Islamabad, SAEDNEWS, Oct. 29: Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has written to the leaders of Muslim-majority countries, asking them “to act collectively to counter growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states”, his office has said. Khan issued the letter on Wednesday, according to a statement, but it was unclear exactly which state leaders it had been sent to.
The letter follows a rebuke by Khan to French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week, where he accused Macron of “encouraging Islamophobia” for moves made by his government to tackle what the French leader termed “Islamic separatism”.Macron’s comments accusing Muslim religious schools of “indoctrination” and defending the “right to blaspheme” under freedom of expression have sparked outrage in parts of the Muslim world, leading to calls for a boycott of French products in some countries.
The French leader’s comments followed the killing of a French teacher after he showed caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad during a lesson earlier this month. In his letter on Wednesday, Khan called on the leaders of Muslim-majority states to band together to tackle what he termed “the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks”. While he did not explicitly reference France, Khan said “recent statements at the leadership level […] are a reflection of this increasing Islamophobia that is spreading in European countries where sizeable Muslim populations reside” (Source: AlJazeera).
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