Some leaders lack motivation to deal with hate websites: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that there is not enough motivation in some world leaders, especially in the West, who don’t understand this whole phenomenon regarding the hate material on websites, which also leads to Islamophobia.

During an interview, which was aired Sunday, the prime minister, in reply to a question, said that whenever the international community, the world leaders decide upon taking action, this issue of Islamophobia would be dealt with.

“But the problem at the moment is that there is not enough motivation in some world leaders, and they don’t understand this whole phenomenon. They do think that there are some weird people and there are weird customs. So it needs to be brought together. There has to be understanding and this can be promoted by the world leaders,” he noted.

When asked what he meant by adopting a holistic approach, the prime minister explained that at every forum, he had been trying to say this to the world community that the Muslims living in the Western countries suffer, they were the ones who suffer from Islamophobia and “we regularly hear about these incidents and many of them are not reported and our embassies tell us about those. So this gap needs to be closed”.

Replying to a question about what should the governments do to shut down hate material, the prime minister called for a strict action against this because these hate websites divide the humanity by creating hatred, ignorant about the others, the human community who you target through this hate material. Regarding the Quebec law on religious symbols, 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.

He emphasised that this was 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.

“I find this law secular extremism as it really is against, you see the whole idea behind secularism is liberalism, you want human beings to be basically free on how and the way they want to dress up as long as it doesn’t cause pain or hurt others. This is how I understand how liberalism is. If some cover their hair or their head, why has it become such a big issue,” he contended.

In reply to another question, the prime minister said that Islamophobia does not affect the Muslims in the Muslim countries, but those living in the Western countries because he has spent time in the Western society and knows what they go through so that is why he raised my voice and how and what is the situation of Muslims in the whole world. “You just look at the situation from Libya, you come to Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and to Somalia. I mean there is a serious political problem in the Muslim world and sufferings,” he said.