Regrettable that Muslim leaders failed to counter Islamophobia, PM says

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan said in his address Monday as chief guest in Ulema and Mashaikh Conference that Islamic scholars played historic role in the making of Pakistan which is conceived in the name of Islam, ARY News reported.

We have set ourselves on the endeavor of transforming our society into the welfare state of Madina where people would revert to Islam looking at how Muslims lived, the PM reassured of his resolve in the conference.

The religious scholars struggled alongside the father of our nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and their contribution was substantial, PM Khan acknowledged.

However, the PM went further to regret how terrorism was then linked with Islam and admitted he is sorry no Islamic leader stood up to resist the propaganda.

It is a sorry state of affairs, lamented PM Khan, that no Muslim country leaders reacted to a systematic rise and spread of Islamophobia and noted Islam and terrorism are not the same.

When terrorism was being misattributed to Islam, it was upon the leader of Islamic world to negate this propaganda and come clean, he said.

The act of suicide attacks was prevalent in Sri Lanka before nine-11 perpetrated by Hindu Tamil forces but nobody said Hinduism was a religion of terrorism and the same goes with Japanese suicide attacks on American jets but their religion, too, was never blamed.

He noted that it’s time the Islamic world helped West acknowledge terrorism has nothing to do with Islam and counter Islamophobia and speedy popularity of propaganda against Islam.

READ: UN monitoring team report vindicates Pakistan’s stance: FO

It is in the West that people celebrate caricatures of religious figures to offend masses, and justify it in the name of free speech rights, He said, and added that freedom of speech could never be interpreted as a tool to further inter-religion hate and dissonance.

If you criticize beliefs and claims of Jew people, the freedom of speech law doesn’t apply there and you’ll be liable to punishment but if a religious woman observes hijab or man maintains beard, they can be made fun of.

Separately in the same address, the PM also reiterated on his struggle to have supremacy of law in hte country restored in the country, where there’s a unifrom law for both the rich and the poor, for which he said, “Imran Khan alone cannot do everything and I need support of my people.”