PARIS: The French foreign ministry has summoned Pakistan’s envoy to protest remarks by President Dr Arif Alvi that a French bill cracking down on radical Islam stigmatises Muslims.

The ministry said late Monday it had called in Pakistan’s charge d’affaires to mark “our surprise and our disapproval [over Dr Alvi’s remarks], given that the bill contains no discriminatory element.”

Pakistan with the second-largest number of Muslims in the world after Indonesia does not have an ambassador in France.

The French foreign ministry claimed: “It is guided by the basic principles of freedom of religion and conscience, makes no distinction between the different religions and applies therefore equally to all faiths. Pakistan must understand this and adopt a constructive attitude for our bilateral relations.”

Summons Pakistan’s charge d’affaires to mark surprise, disapproval

The bill adopted by the lower house of the French parliament last week is dubbed the “anti-separatism” bill in reference to Macron’s claim that Islamists are closing themselves off from French society by refusing to embrace secularism, gender equality and other French values.

The legislation significantly expands the state’s powers to close religious organisations and places of worship if they are found to air “theories or ideas” that “provoke hate or violence towards a person or people”.

It also creates a new crime of “separatism” — described as threatening a public servant in order to gain “a total or partial exemption or different application of the rules” — that is punishable by up to five years in prison.

Last week President Alvi, while addressing a conference on religion, said: “When you see that laws are being changed in favour of a majority to isolate a minority that is a dangerous precedent.” He specifically referred to the legislation and said: “When you insult the Prophet [Peace be upon him], you insult all Muslims. I urge the political leadership of France not to entrench these attitudes into laws... You have to bring people together — not to stamp a religion in a certain manner and create disharmony among the people or create bias.”

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2021