Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen on Tuesday urged all to refrain from hurting religious sentiments in the name of freedom of expression.
He also condemned the act of violence and terrorism in the name of religion while talking with the members of the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at the foreign ministry.
The comments came amid anger in the Muslim world over publications of cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in France.
Hifazat-e-Islam, a radical Islamic group, on Monday demonstrated in Dhaka and asked the government to cut diplomatic ties with France.
The foreign secretary urged all to have patience and not to mix religious issues with economic ones.
He called upon all sides to exercise the freedom of expression ‘responsibly’.
“We do not support violence or terrorism in the name of religion,” he said as three people died in a knife attack recently at a church in Nice, what French President Emmanuel Macron termed an ‘Islamist terrorist attack’.
He said France would not surrender its core values after visiting the Notre-Dame basilica in the southern city.
In Nice, one elderly victim was ‘virtually beheaded’, officials said. Another woman and a man also died.
DCAB President Angur Nahar Monty and General Secretary Touhidur Rahman conducted the programme.
