Protests broke out in Pakistan on Thursday, after the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo – whose offices in Paris were targeted by ISIS-affiliated gunmen in 2015 – announced on Tuesday that it will reprint the caricatures of Prophet Mohammed that had apparently sparked the attack. The cartoons were released on Wednesday to mark the start of the trial of alleged accomplices to the massacre. In response to the publication’s decision to reprint the caricatures, French President Emmanuel Macron said he was not in a position to pass judgment on the daily’s decision, thereby defending his people’s right to freedom of speech and expression.
Dozens of anti-France demonstrators convened in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to protest the republication of the cartoons, and chanted “Stop barking, French dogs” and “Charlie Hebdo, stop.” The rally came to an end after the demonstrators drenched a French flag in petrol and set it on fire.
The protests are being supported and propagated by several Pakistani religious groups across the country. For instance, Tehreek-e-Labbaik, a Pakistani Islamist group, organized a rally in Lahore after the Friday prayers. Similar demonstrations are also set to be organized in Rawalpindi and Karachi.
Further, religious leaders are calling upon Pakistani authorities to take action against France in retaliation to the Charlie Hebdo controversy. For instance, Mohammad Zamman, a famous Sunni cleric, said, “The government of Pakistan should immediately end its diplomatic relations with France as a protest.”
Consequently, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a video message, said that he deeply condemned the French publication’s decision to republish the caricatures. He also said that Pakistani officials had lodged a strong protest at the French embassy in Islamabad, adding: “The published caricatures have hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims … I hope that this despicable act will not be repeated and those responsible for it will be taken to a court of law.”
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry, too, strongly criticized the French publication’s decision. In a statement, the ministry said, “Pakistan condemns in the strongest terms the decision by the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, to re-publish deeply offensive caricatures of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).” Further, it noted, “Such a deliberate act to offend the sentiments of billions of Muslims cannot be justified as an exercise in press freedom or freedom of expression. Such actions undermine the global aspirations for peaceful co-existence as well as social and inter-faith harmony.” The spokesperson for the ministry added that Pakistan condemned the growing Islamophobic sentiments in Europe, including the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Norway.
Protests Break Out in Pakistan Over French Publication's Caricatures of Prophet Mohammed
The same caricatures were first printed in 2015 and led to an attack by ISIS-affiliated gunmen on the publication's offices in Paris.
September 4, 2020
SOURCE: AFP