Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has on Friday condemned the weak response of Zardari government that has not taken up the issue of the defamatory film with the US government. He said this scurrilous film had angered the entire Muslim Ummah and it was incumbent upon the American government to proceed against those people spreading hate.
"Hate crimes are a punishable offence in the United States. This particular defamatory film is itself a violent and hateful crime against the religion of Islam and the US government cannot hide behind the freedom of expression excuse. It gets away with these lame expressions because the governments in the Muslim world only express weak and tepid outrage that is not reflective of the sentiments of their people. The Zardari regime should immediately raise this issue with the American government and ensure that this hate crime is not papered over by excuses that are not tenable even under American laws," he added.
According to him, it is time that Muslim Ummah should take joint action to ensure that acts designed to defame Islam and its message of peace are not allowed to go unpunished. This is only possible if the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) takes a common and resolute stand. It also needs to be stated from that common platform that all such acts are hate crimes and it is incumbents upon governments to take legal action wherever they take place. If this concerted action is missing, the Western governments will continue to hide behind fake freedom of expression excused.