PM calls on world leaders to take steps against Islamophobia

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has once again called on world leaders to crack down on hate speech and extremism on social media in the wake of growing Islamophobia, as this divides the humanity.

The prime minister said these websites, which divide the human beings, by creating hatred, ignorant about the other human community, target them and this hate material, especially with growing social media, the social media is completely…the world is coming to grips with it, is the new phenomenon.

And, he continued, while there are so many benefits of social media, but unfortunately, the particular one i.e. the hate websites, which create hatred among human beings, there must be an international action against them.

In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), to be aired today (Sunday), while speaking on the increasing incidents of Islamophobia and the recent one, targeting Muslim families in London, Ontario, Canada, the prime minister said, “The incident in which a Pakistani family was targeted has had a profound effect in Pakistan.”

“Rising incidences of extremism and Islamophobia in the West require that world leaders take this issue seriously and take strong action to prevent it,” he said. Imran said that strict action should be taken at the international level against the websites which spread hatred.

The prime minister said he had raised the issue with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, and was aware of the importance of the issue: He is a leader who understands online hate speech and Islamophobia, but also other world should understand the importance of this issue and steps must be taken to address it.

The premier emphasised that some Western and world leaders did not realise and understand the importance of this issue. Imran Khan said he agreed with most of Justin Trudeau’s views on extremism, but that some Canadian laws were also causing Islamophobia, citing the Quebec Bill 21, which seeks to ban government employees, including teachers while police officers were banned from wearing their religious symbols.

Imran Khan said that this is also a form of secular extremism which leads to intolerance against Muslims, and added that freedom of expression is limited as long as other people are not hurt by it.

Meanwhile, Imran Khan said Pakistan on its part was doing more to fight climate change as the government had allocated a record Rs14500 million budget in the fiscal year 2021-22 in this regard.

On his Twitter handle, the prime minister also posted graph showing the PTI government’s commitment for environment protection to save the future of upcoming generations. During the fiscal year 2020-21, the government had allocated Rs6,000 million whereas in the year 2019-20, the allocation stood at Rs7,579 million.

These budget allocations for the Ministry of Climate Change were unmatched when compared with petty allocations set aside by the previous governments of PPP and PMLN to help fight the worsening issue of climate change.