New York, MINA – The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres strongly encourages respect for all religions, his spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said of reports of two former spokesmen for India’s Bhatariya Janata Party (BJP) making controversial statements about the Prophet Muhammad.
“We strongly encourage respect and tolerance for all religions,” Dujarric said Monday in response to questions from Pakistani media reporters about what he called “blasphemous” statements.
“We’ve seen the stories, (but) I haven’t seen the comments myself,” he said, Awaz-the Voice reports.
Nupur Sharma, who was the spokesman for the BJP, has been suspended by the party leadership, and the head of the Delhi unit’s media unit Naveen Jindal has been sacked.
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Police in Mumbai, Thane and Hyderabad have registered cases against Sharma accusing him of “hurting religious sentiment”. They made controversial statements during a TV debate. BJP disengaged from both.
Arun Singh, the National Secretary General of the BJP, condemned the insult to religious figures. “The BJP respects all religions. The BJP strongly condemns insults to any religious figure of any religion. The BJP also strongly opposes any ideology that insults or demeans any sect or religion,” he added.
The controversial statement has sparked international furor.
Several Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Indonesia and Iran, as well as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have officially protested their statement and demanded an apology. (T/RE1)
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