Sindh condemns French government’s stance

HYDERABAD/ KARACHI:

Thousands of people took to the streets in Karachi and across the province on Friday to protest the publication of blasphemous caricatures by the French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo.

The anti-Charlie Hebdo rallies in the province largely remained peaceful, except for a protest demonstration outside the French consulate in Karachi that turned violent.

Hundreds of protesters at a rally organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in Karachi demanded Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the rulers of other Muslim countries to suspend diplomatic relations with France until it ‘ceased official support to blasphemy in the name of freedom of expression.’

“With the support of the French government, the magazine has been publishing blasphemous caricatures since 2006, hurting the sentiments of the 1.5 billion Muslims across the world,” said JI Karachi Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman. “If their idea of freedom of expression is based on the total non-acceptance of other ideologies and sentiments, then we prefer to throw away this skewed notion of free speech.”

Speaking to a rally outside Khoja Isna Ashari Mosque in Kharadar, Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen’s leader Maulana Ali Anwar Jafri said that the publishers of Charlie Hebdo and other secular and liberal extremists, who were involved in the publications of blasphemous caricatures, deserved capital punishment. “We urge the West to isolate the blasphemers and adopt punitive measures against them; otherwise the Islamic world will boycott the West diplomatically, politically, economically and strategically.”

Meanwhile, the Hyderabad Union of Journalists as well as the Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Pakistan, Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal, Sunni Tehreek, Jamutud Dawa, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, Dawat-e-Islami and other religious groups also staged protest demonstrations in Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Nawabshah.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 17^th, 2015.