International Day to combat Islamophobia

Pakistan, the Muslim Ummah, and nations around the world solemnly observed the ‘International Day to Combat Islamophobia’ on March 15th with religious zeal and remorse. The civilized nations unequivocally denounced Islamophobia as a manifestation of fear, prejudice, and hatred against Muslims, stressing the urgent need for its swift and complete eradication. Although, Islam’s core message of safety and peace for all humanity, Islamophobia continuously fosters interfaith animosity and erodes understanding between civilizations. The escalating tide of Islamophobia in the Western world, not only precipitates a clash between civilizations but also poses a grave threat to global peace.

Hate speech and racial crimes have increased in recent years after the rise of Nationalism and far-right politics in nations around the globe. Far-right politicians and religious clerics use hate speech and racism to boost their politics and improve public ratings in their countries. Islamophobia is a manifestation of hate speech and religiously motivated crimes against Muslims due to their beliefs, religious attire, physical appearance, culture, and traditions had been shaped into a grave challenge worldwide.

Historically, there has been a sharp uptick in Islamophobic incidents in so-called Western democracies wherein incidents of hate crimes, religious bigotry, and desecration of the holy Quran and Islamic verses become customary in certain nations in Europe and North America.

Similarly, Muslims are continuously subject to violence and discrimination in Hindu-majority India, and Buddhist-ruled Myanmar where the Modi-led BJP regime fostered Hindu extremism and the Buddhist military weighed war against innocent Rohangyas respectively.

There is an endless series of anti-Muslim riots including the profanation of poise personality, desecration of the Holy Quran, and physical attacks on Mosques, Muslims, and their properties across India in recent years under the BJP regime. Ironically, Western leaders and advocates for human rights display extreme religious bigotry and link such grave crimes with freedom of expression and civil liberties. Whereas, the world’s so-called largest democracy is blatantly involved in the ethnic cleansing of over 220 million Muslims in its country to transform itself into a pure Hindu state.

Previously, several Muslim nations through the platform of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) have raised the issue of Islamophobia at the United Nations. The global forum not only condemned Islamophobia designating March 15 as an international Day to combat Islamophobia to create awareness against hateful acts, racism, and religious bigotry against Islam and Muslims in the world. Despite, acknowledgment of the seriousness and scope of the issue at the UN, the Islamophobic incidents in European nations and other countries particularly India, are still happening in different parts of the world.

Presently, Muslims residing in non-Muslim nations, particularly in India, Myanmar, and several Western nations feel insecure and deprived of their basic rights and religious freedoms while those provocative actions hurt over 1.5 billion Muslims across the world.

According to international law, States are duty-bound to prohibit any advocacy of religious hatred, leading to incitement of violence. The recurrence of such Islamophobic incidents in the West during the past few years calls into serious question the legal framework that permits such hate-driven actions in those nations.

The international community and national governments across the world must undertake credible and concrete measures to prevent the rising incidents of xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-Muslim hatred. At the same time, the United Nations as a guarantor of global peace must ensure that member states sufficiently employ their decisions and that no state, individual, or specific group violates global rules, or UN decisions and attacks other religions, groups, or communities in any garb. The Muslim countries also take up the case at the state level with the concerned nations and launch a fresh campaign at the UN to approve Islamophobic acts as prosecutable crimes so the wrongdoers resist discrimination against Muslims due to the fear of reprisal and punishment.