The French Foreign Ministry has summoned the Pakistani Chargé d’Affaires in protest of recent remarks by the President of Pakistan against the continuation of the anti-Islamic approach in Paris and blaming the passage of a bill against Islamic fundamentalism.
Pakistani media reported on Wednesday that the rebuke of the recent passage of the bill in the French House of Commons by Pakistani President Aref Alavi had angered Paris.
Pakistan, which does not have an ambassador to Paris, has repeatedly criticized French leaders’ anti-Islamist stance in recent months, accusing the Paris government of attacking Islam as well as disturbing Islamophobia.
Relations between Islamabad and Paris have soured since the events of the past year, which escalated Islamophobia in France, and even Pakistan has not sent any ambassadors to that country.
According to the report, the French Foreign Ministry summoned the Pakistani Chargé d’Affaires in Paris, expressing its anger at the Pakistani President’s sharp criticism of the escalation of Islamophobia in France and the country’s efforts to suppress the Muslim community.
The Center for Diplomacy of the Paris Government claimed that the bill passed in the French House of Commons had no discriminatory element but followed the basic principles of freedom of religion and belief.
The French Foreign Ministry called on Pakistan to take a constructive approach to bilateral relations, adding that Paris does not discriminate between different religions and that all laws apply equally to all religions.
Earlier in December, Pakistani Human Rights Minister Shirin Mazari sharply criticized Paris’s controversial Muslim policy and compared it to anti-Semitism during the Nazi era, angering the French government.
According to IRNA, the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the French ambassador last November and expressed its strong protest against the French president’s remarks and his encouragement of anti-Islamic elements to the Paris government.