Senate passes resolution against proposed cartoon contest

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Monday unanimously adopted a resolution to strongly condemn the vicious and contemptuous decision of the notorious Islamophobe Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party of Freedom to hold a cartoon contest on Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW), recommending to the government to lodge a formal protest with the Dutch government through its embassy here.

The Senate asked the government to raise the issue at the platform of the United Nations and other world bodies. On behalf of the treasury and opposition benches, Leader of the House Senator Syed Shibli Faraz presented the resolution, during the first sitting of the 277th session of the Senate. “This strongly condemns the venomous and contemptuous decision of Geert Wilders, the notorious Islamophobe, notorious Islamophobe, belonging to the Dutch Party of Freedom to hold a “Draw Muhammad Cartoon Competition” to be held in Netherlands later this year,” it reads.

The resolution says, “The House considers that the proposed competition is tantamount to inciting hatred, racial prejudice, unrest, conflict and insecurity in a world that has already seen much bloodshed, racism, extremism, intolerance and Islamophobia and badly needs peace, interfaith harmony, mutual respect and tolerance”.

“Since under the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973, Islam is the state religion and it is the responsibility of the State to preserve, protect and promote Islam, therefore, it must stand up and articulate the general will of the Muslims of Pakistan against the proposed competition,” the resolution says.

The House pointed out that several countries had anti-blasphemy laws and a number of instruments of international law are in the field, including Article 20 and paragraph 3 of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of the UNO, UNHCR Rabat Plan of Action, The European Court of Human Rights and the European Guidelines on Freedom of Religious and Belief.

“The Senate of Pakistan reaffirms that the love for our beloved Prophet (SAW) is beyond any doubt a part of our faith and no Muslim can tolerate any such vicious, contemptuous and calculated insult of our beloved Prophet (SAW),” it reads.

The resolution recommends, “A special session of OIC may be convened to formally engage the EU, United Nations and individual states to chalk out limits of freedom of expression to maintain global peace, harmony and tolerance while ensuring freedom of expression within reasonable and lawful limitations dictated by the common good of humanity at large”.

“The government should agitate this issue at the UN General Assembly for developing global consensus against such blasphemous initiatives by a handful of mischief mongers whose sole aim seems to be creating communal discord and social unrest; the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Inter-Faith Harmony should constitute a Committee of Muslim intellectuals and experts to deliberate on the issue and frame workable proposals for preventing such blasphemous movies, cartoons books and other such content,” the resolution, which carries signatures of leaders of political parties, reads.

After the Senate passed the resolution, Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was present in the House, rose to make a policy statement. He emphasised that the matter would be raised at the upcoming UN session as well as at the OIC. However, he insisted that he knew the Western masses’ mindset and under the freedom of expression, the majority there, did not comprehend, how deeply hurt the 1.25 billion Muslims feel over such acts and how much love they had for their Prophet (SAW).

“To make such moves is very easy there. The incidents after Salman Rushdie issue, make it very easy for those, who promote hate in the West. The repeated occurrence of such blasphemous acts is a collective failure of the Muslim Ummah. The OIC must draw up a strategy and raise this matter at prominent fora and convince them about how sensitive we are about this issue,” Imran said.

The prime minister pointed out that there were four European countries, wherein there was punishment even on the interpretation of Holocaust; whether 3 million or 4 million Jews were killed or more. There is jail-term for even this, as it hurts them but such acts against our Holy Prophet (SAW) massively pain us but we have not been able to convince them on this and this was the failure of the Muslim world.