‘COVID-19 became another tool to promote hatred against Muslims’

Islamabad : The COVID -19 pandemic has become just one more tool to promote hatred against Muslims, branding them as spreaders of the disease.

This was stated by Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari as she addressed the 6th Istanbul Security Council. Mazari talked about ‘Security in the Post COVID-19 World and Transformation of Security Institutions’

Federal Minister highlighted that pandemic has severely and adversely impacted the global economy and the everyday life of individuals and nations. “We had been reaping the benefits of interconnectedness. It has shown that no one is safe unless everyone is safe,” she said.

She said that multilateralism would help the complex challenge arising from COVID-19. “However, when the crunch came each country was left to fend for itself, or chose to do so as a matter of deliberate policy and countries and societies started turning inwards.”

The Minister pointed out that global crises should have brought humanity together. “Instead, the pandemic has revealed the fault lines and accentuated existing and emerging threats to international peace and security.”

She also mentioned that rather than coming together and set our differences aside, the world is witnessing a global resurgence in tolerance, discrimination, racism, and violence against monitories and other vulnerable groups in many countries accompanied by extreme nationalism, xenophobia and aggression.

She also highlighted that prejudice, discrimination, and violence against Muslims including Islamophobia is one of the manifestations of these extremist trends. “Islamic shrines and holy places are being destroyed; Prophet (PBUH) was insulted and the Holy Quran was burnt perversely in the name of freedom of expression and opinion. The hypocrisy of Western states, especially some members of the EU, has become too overt to ignore. It is unfortunate that Islamophobia has become a political strategy for electoral and political gains and combating falling approval ratings,” she said.

Dr. Shireen Mazari also stressed upon that Prime Minister Imran Khan has called on the General Assembly to declare an “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”. He has written to the leaders of Muslim states urging them to collectively take the lead in breaking the cycle of hate and extremism, and raise their voice against Islamophobia.