Legal action against filmmakers possible: OIC

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation is ready to sue the offensive filmmakers on US soil, OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has said.
However, he added this could only be achieved through diplomatic efforts of the member states.
Ihsanoglu made his remarks shortly before the publication of anti-Islam cartoons in a French magazine.
Ihsanoglu was addressing the media on Tuesday to express the organization’s stand regarding the recent events following the post of a film that mocked Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) on YouTube.
The secretary-general called the film a “nasty” production that ridiculed the Prophet’s life with blasphemy and falsification.
“We condemn this film and its contents and consider it an act of incitement,” he said.
Ihsanoglu said legal actions against the filmmakers are an option. Some countries have laws that criminalize blasphemy, denying or even questioning the holocaust, and anti-Semitism, he said, adding that other countries prohibit the defaming of the president or king. “So, freedom of expression is not absolute, as they claim. The OIC is ready to coordinate with member states to take actions in this regard,” the secretary-general added.
Concerning criticisms on the OIC, Ihsanoglu said there is a general stereotype about the organization among journalists, despite all the achievements. The organization could convince the international community to issue a resolution of eight articles in the UN Human Rights Council, he told a journalist.
Ihsanoglu also condemned the violence following the post of the film and the killing of the US ambassador and his colleagues at the diplomatic mission in Libya.
He stressed that these violent reactions proved the danger of abusing the right to freedom of expression.
Firstly, we want to see a clear-cut condemnation of the production; and secondly, we want to see the world recognizing the damage resulted by the film to the world security.
It has been seen many times that Muslim masses do not accept such defamation of Prophet Mohammad or any other values, said Ihsanoglu. Messages of sympathy are not enough, according to him.
“We demand from everybody to have self-restrain, as violence only serves the film’s objectives,” he added.
He said that violence against diplomatic missions is against Islamic teachings.
Since the very beginning of the events, we conducted high-level contacts to come up with a unified international response to the film, Ihsanoglu concluded.