Websites to face anti-Islam checks

Pakistan will start monitoring seven major websites, including Google, Yahoo and Amazon, for sacrilegious content, while blocking links to 17 lesser-known sites it deems offensive to Muslims, including pages within YouTube.

The move, which came in response to a court order, follows last month's temporary ban on Facebook following a competition to draw the Prophet Mohamed.

The ban drew both praise and condemnation in a country that has struggled to figure out how strict a version of Islam it should follow. The sites to be monitored also include MSN, Hotmail, YouTube and Bing.