responsibility

This post is an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook. However, the contents are equally applicable to a lot of people across all walks of life.

Dear Mark,

Hi! I’m a regular user of Facebook (though I do not log on daily) and I have re-connected with a lot of old friends, thanks to you and your team.

Lately, I’ve been seeing with a lot of consternation the misuse of facebook by a group of people, and hence I am writing this letter to you. I do not know how to send it to you (cannot send you a message on your facebook page), hence I am going to post it on my blog in the hope that it reaches you.

This month saw an “Everybody draw Muhammad Day” on facebook. Needless to say, as a Muslim, it hurt me like hell! And I can assure you; it hurt every practicing Muslim who saw, read or heard about it.

A lot of people also wrote to each other about banning facebook. It would have been the easiest thing to do for me.

But, I believe, these sorts of reactions are possibly the reason why we have so much angst in the world today.

God has made us humans unique, in the sense of giving us the freedom to choose, to think and make our own decisions.

But at the same time, this freedom comes with a responsibility – the responsibility of doing the right thing.

And anything that has the potential of hurting 20% of the people of the world – I’m sure you’ll agree – cannot be right!

Mark, everything has a potential of amazing use for good, as well as for wrong ends. Likewise, on facebook. Your invention has done an amazing lot of good in helping people re-connect; do not let it be misused by a small group of people for their petty ends.

I read with delight your donation to Diaspora. It shows your strong belief in freedom as well as the responsibility to guard that freedom. And that is what makes me believe that you will do something about not letting facebook be a medium for people who do not respect the religion or wishes of others who have a different approach to our Creator from theirs.

Yours sincerely,

Mubin