NA, Senate condemn Pope’s remarks: Demand for retraction, apology
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: The National Assembly and the Senate on Friday unanimously condemned remarks of Pope Benedict XVI against the concept of Jihad, Islam as a religion and the Holy Prophet (PBUH), and demanded withdrawal of the remarks in the interest of inter-faith harmony.
A resolution moved by both the opposition and the treasury benches represented by Leader of the House in Senate Waseem Sajjad, Leader of the Opposition Mian Raza Rabbani, Prof Khurshid Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, Dr Abdul Malik, Abdur Rahim Mandokhel and others was read out by Mr Sajjad and adopted unanimously.
“The derogatory remarks of the Pope about Holy Quran’s philosophy of Jihad and Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) injured sentiments across the Muslim world and posed the danger of spreading acrimony among the religions,” the resolution stated.
It demanded that the Pope should retract his remarks “in the interest of harmony between religions and apologise for hurting the sentiments of the Muslims around the world”.
No fireworks were witnessed in the house on the issue except for Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Abdul Qadir Pirzada who spoke furiously and declared that the entire Ummah would rise to protect the sanctity of Islam if the Pope did not withdraw his remarks.
He said the Pope had confronted the largest spreading religion of Islam while all his predecessors paid great respect to Islam and the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
Razina Alam Khan of the treasury benches condemned the Pope’s remarks and demanded that the government should take a stiff stand against him. NA passes unanimous resolution condemning Pope’s statement
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: “The house strongly condemns what he said against the philosophy of Jihad and the Holy Prophet (PBUH), which is likely to spread hatred amongst different religions,” the resolution moved by the opposition’s Sahibzada Fazal Karim in the National Assembly said according to APP.
The house demanded retraction of the remarks, saying it was also against the United Nations charter.
Sahibzada Karim said Muslims could not even think of saying such things against any religion as Islam taught peace and brotherhood.
“Muslims have great respect for the Pope. All the popes before him had great regard for Islam but what he said has hurt the feelings of over one billion Muslims around the world,” he said.
He said Pope Benedict had not fulfilled his responsibility of showing respect to Islam.
“After the incident of 9/11, coming up with such a statement in tantamount to creating disharmony among the religions,” he added.
The speaker had suspended the proceedings of the house to take up the resolution.
