Salam
My intention wasn't to be harsh, but realistic. Go ahead, sign the petition - I never said not to.
I have been in the user-end of the computer business for nearly 20 years, have true business experience, and have a politician in my close family. Internet petitions (and email petitions) - whether for a cause, against a business or practice, or for/against a political item - really do nothing for any purpose, except maybe to share information. Internet petitions are not taken seriously because they are too easy to fake (someone could login at a whole bunch of different computers and use fake names) and too difficult to verify. Even pen & paper petitions (which are much easier to fact-check) are not legal documents and only serve the purpose to share the people's opinion.
My other point was simply that it would be difficult for Wikipedia to take the petition seriously since there are pictures (old artwork type) depicting Prophet Mohammad on various sites around the internet - thereby, they may argue, why are they being targeted? And where are the petitions to all the other sites? It personally took me 1 google search to find at least 3 different sites with pictures (and again, I am not talking about the Danish cartoons or political cartoons), and I didn't even go on to the second page of results.
Sign the petition, sign away! Insha'Allah this may be the one online petition that goes somewhere. But a better choice would be to personally contact the people that run the Wikipedia website, explain the situation (there are many people who don't understand the idea of the pictures), and calmly request the pictures be removed - then perhaps find a network of people (around the world, with wikipedia being used around the world) that would work together with a letter writing campaign (real letters are more effective than email) and a pen & paper petition if necessary. Of course, letters should be mature and explanatory (with correct spelling and grammar, no matter what language they are sent it), not angry and accusing, if you want them to be read.
Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
200 2nd Ave. South #358
St. Petersburg, FL 33701-4313 USA
Phone: +1-727-231-0101
Email:
[email protected]
Fax: +1-727-258-0207
I am sorry if some people thought I sounded harsh; that wasn't my intention.
Lana
PS - here is a link to the snopes website about the use of internet petitions.
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.asp?print=y