ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi has urged the political leadership of France not to entrench the discriminatory attitudes against Muslims into laws.
While addressing at an international conference on religious freedom and minority rights, Dr Arif Alvi said France needs to bring people together and not stamp a religion in a certain manner to create disharmony and bias.
Dr Arif Alvi’s statement came in reference to the bill passed by the French parliament’s lower house on Tuesday with an overwhelming majority that would strengthen oversight of mosques, in an act of discrimination against Muslims.
The President said the French legislation was not in line with the United Nations Charter and contradicted the spirit of social harmony that Europe previously instilled in its society.
“Let there not be a retrogressive step for situations which arise out of animosity and for situations which are carried forward by the people who do not know about the real Islam,” he said. Dr Alvi said the damage might not be evident at present, but would ultimately end up in a terrible scenario of hatred and hostility.
“To label the entire religion in a different manner and to start taking precautions against the entire community sparks the fact that if not now, it will have very bad repercussions in the next 10 years,” President Alvi said.
West was being communicated by the government of Pakistan that blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad in the name of freedom of expression and religion was considered by entire Muslims Ummah an insult to the revered personality, he added.
Laws existed in the West about the protection of certain ideas such as the Holocaust, the violation of which created disharmony, he mentioned.
The President emphasized that the world instead needed to divert energies on addressing other serious challenges such as climate change, poverty, hegemony and exploitation.
He said humanity needed to rise above its vested interests and live up to the ideals of mosque and church as no Prophet, whether Prophet Muhammad or Jesus Christ gave a message about animosity, but peace among people.
President Alvi said the government believed in an emerging Pakistan with peace and harmony among people with all religions, faiths and colors merged into the ideals of peace and prosperity.
Dr Alvi said the reconstitution of the Minorities’ Rights Commission to protect the worship places of religious minorities was a positive step by the PTI government. “Pakistan is entering a new era with lessons learned that we cannot live with divisions among our own people,” he added.
Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Pir Noorul Haq Qadri said the country’s religion of majority population and the Constitution guaranteed protection of rights of minorities.
In line with the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, he said, Pakistan as its State and government policy never avoided safeguarding the rights of minorities. He said the government was drafting legislation against the forced religious conversions.
EU Ambassador Androulla Kaminara said the EU would continue to partner with Pakistan in promoting development and religious harmony under the EU-Pak Strategic Engagement 2019.
Schools and universities could promote religious tolerance, adding that the EU in Pakistan would collaborate for a positive change in the lives of people, she emphasized.
President Dr. Arif Alvi's speech at the "International Conference on Religious Freedom and Rights of Minorities".
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— The President of Pakistan (@PresOfPakistan) February 20, 2021
