ISLAMABAD, 26 February 2006 — Pakistan has decided to raise the issue of blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) at the United Nations. The caricatures sparked worldwide indignation among the Muslims.
President Pervez Musharraf said yesterday the country’s permanent representative at UN headquarters in Geneva had been directed to prepare to put the matter on the world body’s agenda. “We will definitely raise the issue,” he told a group of Muslim clerics during a meeting in Rawalpindi.
Federal Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the GEO private television channel that Musharraf supported the anti-cartoon protests across Pakistan.
The blasphemous cartoons “are not the problem of opposition or ruling party but entire Muslim Ummah and we must protest,” Musharraf was quoted as saying.
However, he rejected the notion of violence in demonstrations, as it would “damage” the country’s image in the West.
In Pakistan, anti-cartoon protest had turned violent after Musharraf, the close ally of the US in its war on terror, reacted and said press freedom did not mean hurting the feelings of followers of other faiths.
“I don’t understand how any civilized person can take the excuse of freedom of the press in hurting the feelings of over one billion Muslims,” he said.
