Only Pakistan protested against 'anti-Islam' film on state level: Kaira

E-Paper | June 14, 2026

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Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman. – File Photo by APP

LALAMUSA: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Qamar Zaman Kaira has said the government of Pakistan is the only one across the world which protested against the sacrilegious film at state level.

Talking to media and various delegations at Dera Kaira on Saturday, Kaira said the prime minister had announced a public holiday on Friday to observe 'Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool' for registering protest at federal capital and four provincial capitals including Azad Kashmir and Gilgat-Baltistan against 'anti-Islam film'.

He said, by declaring Friday as 'Youm-e-Ishq-e-Rasool' and a public holiday, the government provided the people an opportunity to register their protest peacefully.

The minister expressed his concern over the violent protests and said that it gave a wrong message to the world.

He said “We along with our children are ready to scarifice our lives for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and we cant not tolerate any profanity”.

“Our prophet (PBUH) is a blessing for us and even for the enemies ...” he said and added that there was no room for violence in Islam and that a deliberate effort was made to sabotage government's efforts for peaceful demonstrations.

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Ejaz

Sep 23, 2012 01:08pm

Kudos ro Pakistani politicians. Only they could take pride in burning and destruction of national property. Do they (the politicians) ever think about if they keep on destroying what little progress there happens in the country, how would the country pay back billion of dollars which are borrowed to run the country, But wait a minute, it won't happen on their watch. They would be long gone after linning up their pockets with th looy. Long live the demonsterations...PATHETIC,

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Kamran

Sep 23, 2012 07:51pm

would anyone like to convert ? i feel that Islam isn't what Prophet Muhammad wanted it to be like anymore, it was suppose to a religion that took away the flaws of previous religions and give us something simple and pure. All we have now are Mullah's, fanatics, No respect for one another or other religions, killing in the name of Islam and the Prophet ( Which is blasphemous as is, to disrespect our religion and Prophet with such acts) , barbarism, no respect for women or equal rights, no respect for the elderly, stealing, lying, kidnapping, terrorist attacks etc... sadly this is not the Islam i was born into, this is some nasty nightmare that keeps getting worse. Sad as it is, i never thought i'd see the day where i wouldnt want to tell anyone im Muslim or Pakistani anymore, Thank you very much you worthless scumbags

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Asim

Sep 23, 2012 06:31pm

why was my comment removed? I commented on mike's blame on the entire country for the bounty by one person

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Zaffar

Sep 23, 2012 07:19pm

Qamar Zaman was pissed off and blamed the media for the live coverage .For God

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Ash Mirza (USA)

Sep 23, 2012 07:24pm

VIOLENT PROTEST ...already given wrong message around the world...Even Railway Minister set the bounty of $100.000 to kill film maker in US. If he got so much money than why dont he buy few trains to make easy for Pakistani citizen to travel peacefully...President of pakistan must fire the idiot railway minister and file the charges against him...To teach other Govt. minister not to make same mistake...Muslim have right to protest, no doubt in my mind....but PEACEFUL PROTEST not to kill or harm any other human being, and not to damage the property....After all ISLAM IS A PEACEFUL RELIGION no doubt what so ever but people of Pakistan settingup wrong example....In my opinion Pakistan need to educate people with proper education of ISLAM....My parents always told us not to hate others, if you cant help others not to hurt....I am in USA and I see MOST AMERICANS are peaceful people and ready to help needy regardless of religion.....I see more ISLAM in America than any muslim country.....God Bless America Sincerely, Ash Mirza (USA)

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Harvey G

Sep 23, 2012 02:45pm

why not whole week or a month if it works.you are the smartest elected people .

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Rahmat

Sep 23, 2012 11:11pm

When Muslims turn violent over someone's criticism, it proves their detractor's point.

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Ahmed Khan

Sep 24, 2012 12:56am

Thats a ridiculous argument, Sophia! Are you sure you are sane and coherent?

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Asim

Sep 23, 2012 02:04pm

agree with Ejaz 100%

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observer

Sep 24, 2012 03:29am

Good comment.

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sophia

Sep 23, 2012 01:12pm

Now the video is famous and everybody wants to watch it! There will be more such videos, maybe more vulgar and blasphemous and insulting to Mohammed (PBUH) for the sake of making money, fame etc.! Good job Jihaadis!

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Shaukat USA

Sep 23, 2012 03:04pm

These protest did nothing but confirm what people are made to believe invest that Islam is violent. We should be ready for lot more films like this in future. Will we burn the whole country down to ashes?

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Naveed

Sep 23, 2012 03:58pm

"deliberate effort was made to sabotage government

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sal

Sep 23, 2012 09:45pm

Only Pakistan holidayed because its government is in fear of the extremists.

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it doesn't matter

Sep 24, 2012 03:27am

Blind leading the blind, well done.

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Sam T

Sep 23, 2012 04:01pm

Mike: You said it all, nothing to add except it encompass what Imran says "THIS IS WHY ITS CALLED A FAILED STATE"

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Rajesh

Sep 23, 2012 08:17pm

This minister and his advisors are as amature as the crude film maker.

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Abbas

Sep 23, 2012 03:54pm

Only Pakistan protested at state level. Really!!! What about Iran? And did Pakistan really protest at state level? What was our foreign minister saying in joint press conference with hilary Clinton when people were out on the road in Pakistan. Looks like ppp wants to be in good books of both USA and people of Pakistan.

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Vgp

Sep 23, 2012 01:46pm

Pakistanis just proved that the contents about violence in the clip are true

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Kamal Hassn

Sep 23, 2012 03:45pm

We along with our children are ready to scarifice our lives for Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and we cant not tolerate any profanity

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Ahmed

Sep 23, 2012 04:24pm

Imam Jadoon ripped two pages from the Holy Quran and mixed them in the half burnt pages of the prayer learning book. According to the challan Imam Jadoon was the real blasphemer because he was a Muslim, an educated person, religious scholar and was the cleric of a mosque and was fully aware of the sanctity of the pages of the Quran. Why no protest anywhere for insulting Holy Quran. Is it because a muslim can insult holy Quran and with that Islam but a Kafir cannot.

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Ahmedi

Sep 23, 2012 04:28pm

Only Pakistan protested, because election is near !

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Asif

Sep 24, 2012 01:59am

The only reason GOP did this is to create the impression of being Islamic before the next elections. We know how naive the electorate can be !!

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Jehan Zeb

Sep 23, 2012 02:07pm

The government encouraged the violence by announcing public holiday and inflicted huge losses on to public, private property and to the economy. Unfortunately, such like attitude, to gain cheap popularity, has become the norm of Pakistani politicians. By such senseless actions, you do not harm the perpetrators but your own people. If such thing had happened in Prophet life he would have punished such criminals.

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RPK

Sep 24, 2012 04:34am

Please....Please. Start teaching your children, to "live and be alive" for Islam /Allah/ Nabi, to spread the peace and brotherhood. Do not glorify the death / sacrifice / Qurbani for Islam / Allah / Nabi from the very first day of the child's life.

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Imran

Sep 23, 2012 09:23am

Makes one wonder why there wasn't even a whimper from the Khadim-e-Harmain-al-Sharifain. Or any other oil Sheikhdom for that matter.

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yusuf khan

Sep 23, 2012 10:22am

Because unlike others Pakistanis are still in doubt over their Muslim credentials and want to justify their religion blindedness.

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hassan

Sep 23, 2012 11:34am

Nothing to be proud of... on the contrary, it's a shame.

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Yogesh

Sep 23, 2012 10:44am

It appears that Pakistan is more Muslim than muslims all over the world.

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IMRAN

Sep 23, 2012 11:39am

LAW AND ORDER AT ITS LOW........................THIS IS WHY ITS CALLED A FAILED STATE

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Concerened

Sep 24, 2012 02:57am

You are too funny! But then again, we need to laugh sometimes!!

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harvey

Sep 24, 2012 03:05am

Did any one gone mad or protested,when the dum head burn the christian church. Burning church is worse than anti islamic film. love to see how many people protested against it.

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Arshad ali

Sep 23, 2012 10:53am

Because it was not worth it. They escalated the status of a cheap video with those noisy protests.

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Verzali Khan

Sep 23, 2012 11:43am

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muneer

Sep 24, 2012 12:45am

... i'm ashamed to be identifed as a Pakistani after all of this,

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Khurram

Sep 23, 2012 11:10am

Movie tries to say that Islam is voilent. So there are voilent protests against it.

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Kenneth

Sep 23, 2012 12:32pm

How sad!

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Agha Ata

Sep 23, 2012 12:37pm

He said

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harvey

Sep 24, 2012 03:10am

Brother people living in Arab world have the brain.

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KSD

Sep 23, 2012 04:33pm

Wow! Congratulaions, minister. Minorities should feel at home in your secular country. If this was a ploy to attract the hard-line voters in the future elections, it was likely a wasted one. One of your colleagues bettered you by offering a bounty from his own pocket on the filmmaker's head. Do something more creative.

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Ahmed

Sep 23, 2012 05:19pm

America is bad and it's flag should be burnt but American Dollar is good and bounty declared in American currency. Can there be anything more funny than that? No wonder we are the laughing stock of the world.

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sophia

Sep 23, 2012 01:43pm

So, it proves Islam is a religion of violence and intolerance!

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Nazeer

Sep 23, 2012 12:17pm

Now it is clear that Islamists in Pakisthan supporting terrorism , since violent protests proves it. On other hand no protests was done even in Saudi arabia.

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Vasu

Sep 23, 2012 11:24am

Is this is the way to show the world that they are true muslims?

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khadar Basha

Sep 23, 2012 01:26pm

Mistake happened inadvertently. You please declare one more holiday to protest peacefully.

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sophia

Sep 23, 2012 01:19pm

Islam is so fragile, delicate; its existence is in the hands of anyone that can create something in youtube ! If Islam wants to be strong, it must have the power to go through all criticism. And, after all, the imagined god Allah does not exist any way because it Allah existed in true sense, the video could never have been made because Allah would control the director's mind and he would make a good, prasieworthy movie or even after being made and posted on the youtube, the movie would appear magically blank.

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mike

Sep 23, 2012 01:28pm

Only country in the world to call for help from Taliban and Al Qaeda for help to kill the film maker. Only country in the world to destroy its own country by calling militants to protest and kill its own people and property......

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Michael Malcolm

Sep 23, 2012 02:53pm

I fully agree with Ejaz. The Government should never had declared holiday on Friday infact they should have called for citizens of the country from all walks of life to come out in solidarity and protest peacefully in every nook and corner and specially so in Mosque to show their strength and love for Prophet Mohammad ( sallalaho alai wasalam ). No they did not do this and just declaring holiday was inviting trouble which happened and now they are singing another tune and blaming others. They should have raised their voice and called all the members of OIC and Arab World to rise. Kaira has the audacity to say Pakistan was the only country to raise theirvoice---no voice but violence.

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