Pakistan PM Khan Battles Fallout In France Blasphemy Row
By David STOUT
04/19/21 AT 10:06 PM
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had hoped a fight over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed would result in an easy win -- placating the ultra-conservative quarters at home while being hailed as a defender of Islam abroad.
The gamble seems to have backfired spectacularly.
For the past week, riots have again engulfed Pakistan, with police officers killed and taken hostage, and the French embassy taking the "urgent" step of advising its citizens to leave the country.
Khan is now scrambling to keep order, months after launching a war of words with President Emmanuel Macron following the French leader's defence of the magazine Charlie Hebdo's right to republish images of Mohammed -- an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.