A photographer for AFP, Asif Hasan, has been shot at a protest against Charlie Hebdo in Karachi, Dawn reports.
A protest organised by Islami Jamiat Talaba’s Karachi chapter on Friday turned violent when a clash took place between protesters and police. Security forces resorted to aerial firing, tear gas and water cannons to push back the charged mob.
Three party workers, who were affected by tear gas, have been transferred to the nearest hospital.
Agence France-Presse photographer, Asif Hasan, was shot while covering the rally.
“AFP photographer Asif Hasan suffered wounds resulting from gunshots fired by…protesters, police have not opened fire,” Abdul Khalique Shaikh, a senior police officer in Karachi, told Reuters.
“The bullet struck his lung, and passed through his chest. He is out of immediate danger and he has spoken to his colleagues,” Doctor Seemi Jamali, a spokeswoman for Karachi’s Jinnah Hospital where Hassan was taken, told AFP.
Dawn explains about the protest.
Hundreds of people had gathered at Teen Talwar to register their protest over the publication of a blasphemous cartoon disrespecting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) by French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
It’s not a “blasphemous” cartoon because the cartoonist and the magazine don’t subscribe to the system of taboos and exclusions that label it “blasphemous.” It’s “blasphemous” only to people who do subscribe to that system. And the cartoon didn’t “disrespect” the self-proclaimed “prophet” – it portrayed him as far more of a mensch than his nightmarish defenders. And never mind peace be upon him; how about peace for the rest of us? How about an end to the war on the rest of us that’s being carried on by his worst followers?
Today’s rally was aimed at registering its protest outside the French Consulate building. City police had blocked all the roads leading to the consulate and had stopped protesters from marching towards the consulate. The protesters were seen carrying batons.
The rally comes a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led Parliament in condemning the cartoons.
Oh shut up. Act like adults. Have some self-respect.
Rallies are also being carried out in the capital Islamabad and the eastern city of Lahore against the controversial cartoons.
Religio-political groups of all schools of thought are observing today as a black day against the French magazine. The Tehreek Hurmat-i-Rasool, a conglomerate of 20 plus groups, Jamaat-i-Islami, Jamatud Dawa, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan, Sunni Tehreek and Sunni Ittehad Council also announced on Thursday launching a countrywide protest movement against the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo.
Maybe if they unite they can persuade the government to nuke Paris. You know they want to.
And the cartoon didn’t “disrespect” the self-proclaimed “prophet” – it portrayed him as far more of a mensch than his nightmarish defenders.
This. It often seems to me that the people who are most up-in-arms (literally) about defending their deity’s honour (or that of said deity’s prophets), are the people who are most guilty of presenting their hero as a right bastard. The rest of us merely point out this fact….
Muhammed needs a way better PR team.
Why is the ‘peace be upon him’ necessary? Is he at war with himself?
Why (pbuh)? Partly similar to the reason that Jews use G-d to write “God” in English, and never pronounce the name Jehovah, and some Christians will not “speak of the Devil” by name, instead using various metaphors and descriptive phrases. Words (and images, of course) have magical powers. One needs to wish peace upon Mo because everyone is out to get him, so his followers need to issue blessings to counteract their curses. Or something.
Interesting that the Abrahamic deities are too weak to defend themselves, and too stupid to see through the simple subterfuge of letter omissions and roundabout phraseology.
tb@#3:
In my experience, ‘pbuh’ is an easily written contraction of the verbal ‘peace be upon him’ ie the prophet Muhammad. I am not aware of any need to pussyfoot as in ‘G-d’. What I do not understand is the need to say it all the time after every every mention of Muhammad’s name; unless of course, he is at war with himself (wherever he is): a distinct possibility.
“The rally comes a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif led Parliament in condemning the cartoons.”
Its almost as if they want trouble.
Omar: My point is that some believers think that supernatural Bad Things can happen if one is not careful in how one refers to supernatural beings. I don’t see much difference from the Jewish caution about not spelling God (lest one’s pen slip and put a blot in the middle of the name), and the warning in Hadith:
(I guess Mo needs peace wished upon him regularly to defend him against those horrid people waging war on him by drawing pictures of him!!!
Was the pope at the protest?