A day after French President Emmanuel Macron criticised Islam, Pakistan summoned French envoy to register a protest for hurting sentiments of Muslims around the world.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi reportedly said that it was time to make a collective decision on the sensitive issue. “Civilised nations should respect Muslim sentiments,” he added.
The foreign minister also proposed declaring March 15 a “Day of Solidarity” to honour the 2019 Christchurch attack in New Zealand, as he announced to take up the issue on the forum of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.
Qureshi’s comments follow a statement by the Foreign Office wherein it expressed concerns “at highly disturbing statements by certain politicians justifying such heinous acts under the garb of freedom of expression and equating Islam with terrorism, for narrow electoral and political gains.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan has also condemned Macron, saying that the French president “attacked Islam” by encouraging the display of the blasphemous caricatures.
Meanwhile, France has urged Arab countries to stop calls for boycotts of French products, while President Emmanuel Macron vowed the country would never give in to “Islamic radicals”.
The French Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement released on Sunday that in recent days there had been calls to boycott French products, notably food products, in several Middle Eastern countries as well as calls for demonstrations against France over the publication of satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
