PUC Chairman Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, who, along with Sajid Ishaq Sandhu of PIL, has played a leading role in defusing the tension between Muslims and Christians in the wake of the cooked up Rimsha Masih blasphemy case and turned that into a campaign aimed at promoting interfaith harmony, bitterly criticised the making and release of the sacrilegious film that inflamed the emotions of Muslims all over the world.

“This is clearly an extremely damaging move to harm the interfaith harmony for which global efforts are being made at all forums. We have already seen the outcome in the shape of violent protests, especially in the Middle Eastern and African countries, while the Muslims in other parts are as much perturbed and angry over it,” said Maulana Tahir Ashrafi.

He urged the US government to understand the full damaging impact the film has made and to what sort of reaction and repercussions such moves could lead. “We understand that there are laws protecting the freedom of expression in a country like the US or in Europe or in other developed countries. But they should also understand that such freedom of expression should never be allowed to desecrate, disturb and hurt the religious feelings and emotions of the followers of other religions,” he said.

“And at such a stage this outrageous film has been released, which is bound to badly hurt the efforts being made from the PUL and PIL platform. I implore the US government and every sane element all over the world to try to understand the sensitivity and gravity of the situation and take every possible step, first to arrest the damage it has already caused and then take appropriate measures to prevent such happening in future,” he said.

On his part, PIL Chairman Sajid Ishaq said that the release of the film at such a critical juncture in the human history is clearly a grave conspiracy against the interfaith harmony. “The makers of the movie, which indeed is very disgusting and impossible to accept by the Muslims all over the world, has already sparked a wave of violence and has created hatred against the US,” he added.

He said that the PIL, with the full support of the PUC and scholars from other religions, has been striving for many years to promote interfaith harmony. The recent Rimsha Masih blasphemy case was a very clear indicator of the positive impact being made on society through these efforts, he pointed out.