Pakistan on Monday summoned French envoy Marc Baréty to lodge “strong protest” against the publication of blasphemous caricatures and French President Emmanuel Macron’s “anti-Islam” comments.
According to a spokesperson for the Foreign Office, a demarche was also handed to the French envoy by Special Secretary (Europe) Dr Aman Rashid. The FO told Baréty that Pakistan strongly protested the publication of blasphemous sketches in France.
A “strong protest” was also recorded over Macron’s “blasphemous statement” after the caricatures were published, the FO said, adding that it condemned the French president’s statement accusing Muslims of separatism and vowing not to give up on blasphemous caricatures.
Macron is being criticised with protests breaking out in several cities across the world for hurting Muslim sentiments.
His comments came in response to the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, a 47-year-old teacher, who was attacked on his way home from the junior high school where he taught in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, 40 kilometres northwest of Paris.
The teacher had shown cartoons disrespecting the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), according to media reports.
