Islamabad: Pakistan's Senate or upper house of parliament today strongly condemned the republication in Denmark of the blasphemous cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed.

A resolution passed unanimously by the Senate said "serious tensions" are also brewing in Holland because of a sacrilegious film against Islam made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

All these efforts seem to be part of a "campaign aimed at denigrating Islam, insulting Islamic role models and injuring the feelings of Muslims the world over", the resolution said.

These outrageous attacks may also be a part of a "game plan to provoke some persons into violent reaction", it said.

The Senate said the attacks on Islam and its Prophet were a "moral crime, a religious outrage and part of a political campaign directed towards a clash of civilizations". The attacks can also have serious implications for harmonious relations between different religious communities, it said.

The resolution said "such malicious acts cannot be accepted in the name of freedom of expression". This freedom cannot be allowed to become the "freedom to insult, slander, libel, abuse and provoke".

While condemning the attacks on Islam, the Senate asked the government of Pakistan to take appropriate and effective steps to mobilise the administration and people of all Muslim and peace-loving countries to resort to "all necessary diplomatic and other measures to condemn and counter these efforts, which threaten peace and harmony between different religious and cultures".
Source : PTI