EDITORIAL: It’s been three years since the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution, moved by Pakistan on behalf of 57 OIC members and co-sponsored by eight other countries, including China and Russia, declaring March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
Far-right populist leaders in various countries, however, continue to whip up anti-Muslim haltered and intolerance with a view to making political gains.
As Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram noted in his address to the UNGA last Saturday, i.e., March 15, “while religious hatred is indeed a widespread problem in many countries, Islamophobia has a special place because Muslims are one of the few groups being directly attacked by political leaders around the globe.”
Such biases, he added, “are manifested in the stigmatisation and the unwarranted racial profiling of Muslims and are reinforce by biased media representations, and by anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies of political leaders.”
An obvious case of religio-racial profiling is President Donald Trump’s decision – similar to the one he took during his last term – to bar people from several Muslim countries from entering the US. Actually, it is common in most Western countries to conflate violent religious extremist groups with all Muslim communities.
Conveniently overlooked in so doing is the fact that all such groups emerged from the ruins of the wars US-led Western countries waged against Muslim countries from Afghanistan to Iraq and Libya to Syria, also destabilising certain other countries in the vicinity such as Sudan and Somalia.
Yet peaceful citizens of these countries are portrayed as extremists out to ‘destroy our way of life’, with the result that there is resurgence in anti-Muslim hate crimes. Islamophobia, though, is not limited to Western societies.
In India, the Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, routinely employs anti-Muslim rhetoric – eagerly promoted by an increasingly supportive sensationalist media – as part of his electoral strategy. His government has also enacted discriminatory laws to systematically marginalise India’s over 200 million Muslims.
There are some positive developments, however. Sweden and Denmark, which during the recent years saw distressing riots over acts of sacrilege, have enacted laws criminalising desecration of the holy Quran, also ensuring that the freedom of expression is not misused to propagate hate and intolerance. Meanwhile, Canada has appointed a special representative to combat Islamophobia.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres marked March 15 by expressing his concern over “a disturbing rise in anti-Muslim bigotry” and urging governments to protect religious freedom and for online platforms to curb hate speech. He has also nominated his special envoy on Islamophobia. That should help combat all such manifestations of anti-Muslim prejudices.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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