March 30, 2006	Thursday	Safar 29, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, March 29: Norwegian Ambassador Janis Bjorn Kanavin on Wednesday reiterated his government’s commitment to support international initiatives for a universal ban on publication and broadcast of sacrilegious material concerning holy prophets.

He was speaking to a delegation of Tanzeem-i-Ahl-i-Sunnat clerics from Gujrat and Gujranwala. The meeting had been arranged on the request of the clerics.

Ambassador Kanavin said the question was not that of merely calling for new international legislation, but it should be seen if the countries were willing to abide by their international commitments.

Referring to the caricature issue, he said Islam and Christianity taught forgiveness and it was because of this the editor whose magazine reproduced the Danish cartoons was forgiven by the Muslim community after an extensive dialogue in which the motives behind the publication of cartoons were questioned.

He said now it was time for a constructive community to take centre stage. We have to move on, he added.

Mr Kanavin hoped that dialogue between Muslims and Christians could promote inter-faith harmony.

One of the members of the delegation, Afzal Qadri said the clerics would now be meeting ambassadors of other western countries in this connection.

The delegation parried a question regarding the reason for such a belated move for reconciliation and said lot of time was consumed in making contact with the Norwegian embassy.