Imran Khan writes to Muslim states demanding collective action to counter Islamophobia

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has written to all Muslim states urging the respective leaders to act collectively to counter the growing Islamophobia in non-Muslim states.

The letter is in the wake of French President Emmanuel Macron for his remarks on the beheading of a teacher near Paris last week. Macron had called the incident an "Islamist attack".

Imran Khan's letter to leaders of Muslim state expressed concern and relentlessness among the community as "they see the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks, through ridicule and mockery" on the Prophet PBUH in the Western world, especially Europe.

"The recent statements at the leadership level and incidents of desecration of the Holy Quran are a reflection of this increasing Islamophobia that is spreading in European countries where sizeable Muslim populations reside," the letter said.

"In this environment, it is incumbent on us as leaders of the Muslim world to collectively take the lead in breaking this cycle of hate and extremism, which nurtures violence and even death. We, as leaders of Muslim polities, must take the initiative to call for an end to this cycle of hate and violence. I urge all our Muslim leaders as a collectivity, to raise our voice and explain to the leadership of the non-Muslim, especially western states, the deep-seated reverence and love all Muslims feel for their divine book, the Holy Quran, and for our Prophet PBUH," the letter further said.

"We must explain to the Western world that value systems differ for different social and religious and ethnic groups in the world. For Europeans and the Jews the Holocaust, which was the culmination of the Nazi pogrom, has led to many western, especially European states, to criminalizing any act of criticism of questioning of the Holocaust,"

"However, there has to be an understanding by the Western world of giving a similar respect to Muslims, who have also seen their people killed in mass numbers from Bosnia to Iraq to Afghanistan", the letter said.