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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