Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed Islamophobia along with various other socio-political issues in an exclusive interview with Canadian media.
Speaking to Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) chief political correspondent – Rosemary Barton on Sunday a day earlier, PM Imran Khan addressed the issue of growing Islamophobia and prejudice against Muslim residents in the west.
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The prime minister accentuated that linguistic terms such as ‘Islamic terrorism’, ‘Islamic radical’ and others fan the flames of Islamophobia and hatred for Muslims.
Such terms portray as if something’s wrong with Islam itself and that supports extremism in any way. Terrorism has no religion as extremist individuals exist in every society, said PM Imran Khan.
Muslims communities around the world are targeted by Islamophobia and anti-Islam hate and prejudice, remarked the prime minister.
The premier underscored the significance and dire need for confidence building measures (CBMs) to counter Islamophobia aimed at preventing hate crimes against Muslims living in western countries.
Online hate and extremism in the west is a worrying prospect and must be duly addressed and countered, said PM Imran Khan.
The premier also discussed the issue of various laws that are essentially against Islam and Muslims.
‘Quebec’s Bill 21’ is a form of ‘secular extremism’ as it essentially infringes upon an individual’s religious rights.
It is to be noted that the ‘Bill 21’ prohibits government employees including teachers and police officers from wearing religious symbols in Quebec.
PM Imran Khan also commented on the recent Islamophobic attack in Ontario, Canada that killed four people belonging from a Pakistani-origin Muslim family after a pickup truck ran over them after the driver identified the group as ‘Muslims’ and intentionally rammed them.
Killing of a Muslim family in Canada has left a deep impact on every Pakistani, said PM Imran Khan.
The deceased were identified as Syed Afzaal – 46, his wife Madiha Salman – 44, their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Afzaal and Syed Afzaal’s 74-year-old mother.
The prime minister stressed upon the need be vigilant against online extremism which is in fact the primary factor behind such hateful violent acts.
PM Imran revealed that he has raised these issues with his Canadian counterpart PM Justin Trudeau and that the latter mostly agrees with him regarding certain Canadian laws that support Islamophobia and hate against Muslims in one way or the other.
