Protest rallies staged against blasphemous sketches

ISLAMABAD: Majlis-e-Wahdat-e-Muslimeen on Friday organised peaceful rallies and protest demonstrations across the country against the publication of blasphemous sketches of Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) in a French magazine and the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden.

Peaceful protests were held in different cities of the country including Quetta, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir in which a large number of workers including central, provincial and district leaders took part in the activities titled “Holy Quran and Holy Prophet's Day”. Participants while holding banners chanted slogans against anti-Islamic Zionist and Christian forces.

Demonstrators also chanted slogans against the colonial and tyrannical powers and called on their governments to take action against the perpetrators of blasphemy. A protest rally started from Markazi Imambargah G-6/2 in which a large number of people were present. Addressing the rally, central leader Allama Muhammad Iqbal Beheshti said that the world would have to shun double standards.

He maintained that ridicule of Islam and constant degradation of the Muslim Ummah was paving the way for a fierce civilizational clash. He said that even the world powers, which were engaged in fanning the flames of hatred between different religions, would not be safe from this fire. He said that insulting the sanctities of Islam is tantamount to inciting the religious sentiments of two billion Muslims around the world.

“Ending all diplomatic and trade relations with the states defending criminal activities against Islam is a requirement of the honour of the Islamic world,” he stressed and added that taking a stand, the United Nations must warn that any insult to the religion of Islam is not tolerated under any circumstances. “Any country that commits a mockery of the religion of Islam, including its products, should be completely boycotted,” he said.