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Assalam Aliekum,
I have spent the entire months of February to April negotiating with Etisalat about unblocking Naseeb. After weeks of running after the Etisalat customer service representatives, and not to mention taking trips to the Main Branch in Ajman with no positive outcome, I was promoted to speaking to a Support Coordinator named Mr. Haneef and later on with a Supervisor called Mr. Ameen. Both had only one thing to say that "Naseeb is a dating site and cannot be unblocked." When I realized I cannot reason with them any further, I requested them to speak to another authority. After days of waiting, I had received a call from Mr. Ahmed Imran. He promised that he would look into the matter and call me back. He called me back with the message from the Security department of Etisalat, which is responsible to monitor every website that, ?Naseeb cannot be unblocked due to its content.? After that I had to run around and try to get to the GM office of Etisalat. After weeks of calling around, I finally spoke with Abdul Rehman who works directly with the GM herself. He told me that a lot of investigation went into Naseeb before it was finally blocked. He said there was some objectionable stuff going on Naseeb which does not adhere to Islamic values. After trying to negotiate for days, in early April I finally got to talk directly with the GM of EIM named Zainab Janaidan. She was very kind to give me her time. She promised she would personally look into the website and see what can be done about it. As promised, next day I got a call from her office that they would try to unblock part of Naseeb and part of it would stay blocked, specifically the part which deals with, ?Make New Friends And Activity Partners and ?Help My Friends Meet Each Other.? Etisalat find both these categories as pure dating. I was real excited to find out that at least something is getting done about it and it is better to have parts of Naseeb unblocked than the whole site. After all something is better than nothing. But my excitement was short lived as I got a very bad news within hours that ?it is impossible to unblock parts of Naseeb and keep parts of it blocked because everything is linked together.? Ms. Zainab?s office apologized and gave me a run down of what can be done by the Naseeb authorities which would help to unblock Naseeb in UAE.
1. Remodel the website so it looks like a matrimonial site not a dating site.
2. Remove the following: ?Make New Friends And Activity Partners and ?Help My Friends Meet Each Other.?
3. Closely monitor the website as there are objectionable nicks such as gaymuslimboy (removed since then), titsass (removed since then), fingerupmyass (still existing and was on the website?s front page as a featured member), hotsexyguy and there are more. According to Etisalat, these nicks do not represent a Muslim website.
Aside from all these, the most surprising fact that I was told was, ?parents had called and complained about Naseeb and requested it to be blocked in UAE.? That came as a major surprise and blow because I never thought that harmless site like Naseeb would create problems with parents. The last thing we want is discontented parents. I personally asked Ms. Zainab if that hold any truth and she said, ?All I can say is that there were complaints about Naseeb??? Go figure! After exhausting all the means, Etisalat officially said that ?if the owner of Naseeb really wants to get it unblocked, he would have to write to the Ministry of Information. If the ministry approves his request after investigating the site, then only Naseeb can be unblocked, but for now, it would remain permanently blocked."
I want to add further that every representative and official I spoke to from Etisalat had no known knowledge of receiving any complaints from the owner of Naseeb website or any UAE Naseeb members, whether it was sent to their email address or it was called personally on their 800 6100 number. Mr. Abdul Rehman, an assistant of Ms. Zainab, told me that,? we receive 100 complaints a day, how can we possibly know how many Naseeb complaints are coming in.? That was the main reason I had written to Monis initially to collect all the UAE Naseeb member?s signatures under one complaint form and send it to Etisalat GM office. If even we had 2,000 signatures out of 4,000 members (as I was told that?s how many members are in UAE), it could have made a difference! Sadly it was never done up till today.
I want to point out to you all that I joined Naseeb in January, 2005 to find a marriage partner for my sister. It was real strange to find a guy through internet at first but I agreed to give it a shot to Naseeb because it came highly recommended through my US based friends who had been using it for a while. In March, we found a great guy for my sister and I no longer had any reason to continue my stay on Naseeb. But I continued to fight to unblock Naseeb just for the simple and only fact that I had a strong conviction that what was done was wrong. As our Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h) said, ?Allah exalted two kinds of people above others: those who spend in the cause of the Truth, and the judicious who impart their wisdom to others.? I never did anything to win a popularity contest or had any other ulterior motives as projected by some people. I never expected anything in return from anybody.
The past few months have rather been bittersweet. For one, I felt at times I was fighting this battle all alone. I have received quite a bit of negativity from people. People said some very strong things about me on Naseeb. All I can say to them is the words of one wise fellow Naseeb member that, ?Before we begin questioning another's character, we better have some answers to explain our own.? It is funny when someone tries to do something good, how much opposition they come across, how much criticism gets thrown at you by others especially when you try to make an attempt to make a difference. This kind of attitude causes hindrance and confusion to halt any positive progress been made. The sad truth is that the precious attributes of tolerance, patience, forgiveness has totally disappeared from our lives. We are so quick to judge and label others, especially people we do not even know well. The worst is anger and we all know that anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind. As over the years I have become spiritually strong, I have realized that anger is one culprit which leads us into more trouble than anything else. You know how when someone does something real bad to us, instinctively, we just want to kick their behind or give them piece of our mind, but that is the moment of truth. It is the moment to see how strong we are in our beliefs. The Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h) said that, ?Blessed are the ones who rely on Allah and have surrendered themselves before His will, who are grateful in prosperity and patient in adversity.? It is the time to put our beliefs into practicality. It is so easy to get pissed off than to forgive the other person. Like a popular saying,? everyone needs to be loved, especially when they do not deserve it.? I have learned to forgive others rather than hating them. I once read that for every moment we are angry with someone, we lose 60 seconds of happiness that we can never get back.
I also know that sooner or later truth always prevails and shows through. Regardless of the outcome, I am glad I went through this entire experience. It has taught me that even one person can make a difference in the world. Dale Carnegie said that, ?Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.? Or ? Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it?s the only thing that ever has."
I have always considered myself an ordinary person who has the ability to handle extraordinary situations in life with courage, strong beliefs, and with a great support from my family and friends. Paulo Coelho said that,? Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he'll never move.?
Coming back to Naseeb issue, I believe that even though by now, most of the UAE Naseeb members have access to proxies to use Naseeb, I still believe in the cause. I still believe that we can all make a difference- together. We can still get it unblocked. The question is if all of us are willing to do it?
Thank you for all your time and efforts and God bless.
Assalam Aliekum