Pakistan

Pakistan lodges Facebook protest with US

Express May 22, 2010

WASHINGTON: Pakistan's Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani lodged Pakistan's official protest over the blasphemous sketches on Facebook, on Saturday.

The Pakistani ambassador met US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke in Washington and stated that religion is a very sensitive issue for Pakistanis.

Haqqani stressed that people of the country cannot tolerate disrespect of their beloved Prophet (PBUH).

It may be mentioned here that the foreign office was ordered by the Lahore High Court to formally register a protest with the US on the issue of blasphemous sketches.

The report of Pakistan's protest will be submitted before the court.

COMMENTS (10)

Balaji | 14 years ago | Reply While Pakistanis have the right to protest against an alleged blasphemy, they should also ponder if they are overreacting to it. In the West there is nothing sacred. Lincoln, Roosevelt, Jesus, Queen Elizabeth, Krishna... everybody has been lampooned. That's how the democracy there works - by making nothing sacred, people have more room to be objective and can more easily point out mistakes in their public figures. Hindu, Jewish and Christian figures have been offended a lot of times in the West, but most times they wither out because we don't bite the trap and throw tantrums. On the other hand, Islamic nations have found to be reacting aggressively for every little offense. This whole episode started when muslims in RevolutionIslam.com threatened South Park with murder - like the gruesome murder of Theodore Van Gogh. Van Gogh guy's only mistake was to bring out the gender inequalities in Islam with a small movie. If you don't like his idea, write blogs or ignore him. Brutal murder and justifying it is the thing that world can't tolerate. Pakistan's overreaction kind of justifies Islamaphobia and the wrong notion that muslims are not compatible with modern free society. By just accepting this notion of the hard right in the West you are digging your own grave. At some point no Muslim will be allowed in the West and life for existing immigrants will get hard. My advice to Pakistanis is to cool down when a public figure is offended in the West. Public figures like prophets are meant to be lampooned and criticized & that would not detract the believer in any way. Convey your protest peacefully if the offense get excessive. But, blocking Wikipedia, Facebook, Youtube just for one Facebook group is really horrible and is not acceptable in the rest of the world.

Nabeel | Create Your First Website | 14 years ago | Reply Great. I congratulate the government for protesting and letting our voice be heard. Thank you for lodging the official protest Mr.Haqqani.

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adnan | 14 years ago | Reply Since when has foreign affairs been under the purview of the judiciary? Our clueless courts are getting way way out of hand.

Shumaila | 14 years ago | Reply Well I think we should not use facebook. Lets just shift to another social networking website.

danish | 14 years ago | Reply **Pakistani ambassador HUSSAIN HAQANI is trying to score some points here and he is trying to improve his tarnished image in the eyes of the Pakistani people and the government of Pakistan is trying to get the attention of the people of Pakistan away from real issues.If Pakistani government loves the prophet Muhammad(peace be upon him)so much then it should not allow the drone attacks and it should not allow the oil supply to Afghanistan for the NATO forces via Pakistan.ALSO,the Pakistani government should lodge a strong protest over the detention of Dr.Asia in USA.If the Pakistani government is so sensitive about Muhammad(peace and blessings of ALLAH be upon him)then it should not support America on the so-called "war on terror" and it should not allow the killings of our afghan and Pakistani Muslims.If the government is so sincere then it should not take America and other European countries as its protector rather it should take only ALLAH as its protector as described in the glorious QURAN.

Pakistani Aaloo | 14 years ago | Reply This is getting ridiculously out of hand. The whole world is laughing now. In a country besieged by war and is in an unfriendly backyard, doesn't our foreign office have anything better to do? Secondly, the US government has no jurisdiction over this and their freedom of speech laws guarantee that.

Amjad | 14 years ago | Reply Nauman what are sundry issues by the way?

Khaver | 14 years ago | Reply Sheer genius. The LHC thinks the US Govt runs Facebook? Doesn't the LHC know that the US Govt's First Amendment probably would support Facebook?

Nauman | 14 years ago | Reply It's about time this happened. On one hand, United States declares Pakistan an ally and the need for American safety, but on other hand, does too less than satisfactory to ease Pakistan's concerns on sundry issues. Pakistan is the role-model for other Islamic nations to learn from. Pakistan acted as it must have. Pakistan proved once more that it still has a countless number of slaves of Allah and lovers of His Prophet (peace be upon him). In my viewpoint, Pakistan followed all the right steps, blessed be the sacred land.

Muriam Butt | 14 years ago | Reply Pak Govt should try for making blasphemy law through United nation ....like Holocaste in eourpe.....so no body can even think abt such competations or anything else...

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