FO summons French ambassador over Macron’s statement, blasphemous sketches

The Foreign Office summoned on Monday French Ambassador Marc Baréty to record Pakistan’s strong protest over French President Emmanuel Macron's Islamophobic comments and publication of blasphemous sketches.

The special secretary for Europe handed over a letter of protest to the French ambassador.

Earlier this month, schoolteacher Samuel Paty, was beheaded by an 18-year-old man for showing blasphemous cartoons to his students in the name of “freedom of expression”. The 18-year-old was subsequently killed by the French police.

Responding to the teacher's killing, French President Macron had said that “Islam as a religion is in crisis all over the world, schools will be closely monitored and control over incoming foreign funding to mosques will be further improved.”

Several Muslim countries condemned Macron’s statement and called for a boycott of French products, whereas Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “What problem does the French president have with Muslims and Islam? He needs mental treatment."

Earlier today, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had condemned President Macron's Islamophobic comments and said that “there is resentment in the world over the blasphemous caricatures.”

FM Qureshi urged the United Nations (UN) to take notice and action against the hate-based narrative against Islam.

"Irresponsible statement of the French president has added fuel to the fire," the foreign minister added. "Nobody has the right to hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims under the garb of freedom of expression."

The FM further warned that the seeds of hate being sowed today would polarise the society and have serious consequences.

"The French ambassador to Pakistan has been summoned to the Foreign Office to register a protest," Qureshi added.

FM said that a comprehensive resolution would be presented, on the instructions of the Prime Minister Imran Khan, at the next meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers, proposing to observe March 15 as the international day against Islamophobia.

Prime Minister Imran Khan has also urged Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to impose a ban on Islamophobia and hate content against Islam which is causing “rampant abuse and vilification of Muslims” on social media platforms.

“I am writing to draw your attention to the growing Islamophobia that is encouraging hate, extremism and violence across the world and especially through the use of social media platforms including Facebook. I appreciate your taking the step to rightly ban any posting that criticises or questions the Holocaust, which was the culmination of the Nazi pogrom of the Jews in Germany and across Europe as Nazis spread across Europe,” PM Imran said in a letter wrote to Zuckerbeg on Sunday.