UNGA adopts Pakistani resolution calling for fighting Islamophobia

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly Friday adopted a Pakistani resolution, by a big majority, that calls for, among other elements, concerted action to fight ongoing violence against Muslims and requests the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy to combat Islamophobia.

Prior to adopting the new resolution, entitled: ‘Measures to Combat Islamophobia’, by a vote of 113 in favour to none against, with 44 abstentions, the 193-member Assembly rejected two amendments proposed by a group of European nations. India, along with most of European states, abstained on the resolution.

The proposals would have replaced key language in the resolution, including calling for a focal point instead of a UN special envoy and removing references to the desecration of the holy Quran.

The U.N. created the International Day through a resolution adopted following attacks on two mosques Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead on this day in 2019.

Two years ago, the General Assembly declared March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia under the terms of a resolution, also presented by Pakistan, with the sponsorship of the OIC and other Like-minded Member States.

Introducing the resolution, Ambassador Munir Akram, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said despite the resolution and other actions as well as efforts by leaders promoting inter-religious and inter-communal harmony, the incidents of Islamophobia – of discrimination, prejudice and violence against Muslims – have risen exponentially both at the societal and State levels.

“These are manifested by the despicable acts of desecration of the Holy Quran with seven such incidents recorded last year alone,” he said.

“The lynching of Muslims by ‘cow vigilantes’: They are manifested by the widespread hate speech against Muslims, online and offline, in discrimination in education and employment.

“In attacks on women wearing the hijab. In the vandalization and destruction of mosques and other holy sites. In racial and religious profiling. In the media outlets, spawning hate and prejudice and fueling hate and prejudice. In the calls for genocide against Muslim minorities which go unpunished,”the Pakistani envoy added.

But most governments , he said, refuse to adopt laws and rules that would prevent and punish such acts of Islamophobia and incitement to violence on the spurious agenda of the right to “freedom of expression”.

“Yet,” he said, “this freedom ends if the Holocaust is denied. This freedom ends if you are demonstrating for Palestinian rights or protesting against Israel’s ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza.”