February 4, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 5, 1427

KARACHI, Feb 3: Thousands of enraged people gathered outside major mosques in Karachi after Jumma to protest against publication of blasphemous caricature in Danish, French, German, Spanish, Dutch and other European and Scandinavian countries’ newspapers.

The protestors, who were carrying banners and placards, demanded immediate withdrawal of Pakistani envoys from and closures of diplomatic missions in countries whose papers published blasphemous cartoons.

They also torched flags of Denmark, Norway, France, Germany, Spain and the US flags, copies of newspapers that printed blasphemous images and effigies of their leaders to express their hatred against the act.

The country-wide protest call was given by Jamat-i-Islami and backed by other religious parties including Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Shia Ulema Council and some political parties.

The biggest of such demonstrations was held outside Jamia Binoria, which was addressed by JI, JUP, JUI, JUI-S, Markazi JUP, PML-N and PDP leaders besides MNAs, MPAs and Senators belonging to various religious and political parties.

The speakers demanded that European Union should force its media to follow the UN Charter that says material containing religious or racial hatred can’t be published and feelings of people, belonging to whatsoever religion should not be hurt.

They demanded blasphemous cartoons publishing nations to apologize on acts of their papers and asked the government of Pakistan to immediately withdraw its ambassadors from those countries and convene joint session of the parliament to discuss the important issue.

JI Karachi Amir Dr Mairajul Huda Siddiqui paid tribute to governments of Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kuwait, Iran and Palestinian authority for openly protesting on publication of blasphemous images in EU member states’ newspapers. However, he criticized President Musharraf and his government for “keeping mum” on the important religious and international issue and said the General was in Norway when Islamic states were protesting against the blasphemy but General Musharraf did not utter a single word on the issue.

Mairajul Huda mentioning that all infidels and their agents had become united against Muslim Ummah appealed Muslim to shun their differences and added that capital punishment was the only solution to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the future.

Demanding western world and the EU to seek apology from Muslims on heinous acts of blasphemy, he said that struggle against “enlightened moderation” would continue. He also questioned why General Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, Shujaat Hussain and Altaf Hussain were silent on the issue and not condemning the publication of blasphemous images.

Shia Ulema Council Chairman Allama Hasan Turabi said that whoever remained silent on blasphemy and supports the heinous and sacrilegious act could not be well-wisher or friend of Muslims and added that General Musharraf’s uniforms was defaming Muslims all around the world.

Hafiz Muhammad Taqi of Markazi Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan said owing to repentant attitude of rulers of Islamic countries, rest of the world was now openly and clearly attacking most important aspects of Islam. He warned that if diplomatic missions of countries where blasphemy was committed were not closed by the government, people would be compelled to take extreme measures.

Mufti Usman Yar Khan of JUI-S demanded immediate resignation of present government saying that if they find no courage among them to protest on that important issue, they should step down and let people decide who should lead them.

Several other leaders including Basharat Mirza, Qazi Ahmed Noorani, Zubair Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Khuwaja Tariq Nazir, MPA Younus Barai, Hameedullah Advocate and others also spoke.