ISLAMABAD: Adviser on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz has asked the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo to court over publication of offensive caricatures.

“The Adviser to the Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs has written a letter to the OIC Secretary General, recommending a legal action to seek an apology from the French magazine,” the Foreign Office said in a statement, condemning the blasphemous caricatures published last week.

OIC Secretary General Iyad Madani is already thinking about initiating a legal action against the magazine. He had tweeted over the weekend that “the OIC is studying European and French laws and other available procedures to be able to take legal action against Charlie Hebdo... If French laws allow us to take legal procedures against Charlie Hebdo, the OIC will not hesitate to prosecute the French magazine”.

Mr Aziz further proposed a joint action by Islamic countries for getting Islamophobia criminalised in Europe.

The publication of the caricatures was widely condemned in the country and countrywide protests have had been held since the publication of the sketches.

The FO statement recalled that statements of condemnation were issued by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Mamnoon Hussain and resolutions were passed by the National Assembly and Senate Foreign Relations’ Committee against the magazine.

“We believe that freedom of expression should not be misused as means to attack or hurt public sentiments or religious beliefs,” the FO said.

“This is an attempt to divide peoples and civilizations. There is need to promote harmony among peoples and communities, instead of reinforcing stereotypes and making people alienated in their own countries,” it added.

Published in Dawn, January 21st, 2015

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