Lebanon Considers Banning Blackberrys Too

[ruffopurititiwang]

Islam is a religion, not a race. So bashing it doesn't make you racist. You can be called a bigot, but not a racist.

 

[eddieroolz]

I don't get why all these nations suddenly want to ban these devices. Other countries have successfully reached agreements with RIM that allows access. Why can't these countries negotiate!?

 

[Zingam]

BTW these countries are USA best friends...

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]ruffopurititiwang[/nom]Islam is a religion, not a race. So bashing it doesn't make you racist. You can be called a bigot, but not a racist.[/citation]

It is practically a race
Banishing it does not make you a bigot.
You have to be a non-muslim in a predominantly muslim society to see what it is all about.

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]swell9[/nom]Why is it whenever a Middle Eastern country is involved, religion is the cause? Even if we are talking about Blackberries and iPhones.Ignorance is not a bliss.[/citation]

Because religion is so important part of society. Just as important it used to be in Europe in the Middle Ages. The Priest of the village is de facto the most important political, cultural etc figure in that community. Nothing happens without his approval.

 

[ruffopurititiwang]

It is practically a race

That's debatable.

 

[Guest]

have you all forgotten that mossad used blackberrys to kill a hamas leader in a hotel maybe thats why they are getting banned

 

[techguy378]

The countries mentioned in this article don't have a problem with Bitlocker encryption in Windows Vista or later (which does NOT have a backdoor) so what is the big deal about BB Messenger? Legally citizens of the mentioned countries in the article have the right to have a 100% private conversation verbally or otherwise when using a public utility for communication. The laws are the same in the USA and Canada.

 

[Stardude82]

First, Lebanon is very religiously diverse. Secondly, Nokia and Siemens, et al. are very willing to put all sorts of back doors into their networks to sell equipment. You have shockingly little expectation of privacy even in liberal European companies.

 

[ss78]

Quite a lot of ignorance here! Lebanon is NOT a Muslim country! At least 50% of its population is Christian! It is one of the more liberal countries in the region, in some cases more liberal than Israel! It may have its issues but give it a couple of years of stability and economic growth and it will be like it used to be, the banking and tourism capital of the Middle East.

Also It's not Muslims who want to "ban" RIM but the governments. Most Middle Eastern countries do not rely on what their religious figures say to dictate policy. Saudi Arabia maybe but certainly not Lebanon!

They want access to sensitive information for some valid reasons although I don't doubt they might abuse that privilege but even civil liberties get trounced on in western countries. The Middle East is not alone when it comes to human rights violations!

What they probably need is a method of being able to ensure terrorists, assassins, crime syndicates and so on cannot use the Blackberry to commit crimes both locally and internationally. There's a bit of logic to their demands, provided they don't demand too much.

 

[MoulaZX]

[citation][nom]ss78[/nom]Quite a lot of ignorance here! Lebanon is NOT a Muslim country! At least 50% of its population is Christian! It is one of the more liberal countries in the region, in some cases more liberal than Israel! It may have its issues but give it a couple of years of stability and economic growth and it will be like it used to be, the banking and tourism capital of the Middle East.Also It's not Muslims who want to "ban" RIM but the governments. Most Middle Eastern countries do not rely on what their religious figures say to dictate policy. Saudi Arabia maybe but certainly not Lebanon! They want access to sensitive information for some valid reasons although I don't doubt they might abuse that privilege but even civil liberties get trounced on in western countries. The Middle East is not alone when it comes to human rights violations! What they probably need is a method of being able to ensure terrorists, assassins, crime syndicates and so on cannot use the Blackberry to commit crimes both locally and internationally. There's a bit of logic to their demands, provided they don't demand too much.[/citation]

Finally someone who finally gets it. Was starting to think everyone on here was a racist / bigot redneck. You give and take, and until you've lived both in the Middle East AND in Western Countries you have absolutely no right to make any claims of what it is like to live there.

By that last statement, I would have the right to say something, but entirely off topic, the guy I just quoted got it, why cant you guys?

If they are being entirely honest about their need to sometimes in rare circumstances intercept possible terrorist communication, where is the harm in that? The only issue becomes, again, like the guy before me said... wheres the limit?

 

[sevyr]

thank you ss78 for actually having the decency to clear the facts up Some people just blatantly write down their opinions as if they're facts. Pls check up on your knowledge b4 u write something down, it may upset ALOT of people (this is the internet for christs sake)

and wow my cousins who live in lebanon were actually thinking about getting a BlackBerry xD poor them.
But what i don't get is..why blackberry only? What i understood is that there are security issues in the telecommunication network...but why only BlackBerry?

 

[Zingam]

Year Christians Percent
1926 84%
1932 403,300 50.9%
1985 561,000 25%
2009 1,647,360 39%

50% Christians??? 😀

 

[ss78]

@sevyr, because the way the BB sends messages and data is more unique than other phones and it has them sent to special RIM servers instead of using the subscribed telecommunications company's servers.

Yes the Christian population is falling but has risen since 1985, it was 25% then? Probably many fled the civil war. There are a lot more Lebanese abroad too so the figures aren't 100% accurate.

Everyone wants to bunch the Middle East into one single region but that's just ludicrous! Countries like Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Jordan have large Christian populations and many of them are very well off in comparison. The population in general is quite liberal too. Not every Muslim practices Islam, just as not every Christian goes to church on Sunday 😉

 

[Silmarunya]

[citation][nom]Camikazi[/nom]The US government can take a peek into phones from a Canadian company who does not back down when other countries try and get them to lessen security? Somehow I doubt that, these countries are wanting to ban because RIM WON'T let them have a backdoor into their phones. RIM won't jeopardize the security of their network just to please some country.[/citation]

Several countries, including Britain and the US (and other countries with major servers) can eavesdrop on Blackberry traffic. Other nations can't. Odd, isn't it?

 

[Silmarunya]

[citation][nom]Zingam[/nom]Year Christians Percent1926 84%1932 403,300 50.9%1985 561,000 25%2009 1,647,360 39%50% Christians???[/citation]

Take into account statistics before the 1960's were extremely unreliable as the French colonial government gave the christians in Lebanon massive privileges and deliberately over-estimated their numbers to justify that preferential treatment.

Besides, 40% christians is a fair share - and that's not including the Druzes, who are neither islamic or christian (although people with limited knowledge of the region sometimes classify them as a muslims sect).

 

[Silmarunya]

[citation][nom]regulas[/nom]Who cares, what these "We want to live in the stone ages" Muslim countries think anyway.[/citation]

Which ones? There must be a second Middle-East somewhere that I didn't know of, because the widely known one is quite advanced and liberal...

Turkey is a secular democracy (one that's more functional than America's partisan polarization btw), Israel, even though it doesn't exactly respect human rights, is an advanced and western nation. Syria has an excellent public healthcare and rather advanced technology. Bahrein is a worldwide financial center. The Emirates are extremely advanced and wealthy. Egypt has a stable economy and a fairly liberal interpretation of islam.

Saoudi-Arabia (America's big ally) is NOT representative for the Middle-East a whole. Please learn to understand that.

 

[mhafizji]

i guess i know whats the problem, skype is also blocked in UAE (as of now) the reason shown was quite the same security and blah. but my friend was working with the communication ministry and the actual thing was they loose money if skype works eg. my sister stays ther and with the skype mVoip i cud talked to her over wifi for free. and u see the whole country is filled with expatriates.

now the bb has almost the same thing with a low monthly rental u get free messaging, email etc. while the internet is veryy expensive and above all owned by the government, same goes for saudi and lebenon

my theory i may be wrong

 

[fayzaan]

Its funny that people are bashing Islam here. There is no country in the world today that follows the Islamic government system (which is the Caliphate/Khilafah). It no longer exists as idiots overthrew it during the Ottoman Empire. Since then, no country has had the Caliphate system in place.

In relation to this topic, Khilafah uses fundamental fixed laws from the Quran that protect the basic rights and freedoms of people which include privacy. So this has nothing to do with Islam, rather it is the governments in place who are deciding to do this.

Just like how the silly American government passes laws behind the peoples back (without the people voting on it or even knowing about it).

Thank you!

 

[hardcore_gamer]

please leave the religion out of this