Mark Zuckerberg Threatened By Muslim Extremists: Facebook CEO Reveals Muslims Wanted Him Sentenced To Death, Post Goes Viral

Mark Zuckerberg has been threatened by Muslim extremists due to his support of free speech on Facebook. In wake of the Paris Massacre that took place at the office of French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the Facebook CEO decided to shed lights on threats he’s also received. So, of course, he took to the social media network with a statement about his rift with Muslims.

On Friday, January 9, the 30-year-old billionaire posted a lengthy status about the disagreement. He revealed Muslims were calling for his death, when he decided against banning offensive content about Mohammed. Since he made the executive order to support freedom of speech, many Islamists were quite furious.

Here’s Zuckerberg’s statement.

A few years ago, an extremist in Pakistan fought to have me sentenced to death because Facebook refused to ban content about Mohammed that offended him. We stood up for this because different voices — even if they’re sometimes offensive — can make the world a better and more interesting place. Facebook has always been a place where people across the world share their views and ideas. We follow the laws in each country, but we never let one country or group of people dictate what people can share across the world.

Yet as I reflect on yesterday’s attack and my own experience with extremism, this is what we all need to reject — a group of extremists trying to silence the voices and opinions of everyone else around the world.I won’t let that happen on Facebook. I’m committed to building a service where you can speak freely without fear of violence.

My thoughts are with the victims, their families, the people of France and the people all over the world who choose to share their views and ideas, even when that takes courage. ?#?JeSuisCharlie?

The post has gone viral, with more than 400,000 likes and over 30,000 comments. Although thousands of Facebook users commended Zuckerberg for his courageous actions, of course, there were some who still weren’t pleased with his statements. Many Muslims and Pakistani Facebook users were offended because, to some, the statement reads as if Zuckerberg blamed a whole nation for one person’s actions. Then, of course, there were some who condemned his decision to support freedom of speech because offensive, religion-bashing posts could fall into that category.

Here are some of the comments.

“Mark, being a Pakistani I do appreciate your thoughts but I’d like to clear one thing here, not all the “Pakistani” possess similar mindset & you can’t just blame the whole nation on the basis of one person’s act. As far as the religious material on Facebook is concerned, I think you’re doing a great job in reviewing every application against particular pages/material.”

“Zuck making fun of peoples religious beliefs is not content you should not condone or allow it to happen…even if they believe in the magical tea pot…there should be laws protecting religious beliefs this is not freedom of speech issue but an issue of respect for your fellow mans beliefs..what if people drew obscene pictures of Jesus???”

“proud of you! keep up the great work you do”

“Its funny how ur policies act all protective when someone’s fake account is created.. or when a person in particular is being harassed on Facebook.. but when it comes to making fun of a sacred figure of the second largest religion of this world.. U would like to label it as freedom of speech and shove it up everyone’s throats to digest it in the name of a different opinion.
I would really like to see what u do if someone starts a page on “lets draw mark and his wife nude.”

“P.S i really am against killing anyone just because they made some stupid cartoon.. Islam is much larger than dealing with these little idiotic acts.”

Do you agree or disagree with Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to continue supporting freedom of speech? Share your thoughts.

[Image via Facebook]