Pakistani Prime Minister Says Thanked Putin For Empathy Toward Muslim Beliefs

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th January, 2022) Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday that he had thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his understanding of the Muslims' sensitivity to offensive depictions of Prophet Muhammad in a phone conversation.

In his annual year-end press conference in late December, Putin said that creating offensive cartoons of Prophet Muhammad or uploading photos of Nazi criminals on the website of the WWII victims' memorial do not fall under artistic freedom or freedom of expression.

"Just spoke to President Putin primarily to express my appreciation for his emphatic statement that freedom of speech could not be a pretext to abuse our Prophet PBUH. He is the first Western leader to show empathy & sensitivity to Muslim sentiment for their beloved Prophet PBUH," Khan tweeted.

The two also discussed steps to strengthen bilateral cooperation and exchanged invitations to visit each other's countries, Khan noted.

Pakistan was rocked by violent anti-France protests in spring 2021 over Paris' backing of Charlie Hebdo publications satirizing Prophet Muhammad. Another hot topic in recent years was religious education in European schools, following the beheading of a French history teacher in October 2020. Samuel Paty was murdered on October 16 in Paris outskirts after he showed religious caricatures depicting Prophet Muhammad to his students as part of freedom of speech discussion, prompting outrage among their Muslim parents. Another incident when a religious education teacher allegedly showed cartoons with Prophet Mohammad to pupils occurred in March 2021 in England's West Yorkshire county, prompting demonstrations of Muslim residents.