Lahore: September 24, 2012. (Pervez Yousaf) In order to express harmony with the Muslim brethren in Pakistan and around the world Council for Interfaith Dialogue (CFID) in collaboration with URI organized a one day conference on Respect of Religions in a local hotel in Lahore. The entire Muslim community of the world is in the state of great shock due to a sacrilegious movie produced by an American Jew and his handful allies. Fr. Francis Nadeem OFM Cap coordinator of Council for Interfaith Dialogue and Fr. James Channan OP coordinator of URI were the chief organizers while Pervez Yousaf secretary of CFID assisted them in this regard. Dr. Paul Bhatti, Federal Minister for National and Interfaith Harmony was the Chief Guest on this occasion while Allama Pir Shafaat Rasool, Chief Administrator of Bilal Markaz Jallo, Lahore chaired this purposeful and timely organized conference. Rev. Fr. Pascal Paulus OP, Provincial of the Dominican order in Pakistan, Rev. Shahid Meraj Vicar General of the Church of Pakistan Lahore, Allama Javed Akbar Saqi chairman of Wahdat-e-Islami, Dr. Kanwal Feroze editor of Monthly Shadaab, Taranjeet Singh (Sikh leader), Bhagat Lal (Hindu leader), Fr. Inayat Bernard (Director CFID), Mufti Syed Ashiq Hussain, Allama Muhammad Tahir Baghdadi Director Interfaith Dialogue of Minhaj-ul-Quran International and Allama Syed Ayyaz Zaheer Hashmi, Central Chairman of peace committee were the guests of honor on this occasion. Addressing the participants of the conference Dr. Paul Bhatti said, ¡§I am highly distressed to know about this blasphemous movie. I can feel the sentiments of my Muslim brethren. A world is passionate and follower of the Personality against Whom this crime has been committed. I will take up this matter in the United Nations in its upcoming meeting. I will propose to make an international law about the respect of all the religions and all the Holy Books. I have already discussed about my proposal with the Government of Pakistan.¡¨ In his presidential talk Allama Pir Shafaat Rasool shared his views saying, ¡§I could not sleep the whole night after watching this offensive movie. The film caused a deadlock on the way towards interfaith dialogue, but now it is over. We have to come out of the greed for fame and materialism and to work together for humanity. Such kind of blasphemous acts will ignite wave of terrorism. Making of this movie is a shameful act and I am highly regretful for that. I invite everybody to step ahead to stop such kind of incidents in the future and we all will follow him or them for this noble cause.¡¨ Fr. Pascal Paulus while sharing his views said, ¡§It was the will of God that we have gathered here, if He would not allow us we could not do this. All the efforts have been damaged due to this blasphemous movie throughout the world.¡¨ Earlier, in his introductory words Fr. Inayat Bernard throwing light on the efforts of CFID said, ¡§On behalf of all the Christians of Pakistan and Council for Interfaith Dialogue, I strongly condemn this movie. All the human beings need to carry out peaceful efforts in this regard.¡¨ Producers of this movie are not Christians because none of the Christians can carry out such kind of anti-religion offense.¡¨ He said, ¡§CFID carries out its efforts for the promotion of peace and interfaith harmony among followers of different religions in our country. Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Sikh and people belonging to other creeds are the members of the council. Council has established different wings like, men, women, youth, children who belong to different walks of life i.e. religion, education, law, journalism, performing and creative art and so on.¡¨ In his keynote address Prof. Anjum James Paul said, ¡§Making of this movie is a malicious act and we all strongly condemn it. None of the religions of the world allows insult of the other religions. Holy Bible and Holy Quran teach us to live peacefully with one another. We need to improve the syllabus of our teaching institutions and to eliminate the articles that create hatred and discrimination in the hearts of children. We have to replace these articles and chapters with peace promoting topics. Along with Islam, there is a need to include lessons about Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and other creeds so that our children may learn and respect all the religions.¡¨ He also quoted different examples from the history about the tolerance and respect by Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). A young Sikh leader Taranjeet Singh said, ¡§This crime has been committed by taking the advantage of freedom of speech (expression). One should not forget that freedom of speech is highly related with the determination of responsibility. Religions should not be linked to the freedom of speech. Insulting any religion through any mode of expression does not fall under the freedom of speech. The entire Sikh community strongly condemns this blasphemous act. There is a need to revisit the code of conduct in this regard. Hindu leader Bhagat Lal said, ¡§All the religions of the world and the Holy Books are true. We respect all the religions and strongly condemn this anti Islam movie and its producers. Talking to the participants of the conference Allama Javed Akbar Saqi said, ¡§This is a part of the conspiracy to pronounce Pakistan as a terrorist country. Trying to generate clash between Muslims and Christians, bomb blasts and suicidal attacks in mosques, imam bargahs, churches, shrines, grave yards and in mourning and funeral processions, all are the parts of this conspiracy. As long as killers are not separated from the deads/victims, terrorists cannot be unveiled. We, the Muslims and Christians work together for a noble cause and one day we will succeed in doing so.¡¨ Talking to audience Dr. Kanwal Feroze said, ¡§This is not the first time that somebody has carried out such a shameful act. In the past two sacrilegious movies titled ¡¥The Last Temptation of Christ¡¦ and ¡¥The Da Vinci Code¡¦ by the Hollywood film producers against Christianity. In one of these movies a renowned Pakistani singer & Qawal (Late) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan also performed as a play back singer. Both of these movies are available in video/CDs stores of the country. This issue does not belong to Pakistan specifically but associated with the entire world. Humanity does not exist in that country where this movie has been produced. In this regard an international code of conduct is needed to be formed. In Pakistan Churches and Holy Bible have been set on fire, Christians have been killed or burnt alive and their properties and homes have also been destroyed or blazed several times. These tragedies have taken place in various parts of the country including Shanti Nagar, Bahawalpur, Sangla Hill, Gojra and Sambarial. Despite all this persecution, Christian community of the country did not loose the patience and remained calm and peaceful.¡¨ On this occasion Rev. Shahid Meraj said, ¡§Whenever some misunderstanding grows in a family, everyone thinks and tries to eliminate that. We, all the Christians, strongly condemn this movie. The Holy Bible says ¡¥Love your neighbor like you love yourself¡¦ and a neighbor could be a Muslim, a Christian, a Hindu a Sikh or believer of any of the other religion. One, who spreads hatred, could not be a Christian. We are Pakistanis and not the Americans and similarly Americans are not Pakistanis. Pakistan is our home and nobody has any kind of supreme authority over the others. We have to accept other than to tolerate one another.¡¨ Allama Syed Ayyaz Zaheer Hashmi expressed his views saying, ¡§The name of Jesus Christ appears 26 times in the Holy Quran. People in our country cannot be considered as ¡¥majority¡¦ or ¡¥minority¡¦. We can divide ourselves in two classes, ¡¥the Savage¡¦ and ¡¥the miserable¡¦. There is a need to improve the usage of blasphemy law in our country. Some of the other participants including Dr. Sadia, Shabnam Nagi advocate High Court, Almas Kanwal, Dr. Syed Noor-ul-Mustafa, Arif Mian, Syed Noor-ul-Saba Hashmi and Sumera Shafique also shared their views. They said that Islam teaches us about peace so we have to make our country a cradle of peace. We should boycott the countries where such kinds of conspiracies are planned. We have to make sure that all the steps of which we have talked about are accomplished. We have to remain calm and tolerant under all circumstances and respect all the religions. Conference concluded with a vote of thanks to all the participants by Mufti Syed Ashiq Hussain. A number of believers of different religions belonging to different walks of life were present in the conference including Qazi Abdul Ghaffar Qadri, Pir Syed Muhammad Shah Hamdani, Prof. Dilnawaz Qamar, Rev. Emmanuel Khokhar, Rev. Saleem, Advocate Shabnam Nagi, Sami Ahsan, Sardar Tarlok Singh, Ghazala Raana, Karamat Ilyas Chaudhry, Samuel Piara, Dr. Saadia Shaheen, Dr. Muhammad Abdullah Farooq and Maulana Kaleem Ullah. In the light of the theme of this conference all the participants unanimously approved the following resolution:- „« All the non Muslim communities of Pakistan strongly condemn the producers of sacrilegious movie and the blasphemous act of Terry Jones; „« We, all the participants of the conference on Respect of Religions demand UNO to ban the movie immediately; „« We, the believers of different religions in Pakistan vow to submit a written memo of condemnation in the United Nations; „« We appeal government of Pakistan and civil society organization also to submit their written statement of condemnation in the United Nations; „« We demand government of Pakistan to amend the syllabus of all the teaching institutions and madrassas and subsequently eliminate articles and lessons from the textbooks that generate hatred in the hearts of the students; „« We demand government of Pakistan to also include articles and lessons about all the other religions that exist in Pakistan; and also highlight the role of Christian leaders and workers in the movement and building of Pakistan; „« We also demand government of Pakistan to include articles of peace building and religious harmony in all the textbooks; „« We demand government of Pakistan to implement the laws in a way that no one dare to force anyone for conversion of faith and no man could marry non Muslim girls by harassing them or their families; „« We demand government of Pakistan to make sure the proper usage of some particular laws so that none of the Muslim could use them to settle their personal disputes and kill the non Muslims or to grab their land and destroy their properties.