Senate committee adopts resolution against Charlie Hebdo cartoons
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ISLAMABAD: The Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted a resolution Friday which strongly condemned blasphemous cartoons disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The committee sent a copy of the resolution to the Foreign Office so that the latter could convey it to European Union (EU) Ambassadors in Pakistan.
The meeting was chaired by Senator Haji Muhammad Adeel at the Parliament House today.
The resolution said:
"The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, representing the sentiments of the Pakistanis 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.
More on this: Pope on Charlie Hebdo: There are limits to free expression
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.
The satirical newspaper gained notoriety in Feb 2006 when it reprinted sacrilegious cartoons that had originally appeared in Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. The cartoons set off a wave of violence in the Middle East which claimed 50 lives.
Its offices were fire-bombed in Nov 2011 when it published an objectionable sketch.
Despite being taken to court under anti-racism laws, the weekly continued to publish controversial cartoons.
