West must learn to respect world religions: Imran

The West must learn to respect world religions and masses should protest against the sacrilegious movie clip in a peaceful manner, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan said on Friday. Addressing a protest demonstration against the blasphemous clip, the PTI chief said: "It is very unfortunate, but governments and people in the West neither respect their own religion nor care about religious beliefs of others."
The only way to counter such nefarious acts was for Muslims to "act in a concerted fashion and make sure that laws are passed in Western countries that prescribe (strict) punishment for those ridiculing religions or religious beliefs of Muslims". He said that the Jews had been able to do that and now in many countries Holocaust denial was a crime. "If (denying) Holocaust can be (considered) a crime, why not ridiculing or maligning Islam," he questioned.
Criticising violence during protests against the defamatory film, the PTI chief said that he was saddened to see such reaction in some places in Pakistan. He said that this would provide ammunition to people in the West who ridiculed Muslims, adding that the way some people had destroyed public and private property, attacked police and other security personnel would only reinforce the image that people in Pakistan were uncivilised.
He said that it was the right of the people to protest, but they should do it without destroying property or attacking police. "By setting fire to buses or public property, we are hurting no one but our fellow citizens." Condemning violence and loss of life during protests and urging the government to take adequate security measures, he said that attacking police was counterproductive because policemen also felt the same way about the blasphemous movie as did other people in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League President Chaudhary Shujat Hussain urged United Nations and the West not to test Islamic world's patience and pay immediate attention to protests of Muslims over blasphemy. He said that culprits involved in making such derogatory and blasphemous remarks should be given exemplary punishment, adding that Western countries needed to make effective legislation at international level to prevent the recurrence of such heinous acts in future.