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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for strict action against websites fanning hatred to create a divide in humanity and urged Muslim countries to present their case at international forums to improve understanding of Islam.
In an interview with a Canadian media outlet, the prime minister said the use of terms Islamic extremism and radical Islam started after the publication of Salman Rushdie’s book and then 9/11 attacks.
The interview comes as four members of a Pakistan-origin family in London, Ontario killed in run over by a pickup truck were laid to rest on Sunday. The Canadian police say the family was targeted in a hate crime due to their Muslim faith.
The prime minister said the use of term “Islamic radicals” shows as if they were radicalized by religion. Contrarily, terrorism has no religion as extremists were found in every society, he added.
He said the Muslims living in western countries, not the Muslim states, suffered due to Islamophobia and called for closing the gap by improving understanding.
“Everyone is shocked in [Pakistan] because we saw the family’s picture, and so a family being targeted like that has had a deep impact in Pakistan,” he said.
The prime minister said the recent pattern of domestic terror in Western countries demanded a heightened focus on online radicalisation.
He said the condemnable act of terrorism revealed the growing Islamophobia in Western countries. “Islamophobia needs to be countered holistically by the international community,” he remarked.
“Muslims living In the Western World are the ones who suffer from Islamophobia,”
Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI Exclusive Interview on Rosemary Barton Live pic.twitter.com/GeGAzRyUtp
— Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan (@PakPMO) June 13, 2021
The prime minister told the interviewer that he had raised the issue with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, describing him as a leader who understood the importance of fighting online hate and Islamophobia.
He urged other leaders to make such commitment and deal with the situation. PM Imran Khan reiterated that there was not enough motivation and some leaders in Western countries did not understand this phenomenon.
He further said that he “mostly agrees” with Trudeau and his position on extremism, but also expressed concern with some Canadian laws that he believed were contributing to Islamophobia.
READ MORE: PM Imran urges Muslim states to join hands against Islamophobia
He described Quebec’s Bill 21 — which banned public servants, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work — as a form of “secular extremism” that led to intolerance against Muslims.
“You want humans to basically be free to express the way they want to be, as long as it doesn’t cause pain and hurt to other human beings,” he emphasized.
He asked why it became a big issue when someone wears Hijab or grows a beard in the West. “People objecting to Hijab and beard is quite bizarre for me. In liberal democracies, why this is an issue,” he questioned.
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau has pledged to crack down on online hate speech when he introduced a new digital charter in 2019, though critics say Ottawa had been slow to implement changes that could stop online radicalization.
