The business community in a meeting at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) strongly condemned the remarks made recently by the French President Emmanuel Macron in which he criticised the Islamists and vowed not to give up cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). They termed his comments highly provocative and irresponsible as the French President had deliberately chosen to provoke the sentiments of Muslim Ummah, which was highly condemnable. Addressing the meeting, Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry regretted that instead of contributing towards the peace and harmony in the Muslim world, French President has adopted an approach that has badly hurt the feelings of Muslims across the world and would create further rift in the world community. He said that French President had chosen to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out the violence. He said that by attacking the Islam without having any understanding of it, the French President has hurt the sentiments of millions of Muslims in Europe and across the world.
ICCI President said that such irresponsible statements on the part of a leader of a developed country was destined to create more negativity, Islamophobia and space for extremists. He said that giving people liberty to insult our Prophet (PBUH) under the garb of freedom of expression was not tolerable for the Muslim Ummah and stressed that French President should immediately withdraw his remarks to save the world from further polarisation. He said that the business community fully supported the stand of the Government of Pakistan on this burning issue and would follow whatever instructions were issued by the government towards the French products.
Ms. Fatma Azim Senior Vice President and Abdul Rehman Khan Vice President ICCI also condemned the stand of French President against Islam and said that the Muslim Ummah would not tolerate the publication of caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). They warned that any such attempt would damage the peace of the world and create more division in the world community, therefore, French President should immediately withdraw his remarks to save the peace of the world from destructive consequences.