Pakistani politician calls on U.S. to ban blasphemy [View all]

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Source: Public Radio International

In the wake of the video "Innocence of Muslims," protests have swept the Muslim world. While Pakistan came late to the protests, the country's Muslims and political leaders are calling on the U.S. to make such blasphemy illegal.

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But it’s not just Islamist extremists and radicals who are offended by the video. One of the groups marching to the US consulate in Karachi on Friday will be the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf. The party is lead by Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan, and boasts a significant following among the country’s Western educated upper class. Arif Alvi, the party’s Secretary General, said the western, Christian world should understand that Pakistanis, and Muslims in general, have a distinct way of thinking.

“You can’t come in to a society and say ‘this should be painful and this should not be painful.’ What is painful to us is painful to us. And we expect countries to recognize that,” Alvi said.

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“Its not good enough to say the U.S. government has nothing to do with it. I know they have nothing to do with it,” he said, “but it is their responsibility because a US citizen is involved in this. It has the responsibility to curb such actions and legislate in the U.S.”

Read more: http://www.pri.org/stories/politics-society/religion/pakistani-politician-calls-on-u-s-to-ban-blasphemy-11551.html