ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi today (Tuesday) has expressed concern over rising attacks on Muslims in Western world and called on the global community to “pay attention and arrest the rising trend of Islamophobic attack”.
He expressed his views while speaking on the National Assembly (NA) floor about the killing of four members of a Pakistan-origin family in Canada in what the Canadian police termed as a “premeditated” attack.
Qureshi said he had contacted Pakistan’s consul-general in Ontario as well as the country’s high commissioner in Canada for information. “We are seeing the trend of Islamophobic attacks for some time in the Western world. For the last two years, we are bringing global attention to this — that this is a trend, not individual acts,” he added.
Qureshi said he was concerned the rising trend had “started to divide societies”. “Around 65 million Muslims resided in Europe, two million in Canada and six million or more in the United States because of which the “Western world will have to pay attention to this,” he added.
“This rising trend of Islamophobia will have to be arrested immediately. If Western countries do not do this, the situation can worsen, society can be divided, hate speech, incitement, conflict can be created. Emotions arise and tragedies happen,” he warned.
Qureshi said that according to his conversation with Pakistan’s consul general in Ontario, there was a 12-hour gap between the incident and when the family was informed. “Our consul general was the first person to talk to the family and listen to them,” he disclosed.
Qureshi suggested Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should meet the family of those killed, saying it would reassure them. He also requested the Pakistani community in Canada to play their role and “express solidarity with the family and console them”.
He shared that a call had been arranged between him and Canada’s foreign minister for 6pm tomorrow in which he would “present the emotions of this parliament and the nation” to him.
