The Pakistani government has blocked the social networking site Twitter because of material it deemed an affront to Islam, a government official has said

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Information Technology said that Twitter was blocked because the site did not remove links and references to a competition on Facebook to post images of the Muslim prophet Muhammad. "The government is in contact with Twitter and had asked them to remove the material. When they didn't, it was decided that the site would be blocked," said spokesman Naveed Ahmed. The teachings of Islam prohibit images of God and Muhammad. Ahmed said that officials from Pakistan's Telecommunications Authority will meet to see where things stand with their demand for Twitter to remove the material and what to do next.