http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?p...6-2-2006_pg7_60


Thursday, February 16, 2006

Telenor user on Monday, al-Warid fan by Tuesday?

By Mansoor Khan

KARACHI: Twenty-five year old Umair Baig became a Telenor user on Monday but by Tuesday he had destroyed his newly acquired SIM card and replaced it with an al-Warid connection.

"I refuse to support anybody who offends my religion and my Prophet (PBUH)," he said, referring to the fact that Telenor is a Norway-based telecommunications company. "I bought an al-Warid connection because it is a Muslim-based organisation. I did not buy a Mobilink SIM card because it is an American company and if I had bought that my protest would have made no difference."

The growing agitation against European countries against the publication of the controversial cartoons has been on the rise in Karachi where Western products, including beverages, ice cream and mobile phone connections, have been boycotted.

Interestingly, several users Daily Times spoke to, said they were opting for al-Warid cell phone connections as it is a UAE-based company. These people told Daily Times that they will also refuse to use Mobilink because it is an American company.

On Tuesday, protests in Lahore and Peshawar turned violent and on Wednesday at an Ahle Sunnat protest rally in Karachi participants pelted shops with stones during a procession from Saddar to Gurumandir and Jamshed Road. Their main target remained the Telenor outlet in Saddar, which by the time of their arrival had been closed. The protesters still destroyed the franchise display outside the shop.

Telenor had reportedly ordered the closure of all 13 outlets around the city on Tuesday. Company employees said they had been receiving threatening phone calls as well as text messages sometimes from numbers belonging to other mobile phone companies and sometimes from Telenor numbers. A terrified Telenor employee Kashif said:

"We have removed our all signboards from our all franchises, while the company stopped all easy loading (account transfer facility) processes from Wednesday onwards."

Another Telenor employee, Aqeel said: "Our dealers have been receiving threats through different methods, such as text messages and pamphlets, asking people to boycott not only our product but also products from other European-based companies."

A Telenor dealer, who had been selling easy load credit, had his mobile shop, by the name of Shalimar Mobiles, ransacked in the Metroville area of the city. The dealer was warned earlier of dealing in Telenor accounts, but he had apparently ignored the warnings, people said.

Other Telenor dealers in Metroville have stopped selling Telenor cards because of this incident and have removed the company's signboards, they added.

The police were put on red alert on Tuesday through an order by the Sindh IG. Along with the rangers, the police fanned out across the city especially close to the offices of multinational companies.

For anyone who has not heard or read that Norwagian Government had appologized and Muslim community of Norway has said to have requested their appology probably saying that it is also in the spirit of Islam to forgive.

I have used the word probably because I am not sure about the exact wording.

No one can damage the image of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as he is an ideal person for anyone to follow. Only people with incomplete or highly biased information can do such acts.

Our protest, atleast my protest was that Danish Government should appologize and those extremeists haven't done this. Norwagians have done that so why kick out the investment that is coming in.

Is it that easy to destroy Muslims? Don't use a weapon, they will burn themselves up.

I am advocating nobody but am pleading against violent protests and asking for rationality. Just listen to your conscience and ask yourself which way the Prophet Muhammad(SAW) would have responded to this.

Peace
& Regards,
Saad

the apology usually comes out as "we are sorry you were offended", but not "we are sorry for publishing"

do you accept the first kind of apology, when the second kind is not offered

Mobilink is not American. It's an Egyptian owned company (owned by Orascom Telecom).

Now this is a link about an Egyptian newspaper which published those offending cartoons in October in month of Ramadan according to the link I am posting below.

http://egyptiansandmonkey.blogspot.com/200...cott-egypt.html

So that mean we are now supposed to boycott Egyptian products too. Stop using oil because we don't know if it is of Egyptian origin or not. Mobilink off the scene that mean.

Yar, we all feel angry but why are we damaging our own house.

Moreover Norvagian government has appologized and Norwagian Muslim community has accepted it. Danes I never thought are so non considering and arrogant shall I say sort of people.

Now we should make a powerful statement by peaceful actions, economic tools and restraint at individual level to products of known Danish origins.

Saad

norway has aplogosized and Muslims scholars have accepted their apology.

Telenor today sent an SMS to all its users saying they are with us.

other than telenor, there's no other mobile phone operator who can provide quality services in Pakistan. Moblink? NO!. its known as maybe-link in Pk. the most shitty service. ufone? its just okay. Paktel? NO WAY! they dont even have GPRS. Insta? lol they're not even on GSM. Warid? its also okay.. but can't match telenor's voice and data services.

"I refuse to support anybody who offends my religion and my Prophet (PBUH),"

Great idea, but if a Norwegian newspaper publishes the cartoons, what does a Norwegian Telecom company have to do with it?


On top of that their govt apologized as well.

I think its just other telecom companies trying to exploit it unfairly, and whats the point in threatening Telenor employees?

wat a joke mate u srs abt TELENOR
man i went to pakistan for abt 2 months and came bak a month ago and to be honest wit u telenor isthe worst service provider that is in lahore and islamabad....... AL-Warid are best in customer services and cheap call rates where as MOBLINK has better coverage for telenor u had to go on roofs to get good signal where as alwarid and moblink had signals in rooms as well and the voice quailty was good tooo...

first of all, it wasnt even the norwegians, it was the danes. what does norway have to do with all of this?

:p al-warid is okay. telenor's coverage wasn't good few months back. now they're in many cities. and the best singal quality i've got till yet was on a telenor connection. even when in close rooms i get full signal strength plus very good GPRS/internet speeds. Telenor is the best (atleast in Peshawar!). hmm you was here for just 2 months so i think thats why u dont know much about them.. its not ur fault :)

well its not dat i used it for 2 months but all my relatives who r livin their have same prob and no one used telenor maybe they fixed the prob but as far as i no none of them used telenor for same reason and alwarid is the most popular especially in lahore as well as MOBLINK- JAZ but it mite depend in pashwar u guys mite have beta service from telenor

Ufone provides the best then Telenor. Warid is OK and I bloody destroyed my Mobilink sim in a rage. For mobile data services, the new CDMA local loop phone services are best.

Norwegians were the second ones to publish the cartoons,in support of the Danish paper,and freedom of speech.
Anywayz, i think its pathetic how Muslims,especially muslim scholars handled the whole situation.They used this very sensitive issue to basically prove the publishers right, that we are bunch of idiots ready to go off at a minutes notice.
There were a 100 ways to handle the issue,we see the worst one being used.

First off, if they have footage of the riotings,ppl who burnt down other ppls property shud be jailed and fined, any religious leader who enticed ppl to riot shud also be dealth with very harshly.Pk is full of these thick headed self proclaimed scholars,who dont know much and are just politicians who wud sleep with anyone for $.So the gov. also needs to get some backing from a credible scholarly source,saying that the rioting was wrong and ppl who entice it are wrong.
Secondly, to solve this problem,we have to legally take this up with the EU,thru U.N. ,if they have the whole charter of rights,we can and shud make them add this on as well.its abt time that the east also has a say abt what rights ppl really do have,in the UN charter.
The western media is grilling us over the issue,we are playing into their hands,its so dumb.its abt time we get smart enuf not to fall into these games.
btw,i dont think private businesses shud be targeted,u cant give collective punishment.

btw,someone shud teach them some sense,what kind of signals is this sending to the foreign investor,its not like we dont have enuf problem in that regard already!