Pakistan decides to raise sacrilege issue at OIC, EU

by Tauqeer Abbas
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Shafaqna Pakistan:A day after lodging a diplomatic protest with the Norwegian government over the desecration of the Holy Quran by an Islamophobic and anti-Muslim group, Pakistan announced on Sunday that it would raise the matter at the international forums.

The decision was taken by the core committee of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. The sacrilegious act, meanwhile, whipped up nationwide anger as protest rallies were staged in different towns and cities of the country.

“The core committee unanimously condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran and decided to take up the matter in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and the European Union (EU),” said Firdous Ashiq Awan, the special assistant to the prime minister on information and broadcasting, while briefing the media after the meeting.

The head of the extreme right-wing group – Stop the Islamisation of Norway (SION) – last week staged a protest against Islam in the Norwegian city of Kristiansand where the group’s head attempted to burn a copy of the Holy Scripture.

A young man, identified as Umer Ilyas, prevented Lars Thorson from committing the blasphemous act, but the latter threw it in a waste container in the presence of a police contingent. Ilyas, who is being hailed as hero by Muslims worldwide, was taken into custody by the police.

Firdous said the core committee has also passed a resolution on the issue which “will be submitted in the OIC and the EU”.

The public desecration of the Holy Quran has shocked and angered 1.3 billion Muslims around the world, including those in Pakistan, with Islamic scholars and clerics denouncing the blasphemous act which was allowed to be staged by Norwegian authorities in the name of “freedom of expression.”

Pakistan’s foreign ministry on Saturday summoned Norway’s ambassador to lodge a diplomatic protest. Oslo was urged to bring those responsible for the sacrilegious act to justice and prevent recurrence of such an incident in the future. Pakistan’s ambassador in Oslo was also directed to convey Pakistan’s protest and deep concern to Norwegian authorities.

On the streets, meanwhile, protest rallies were staged in different towns and cities of the country against the desecration of the Holy Quran. Protesters called upon the government to snap trade relations with Norway.

Dozens of activists of the politico-religious Jamaat-i-Islami party staged a demonstration outside Peshwar Press Club where they demanded that the Pakistan government use diplomatic channels to press Western countries to ban such blasphemous acts.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council also denounced the incident and decided to boycott courts across the province on Nov 25 in protest against the sacrilegious act. Similar rallies were also staged in other cities.

Meanwhile, a Norwegian police commissioner has warned people that desecrating the Holy Quran and making hate speeches can result in a violation of the criminal code of conduct, according to a foreign news agency.

The police commissioner said that everyone had the right to freedom of expression so long as it did not violate the law. He warned that if the law was violated, then police would interfere.

 

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