The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a resolution introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that proclaims March 15 as International Day to Combat Islamophobia. The resolution was sponsored by 57 members of the OIC, and eight other countries, including China and Russia. Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated the Muslim ummah on the development.
Western media and political figures have been accused of double standards for using their outlets to not only commend Ukraine’s armed resistance to Russian troops, but also to underlying their horror at how such a conflict could happen to a “civilised” nation. The Ukraine refugees were even termed “prosperous middle-class people” as compared to refugees of Iraq and Afganistan.
A social media post by Gujarat unit of the BJP that depicted Muslims hanging by a noose was made unavailable on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, a day after it sparked massive outrage. The post by BJP Gujarat read, “Satyamev Jayate. No pardon to the terror spreader”. Twitter confirmed it had proactively taken action against the post.
Renowned scholar Professor Noam Chomsky on Thursday said that Islamophobia has taken a “most lethal form” in India, turning some 250 million Indian Muslims into a “persecuted minority”. Chomsky also said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s right-wing Hindu nationalist regime has sharply escalated the “crimes” in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).
The Foreign Office has strongly condemned recent incidents in Sweden and Norway in which copies of the Holy Quran were reportedly burnt, stating respect of religious beliefs is “critical for global peace and prosperity.”. “The rise of such Islamophobic occurrences goes against the spirit of any religion. Freedom of speech can’t justify religious hatred,” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri posted on Twitter.
Facebook says that Islamophobic posts distributed through a clandestine network of far-right pages meet its “community standards”. It was alleged that an Israel-based group had gained access to at least 21 far-right Facebook pages to hate targeting Muslims. Despite revelations that the pages are part of a coordinated scheme profiting from hate and disinformation, Facebook told users that the posts were acceptable.