Pakistan accuses Macron of ‘hate-mongering’ over Charlie Hebdo cartoons

Pakistan’s parliament on Monday passed a unanimous resolution that accused French President Emmanuel Macron of propagating “hate-driven acts under the garb of freedom of expression.”

The parliament said it condemned “the resurgence of blasphemous and Islamophobic acts by mischievous elements in some parts of the world,” and warned against the “unlawful propagation” of apparently blasphemous caricatures of Islam and its prophet Muhammad.

Pakistan took note of the “highly concerning statements and hate-mongering especially by leaders like President Emmanuel Macron justifying unlawful propagation and insult to sentiments of more than a billion Muslims through such hate-driven acts under the garb of freedom of expression,” the resolution said.

The Pakistani government has been critical of Macron’s response to the terror attack in which a French schoolteacher was beheaded for showing satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons to a classroom.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Imran Khan said “it is unfortunate that [Macron] has chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists.”

Earlier on Monday, the government summoned the French ambassador to lodge a “strong protest” over the republication of blasphemous cartoons in France “by certain irresponsible elements,” a foreign ministry official said, according to local media.

In Pakistan, blasphemy is a criminal offence and punishable by death.