Pakistan protests to Sweden over new Mohammed cartoon

PAKISTAN: Pakistan said it had summoned a Swedish diplomat to its foreign ministry to protest against a “blasphemous” cartoon in a Swedish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

The drawing, showing Mohammed’s head on the body of a dog, was drawn by Swedish artist Lars Vilks and published in Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Oerebro on August 18.

“Pakistan condemns, in the strongest terms, the publication of an offensive and blasphemous sketch of the Holy Prophet in the Swedish newspaper,” a Pakistani foreign ministry statement said.

“The Swedish Charge d’Affaires was told that the publication of the sketch had caused grave affront to the religious sentiments of Muslims,” it added.

The Swedish diplomat said his government “fully shared the views of the Muslim community and termed the publication as unfortunate,” the Pakistani statement said.

Sweden’s embassy in Islamabad was not immediately available for comment.

Iran has also protested against the cartoon, whose publication comes the year after deadly riots in several countries including Pakistan against 12 cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published in Denmark’s biggest daily.

“Regrettably, the tendency among some Europeans to mix the freedom of expression with an outright and deliberate insult to 1.3 billion Muslims in the world is on the rise,” the Pakistani ministry said.

The statement said Pakistan would consult with the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference to determine a future course of action “against the repetition of such provocative publications.”

In a statement, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu condemned the publication of the “blasphemous caricatures” and urged the Swedish government to punish the artist and the publisher and demand an apology.

“This was an irresponsible and despicable act with bad and provocative intentions in the name of the so-called freedom of expression and was intended to solely insult and arouse the sentiments of Muslims,” he said.

However, the chief of the Saudi-based body urged Muslims to remain calm and exercise restraint.

Pakistan’s religious affairs minister Ijaz-ul Haq said in June that a suicide attack against “Satanic Verses” author Salman Rushdie was justified after Britain awarded him a knighthood.

Islamabad, Friday, AFP