‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ Prompts Pakistan to Block Facebook

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Pakistani students hold a banner during a May 19 protest against Facebook

REUTERS/Mohsin Raza

One Facebook group’s controversial platform has prompted a Pakistani government agency to put the nation’s news feeds on hold.

CNN reports that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority is blocking the social networking site, in lieu of a thread encouraging individuals to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Entitled ‘Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,’ Pakistan objected to the group’s mobilization of a cause deemed offensive within Muslim culture.

A prime instance of the controversy surrounding that practice came in 2005, when a Danish newspaper’s publishing of Muhammad cartoons instigated riots around the world. TIME takes a look at how aftershocks related to that event were occurring as recently as January 2010.