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https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...countries-force-blasphemy-laws-West-work.html
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has boasted that his plan for Muslim-majority countries to unite and force Western governments to criminalise insulting the Prophet Mohammed will work.
The 68-year-old leader said lobbying Western nations, the EU and UN to adopt blasphemy laws with a warning of a trade boycott if they do not do so will be ‘effective’ in achieving their goal.
He said leaders of Muslim-majority countries should call on the West to ‘stop hurting the feelings’ of Muslims across the world with their current freedom of speech laws, reports Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
Khan said insulting Islam’s Prophet should be treated in the same way as questioning the Holocaust, which is a crime in some European countries.
‘My way is to take heads of all Muslim countries into confidence,’ Khan said in an address on Monday.
‘Together we should ask Europe, the European Union and United Nations to stop hurting the feelings of 1.25 billion Muslims like they do not do in [the] case of Jews.’
‘I want the Muslim countries to devise a joint line of action over the blasphemy issue with a warning of trade boycott of countries where such incidents will happen,’ Khan continued. ‘This will be the most effective way to achieve the goal.’
Khan said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has already discussed the plan with four foreign ministers from Muslim-majority countries.
Britain’s former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline that trying to force Western countries to bring in such a ban would be ‘foolish’.
‘That is a pretty foolish decision. It is not countries that insult the Prophet Mohammed, it’s individual citizens. However distasteful that might be, as in Pakistan it is the law of the United Kingdom or any other country to determine whether they are allowed to do that or not,’ Sir Malcolm said.
He said it should be for the courts to decide whether insulting the Prophet breached the law.
‘We already have laws about hate crimes, which apply regardless of a particular religion. I do not think there should be a separate law for one religion.’
Sir Malcolm added: ‘The comparison with the Holocaust doesn’t really carry weight. If the Holocaust happened elsewhere, something similar, the reaction should be exactly the same as the reaction has been to the Holocaust during the Second World War.’…
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has boasted that his plan for Muslim-majority countries to unite and force Western governments to criminalise insulting the Prophet Mohammed will work.
The 68-year-old leader said lobbying Western nations, the EU and UN to adopt blasphemy laws with a warning of a trade boycott if they do not do so will be ‘effective’ in achieving their goal.
He said leaders of Muslim-majority countries should call on the West to ‘stop hurting the feelings’ of Muslims across the world with their current freedom of speech laws, reports Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
Khan said insulting Islam’s Prophet should be treated in the same way as questioning the Holocaust, which is a crime in some European countries.
‘My way is to take heads of all Muslim countries into confidence,’ Khan said in an address on Monday.
‘Together we should ask Europe, the European Union and United Nations to stop hurting the feelings of 1.25 billion Muslims like they do not do in [the] case of Jews.’
‘I want the Muslim countries to devise a joint line of action over the blasphemy issue with a warning of trade boycott of countries where such incidents will happen,’ Khan continued. ‘This will be the most effective way to achieve the goal.’
Khan said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has already discussed the plan with four foreign ministers from Muslim-majority countries.
Britain’s former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind told MailOnline that trying to force Western countries to bring in such a ban would be ‘foolish’.
‘That is a pretty foolish decision. It is not countries that insult the Prophet Mohammed, it’s individual citizens. However distasteful that might be, as in Pakistan it is the law of the United Kingdom or any other country to determine whether they are allowed to do that or not,’ Sir Malcolm said.
He said it should be for the courts to decide whether insulting the Prophet breached the law.
‘We already have laws about hate crimes, which apply regardless of a particular religion. I do not think there should be a separate law for one religion.’
Sir Malcolm added: ‘The comparison with the Holocaust doesn’t really carry weight. If the Holocaust happened elsewhere, something similar, the reaction should be exactly the same as the reaction has been to the Holocaust during the Second World War.’…
