Has nothing to do with "Halal". NOTHING about Islamic jurisprudence (Fiqh) makes a mention of anything but edibles when it comes to Halal. If you hear some autocratic douchebag call something Halal or Haram when speaking of non-food items, you know you're being bullshat.
This is nothing but good ole consolidation of power. Iranians call it Halal, Americans call it counter-terrorism and intellectual property, others call it enforcement of rightous morals, upright character, national concensus, surprise non-consensual posterior-sex or whatever label one assigns to power-grab. This is it.
Fuck the ruling Mulahs and fuck the business, political and military-industrial engines that are conspiring against the People everywhere on earth.
Muslim's here, Halal as in حلال and Haram as in حَرَام do not limit themselves to stuff related to food. Really it's not. I am not implying that Internet can be haram or halal, but there are things besides food that are considered either halal or haram. For example, sexual intercourse without nikah is considered haram, and the opposite is considered halal.
Thanks for correcting the mistake in the parent comment. For the uninitiated: as a simplification things you can do fall into three categories: halal (you can do it and it's a good thing), makruh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makruh, مكروه) (smt that's not a clear sin but should best be avoided), and haram (you shouldn't do it, it's sin), these all have subclasses and it's complicated, so this is a rough guide. The non-Muslim population generally encounters only the food aspect of this distinction, due to notices on restaurants and food items.
Now, many (orthodox) Muslims would consider lusting after women who are not your wife (or wives where that applies) as haram, and see the Internet as a thing that facilitates this. This is not a new thing, e.g. the Internet is heavily filtered in Saudi Arabia. You can't subscribe to, say, Playboy from that country or have it sent to you, because they check the mail items.
Now, whether all this makes sense in year 2012 is another question.
I am sorry for not providing enough details. Nikah is a kind of procedure, analogous to the christian church procedure where priest makes the marriage lawful by christian rules, but instead the priest, we have mullahs, and instead of church we have mosques( Though if I am not mistaken, my parents had their nikah at home, which is also considered ok at least in our country). I think the wikipedia page would be the most unbiased source for you to check out if you are interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Islam
Interesting. The Jewish equivalents of kosher (proper), parve (neutral) or treif (bad) also originally only applied to food (Kashrut dietary laws), but going as far back as the 3rd century, kosher came to mean "virtuous." It is pretty easy jump once you start talking about utensils used for food being kosher or not.
Reverse Influence from Christianity perhaps? I may have lost the faith - but I've always liked the following as a religious statement: (From Matt 15 / ESV)
You are still no more intelligent than the others.17 Don't you understand? Anything that goes into your mouth goes into your stomach and then on out of your body.18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these are the things that make you ritually unclean.19 For from your heart come the evil ideas which lead you to kill, commit adultery, and do other immoral things; to rob, lie, and slander others.20 These are the things that make you unclean. But to eat without washing your hands as they say you should—this doesn't make you unclean.
It's been called 'Halal Internet' by the government for the past two years (they're both in Persian):
- http://irna.ir/NewsShow.aspx?NID=30339700 (IRNA is Iran's Official News Agency, and this guy is Vice President’s deputy of Supervision and Coordination of Economic Strategies)
>> Fuck the ruling Mulahs and fuck the business, political and military-industrial engines that are conspiring against the People everywhere on earth.
Some of us (Iranians) are convinced that they are one and the same, Mahmud!
Shorn of their regime specific insignias, they appear to be interchangeable. Can you, for example, tell the difference between the cops beating on G7 protesters and IRI's riot corps? Same equipment, same training, same uniforms, and the same attitude towards the dissenting citizen.
Certainly nothing in Islam (partisan of Ali or not) even remotely allows for the establishment of an all powerful 'Pope' like figure of the Velayateh Faqih [1]. So whether halal is applicable or not is irrelevant. The very foundation of the entity that is issuing these religious directives is based on a lie (or at best a grave theological error by the self-styled "Signs of God" aka Ayat'o'llahs) and [must] be dismantled.
Follow the money is as always applicable. They are all business partners, and yes, apparently they are globally announcing that they will shy of no measure to hold on to their loot and power. "All options are on the table".
a) people's patience runs out, they revolt and win and we end up keeping open/decentralized internet
b) idiot politicians and greedy corporations win, and everyone gets a number tattooed on his chest, and all of us become no more than a few rows in a bunch of databases
This is nothing but good ole consolidation of power. Iranians call it Halal, Americans call it counter-terrorism and intellectual property, others call it enforcement of rightous morals, upright character, national concensus, surprise non-consensual posterior-sex or whatever label one assigns to power-grab. This is it.
Fuck the ruling Mulahs and fuck the business, political and military-industrial engines that are conspiring against the People everywhere on earth.