Pakistan condemns British Home Secretary's 'discriminatory, xenophobic' remarks

Pakistan said on Wednesday that British Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s ‘‘discriminatory and xenophobic’’ remarks against Pakistani men paint a “highly misleading picture signalling the intent to target and treat British Pakistanis differently”.

On Tuesday, during a Sky News interview about plans to tackle child sexual abuse, Braverman said that British-Pakistani men “hold cultural values at odds with British values”.

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“British-Pakistani men see women in a demeaned, illegitimate way, and pursue an outdated and frankly heinous approach to the way we behave,” Braverman said.

Referring to her comments, Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch warned that such comments would give rise to dangerous trends, adding that Braverman had “erroneously branded criminal behaviour of some individuals as a representation of the entire community”.

In a press briefing, the spokesperson said that the home secretary had failed to take note of the “systemic racism and ghettoisation of communities” and did not “recognise the tremendous cultural, economic and political contributions that British Pakistanis continue to make in British society”.

Violence against Muslims in India

Baloch also spoke about the rise in violence against Muslims in India, which she said was due to “the pursuit of a majoritarian Hindutva agenda and anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric rife in Indian politics”.

She welcomed the statement of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) expressing concern on rising anti-Muslim incidents in India. The OIC had urge India to take firm action against the extremists for fomenting communal violence and hatred against Muslims.

“India must take demonstrable steps to curb the rising tide of Islamophobia, to provide protection to Muslims for practising their faith and account those responsible for such hateful acts,” she said.