February 19, 2006	Sunday	Muharram 20, 1427

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LAHORE, Feb 18: Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan has termed Muslim world’s reaction to blasphemous cartoons inadequate and improper.

Had the Muslim countries responded properly and effectively in diplomatic and economic terms, the situation would not have taken the ugly turn where the offenders were not ready even to apologise for hurting feelings of billion plus people, he told Dawn here on Saturday.

He chided the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) for failing to represent Muslims at any level. “It is simply lifeless.”

According to him, a meeting of foreign ministers of Muslim countries must have been convened in September, when the cartoons were published in Denmark, to take a joint decision of recalling their ambassadors from the Scandinavian state.

“Conveying the decision it should have been made clear that economic relations would be reviewed if action was not taken against the offender,” he added.

Half-hearted steps by individual countries, Khan said, were being taken non-seriously by the Europeans owing to which the offence was being replicated by other papers.

“This is a sign of weak leadership. Either there are monarchs or dictators in the Muslim world who are frantic about their own survival, having no time and desire for their national and Islamic duties.”

He regretted that individual shopkeepers were boycotting Danish products but the Muslim rulers were doing nothing in this respect.

He recalled that when he was Pakistan’s envoy to Korea, a shoe-making factory there had printed Allah on its products. He along with ambassadors of selective Muslim states had visited the factory and convinced its management to withdraw all this stock from shelves, without needing any help from the Korean government.

About the violence in protest rallies, Khan said he did not see any religious touch in it. “The sacrilegious issue was just a pretext. Something was boiling under surface that came out immediately after finding an opening,” he observed.

The former foreign secretary claimed that Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Copenhagen only when it had been left with no choice after the Danish embassy was closed for security reasons.

He said according to his information the Danish envoy was still in Islamabad and he had not been asked to leave the country against the impression being given in media reports.