He denounces the lynching of a Sri Lankan for blasphemy in Sialkot, but not because he believes in the freedom of expression. He just wants the state to execute the blasphemy, rather than having a mob murder him.
“Islam does not allow insulting any religion: Pakistani PM’s representative,” Ahlul Bayt News Agency, December 28, 2021:
AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Pakistani Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi said Islam is a religion of peace that does not allow insulting any religion or permits others to commit blasphemy.
Addressing the Ulema-o-Mashaikh Convention, Ashrafi said the world knew that insulting any religion was not freedom of expression nor did Islam allow incidents like Sialkot, in which a Sri Lankan man was beaten to death by extremists.
However, it is clear that blasphemy hurts the religious feelings and sentiments of the Muslims, he added.
“Sporadic incidents of violence could not reflect the true picture of religious harmony in Pakistan,” Ashrafi further said. He strongly condemned the lynching of Sri Lankan national in Sialkot, adding that the government had further beefed up the security of minorities and foreign nationals.
The PM’s special representative highlighted that Islam did not allow taking law into one’s own hands or burning property of anyone nor harming a person because this practice was totally against Shariat.
“Islam has given a legal procedure to take any accused person to task if they have committed blasphemy or any other offence,” he said….
