Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri on Wednesday said that the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) should work for the adoption of an additional protocol to an appropriate convention by the United Nations or a separate convention focusing on respect of all religions and faiths. “Only a protocol at the UN level can establish governments’ responsibility to control and penalise such cases of incitement which are sometimes justified in the name of freedom of expression,” Kasuri told OIC Secretary General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in a phone call.According to a statement by the foreign minister’s office, Kasuri, the current chairman of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), telephoned the OIC secretary general to discuss the recent incidents of inflammatory cartoons, defamation and blasphemous utterances in some Western countries against Islam and its holy personalities. Defamation of any religion negates the fundamental rights of its followers, Kasuri said, adding that the issue could increase tension among civilisations.
Kasuri asked the people in the West and elsewhere to denounce the cartoons and raise their voices against the apparent trend of defamation of all religions and faiths. He cautioned the West against the consequences of the rising “Islamophobia”.