KARACHI, Feb 18: A big women rally organized by the Jamaat-i-Islami here on Saturday appealed to people of Pakistan to boycott the products from those European countries where newspapers published blasphemous sketches. The rally also called upon the government to snap ties with all such countries and close their embassies.

Participants of the rally were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans against blasphemy and the countries accused of being involved in the act. It was led by Kausar Firdaus, Aisha Munawwar, Sumayyah Rahila Qazi, Attia Nisar and Anjum Afshan.

The protesters, who started their march from Guru Mandir and converged on Noorani Chowk for a demonstration, torched flags of US, Denmark and Israel.

Nasrullah Shaji of the MMA conducted the proceedings of a big public meeting which followed.

Addressing the protesters, Senator Prof Ghafoor Ahmad, a central leader of the MMA, said that the publication of the blasphemous sketches to cause injury to the whole Ummah was nothing but extremism. He termed the US and European countries ‘extremist’ and said that by abetting and defending such a condemnable act was terrorism.

He said that despite the fact that the whole population of Pakistan was asking the government to close down the embassy of Denmark in Pakistan, the government appeared not ready to take any action. Now when the Danish government closed its embassy at its own, the Pakistan government had called its ambassador to Denmark for ‘consultation’.

He said that the rulers, as well as police and armed forces should join in the protest as the whole nation was raising its voice against the blasphemy against the holy prophet (PBUH).

Senior Minister in the NWFP government Sirajul Haque pointed out that even the former US president Bill Clinton had described the Muslims’ reaction ‘justified’ but, wondered, the only people who were not convinced appeared to be Gen Pervez Musharraf and Shaukat Aziz.

Begum Aisha Munawwar asked all Muslim women to boycott the products from European countries, and urged Pakistani traders to stop trading with European firms.

Senator Kausar Firdaus said that the publication of the blasphemous sketches was not a case of oversight as the act had been resorted to repeatedly by the European press. The European governments’ stubborn attitude, she said, proved that it was a calculated move to challenge the Ummah.

MNA Sumayyha Raheel Qazi said that the West had initiated the clash of civilizations and the Ummah was prepared to meet the challenge. She said that the rally had made it clear to the rulers in Pakistan that women would not allow them to turn the country into a secular state in the name of ‘enlightened moderation’.

Dr Mairaj-ul-Huda Siddiqui also addressed the rally.