ISLAMABAD, Feb 21: OIC Secretary-General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on Tuesday called on the European Union to invoke its existing law on offensive material over the publication of blasphemous cartoons and cautioned that failure to do so would put its credibility at stake.

Prof Ihsanoglu said this while responding to a question at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri at the Foreign Office here in the evening.

While conceding that prospects of the EU drawing up a new code of conduct for its media were dim, Prof Ihsanoglu emphasised the need for it to invoke its existing legislation on the cartoon issue to safeguard the dignity of Islam and values of the Muslims.

Drawing attention to the fact that a European court on Monday had condemned a British historian and sent him to jail because he had a difference of opinion on one historical incident (the Holocaust) that happened 60 years ago, he emphatically asserted: “If European law allows such a thing for an incident which happened 60 years ago, how can this law not allow to protect the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him), the prophet of a fifth of the humankind?”

The OIC secretary-general warned that Europe’s refusal to invoke the relevant law would demonstrate its lack of credibility and insensitivity.

His response to a question as to why the world had failed to take issues concerning Muslims as seriously as they did those affecting the Jews was: “The Jews are enlightened, powerful and organized and that is what we are trying to do.”

He ruled out the possibility of the OIC collectively exercising the option of an economic boycott, saying it was up to the governments, consumers and businesses to take such a decision.

“We have no right to ask a member country what to do or not. It is a sovereign decision of member countries,” Prof Ihsanoglu stated.

He pointed out that in some countries including Saudi Arabia, consumers, shopkeepers and businesses had done so, indicating that others could follow that example.

He conceded that the various measures OIC took had not been instrumental in changing the situation and pointed out that it was the economic boycott by people in Muslim countries that had actually brought a discernable change in the attitude of some European governments, particularly in Denmark.

The OIC secretary-general said he would be meeting the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the High Representative of the EU Mr Javier Solana next week to discuss the issue in further detail.

He underlined two main objectives of the OIC’s contacts and ongoing negotiations with the EU and the UN on the cartoon issue were: one, that Islamic values and particularly the Prophet of Islam be protected, and never to be insulted; and two, that there should be no recurrence of such a blasphemous act and to ensure this there should be international and European legislation.

The OIC secretary-general appealed to the Muslim world to keep protests peaceful and not to resort to violence, which he said would only prove to be counterproductive.

He strongly disapproved of calls by some Muslims to kill the cartoonist. He termed issuing of any such fatwa as “dangerous” and declared: “Such a fatwa goes against the essence of Islam...We have no authority to kill anybody and take the law in our hands.”

He urged people to exercise restraint and reiterated that the OIC with Pakistan was moving at all possible levels. “We are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he told a questioner.

Prof Ihsanoglu saw the publication of blasphemous cartoons in the European countries as a reflection of “ignorance and misconception” of Islam. Rejecting the notion of clash of civilization, he said: “I don’t believe in anything called clash of civilization. That’s just an ideological slogan.” However, he then added: “But we believe there is a conflict of interest.”

In his opening statement Prof Ihsanoglu said that the OIC had from day one been proactively engaged on the cartoon issue in a productive way with the international community and its ambassadors in Geneva and New York were doing their utmost.

He said work was in progress on three fronts simultaneously: in New York, Geneva and Paris. He specially mentioned that Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Mr Munir Akram and his colleagues were doing a “wonderful” work.

At the outset Mr Kasuri read out a joint statement that he said had been drawn up after his “comprehensive discussions” with the OIC secretary-general.

Mr. Kasuri said their talks covered all issues of concern to the Ummah, particularly the publication of the offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

The joint statement issued after the foreign minister’s meeting with the OIC secretary-general said they discussed matters relating to reform and restructuring of OIC and implementation of the ten-year programme of action with focus on combating Islamophobia.

On the issue of the publication of blasphemous sketches in several European newspapers, the two sides regretted that some of the concerned newspapers and some governments failed to apologize to the Muslim people, and that no legal action had been initiated against those responsible for such provocative publications.

“They rejected the justification offered by the concerned governments and newspapers of such blasphemous publications on the pretext of freedom of opinion and expression,” the statement said.

They condemned once again the publication of offensive and defamatory caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which had enraged the entire Ummah and provoked disturbing tensions that regrettably resulted in loss of innocent lives.

The two sides supported the OIC’s initiative in New York to seek suitable language to ensure respect for religions and cultures in the resolution to set up a new Human Rights Council and to promote the adoption of an appropriate resolution in the United Nations General Assembly as a follow-up of the UN General Assembly resolution 60/150 on ‘Defamation of Religions’.

They urged the OIC member states to demonstrate unity in seeking this objective as already endorsed by the OIC extraordinary meeting in Jeddah on 14 February 2006.