Islamabad - The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday adopted a resolution strongly condemning blasphemous cartoons disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The committee sent a copy of the resolution to the Foreign Office so that the latter could convey it to the European Union (EU) ambassadors in Pakistan. The committee which met under the chairmanship of Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel at the Parliament House also offered Fateh for the victims of terrorist attack on the Army Public School Peshawar on December 16.
The resolution said: “The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, representing the sentiments of the Pakistani people and all civilised humanity strongly condemns the willful slander and insults hurled in a section of the French media towards Islam and the core beliefs of all Muslims.”
It further states: “Such an approach reflects hypocrisy and double standards among some in the West who justify this provocation in the name of ‘freedom’, while jailing those who deny the Holocaust”.
The resolution welcomed the statement of Pope Francis-II who also said there were limits to free expression. It urged the government to take up the issue with the European Union in Brussels, and criminalise Islamophobia in a manner similar to laws regarding the Holocaust.
Heavily armed men shouting religious slogans stormed the headquarters of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris on Jan 7, killing 12 people in cold blood in the worst attack in France in decades.
Victims included four prominent cartoonists, among them the editor-in-chief, Stephane Charbonnier, who had lived under police protection for years after receiving death threats.