Pakistan strongly condemned the latest senseless and deeply offensive act of desecration of the Holy Quran outside embassies of Muslim countries in The Hague, Netherlands, terming it a deliberately provocative and Islamophobic act. The Pakistan Foreign Office categorically mentioned that it was a deliberate Islamophobic act that has hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and such acts cannot be condoned under the guise of freedom of expression, opinion and protest in any case.
The advocates of civil freedoms, human rights and democracy once again weighed a war against Islam and Muslims in the garb of those divine values/ philosophies which promote respect for manhood, demand equal rights for all human beings irrespective of their faith, colour and creeds or geographical association and ask for putting humanity first above all kind of differences to achieve greater cause of global unity, peace and prosperity. Unfortunately, after grasping excel in education, development and technology, the supremacists in Europe and North America threw away their clock of civilization and ruthlessly reinvented old age idiocy and innocence of medieval Europe. Islamophobia is a manifestation of hate speech and religiously motivated crimes against Muslims due to their beliefs, religious attire, physical appearance, culture, and traditions which has gained an unbelievable upsurge in Western nations in recent years.
There had been unceasing incidents of hate crimes, religious bigotry and desecration of the holy Quran and Islamic verses in so-called Western democracies in Europe, North America, India and a few other destinations around the globe that shocked the civilized world and seriously hurt the religious sentiments of Muslim Ummah. Besides, rising Islamophobia in Western nations, there has been a sharp spike in anti-Muslim slurs in Modi’s India where Hindu extremists hold regular rallies in a show up of Hindu supremacy, to wage war against minorities, specifically attacking Muslims and their properties for the sole purpose of vanishing Muslims from India. There has been an endless series of anti-Muslim incidents including the profanation of poise personality, desecration of the Holy Quran, and physical attacks on Mosques, Muslims and their properties across India, that has transformed the so-called largest democracy into a radical Hindu state in the contemporary world.
Ironically, the Western nations and peddlers for human and religious rights displayed extreme religious bigotry and tried to reduce the sensitivity of such grave crime under the garb of freedom of expression and civil liberties. Historically, hate speech and racial crimes have increased in recent years after the rise of Nationalism and far-right politics in nations across the world because far-right politicians and religious clerics use hate speech and racism to their advantage to boost their politics and increase public rating.
The United Nations has acknowledged the menace of Islamophobia and condemned it in all its forms and manifestation while designating March 15 as a global day to combat Islamophobia to create awareness against hateful acts, racism, and religious bigotry against Islam and Muslims in the world. However, this acknowledgement and condemnation by the global forum could not produce the required results and the Islamophobic incidents are regularly occurring in Europe, North America and India and the Muslims residing in non-Muslim nations feel themselves vulnerable and insecure.
In fact, symbolic recognition and condemnation of Islamophobia by the global community proved to be insufficient to curb this evil, as anti-Muslim bias, hatred and racism are still being used by multiple leaders and political groups to flourish their politics in their countries. It is high time, that the global community, the UN Secretary-General and Vatican City feel their responsibility and play due role by criminalizing the Islamophobic acts, hate speech and racism, while binding member states and their followers to uphold their obligations in true letter and spirit, so the wrongdoers could be penalized and an atmosphere of religious harmony and peaceful coexistence be preserved in the universe.
