THE West is engaged in intensive propaganda to link the phenomenon of extremism and terrorism to Islam and its followers but regrettably it itself is becoming the centre of worst kind of extremism, threatening global peace, security and amity. This is amply evident from what is happening in France these days with full approval and backing of President Emmanuel Macron, whose statements, remarks, declared intentions and policies clearly amount to fanning the dangerous tendency of Islamophobia in a country, which traditionally maintained cordial relations with the Islamic world.
There is justifiably widespread condemnation of the views and actions of the French President as these are gravely injuring sentiments of 1.6 billion Muslims and widening the gulf of misunderstanding between two major civilizations of the globe. The feelings of the Muslims and their reaction to the continued provocation in the shape of publication of sacrilegious cartoons are known to each and every member of the civilized world and, therefore, there was dire need on the part of every Government to stop this trend. However, instead of inculcating the spirit of accommodation among their people and building bridges of understanding among followers of different faiths, some leaders in the West including Macron are complicating the issue because of their narrow-minded approach and clear bias towards Islam and Muslims. What a shame that at a time when Macron should have denounced the extremist action of displaying blasphemous cartoons in a class-room, he has officially designated a building to exhibit these cartoons, sending shock-waves in the entire world of Islam. Not only that he has also announced stricter oversight of schooling and better control over foreign funding of mosques, which obviously would mean further squeezing of universally accepted right of freedom of religion for Muslims in France, where they are already highly discriminated against and Muslims women are not allowed to wear even head-scarf. It is lamentable that all this is going on in the name of freedom of expression despite the fact that nowhere in the world there is a concept of free for all expression of opinion disregarding sentiments of others and disrespecting holy prophets. One can also imagine the state of mind of Macron who, this month, described Islam as a religion “in crisis” worldwide and said the government would present a bill in December to strengthen a 1905 law that officially separated church and state in France. Macron is free to legislate whatever he thinks is in the interest of France but how can he justify his anti-Islam posture and bias. It is because of his venomous thinking towards Muslims that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, while strongly condemning his moves, remarked that Macron needs mental check-up over his attitude towards Muslims. Macron should have pondered seriously as to what prompted Erdogan, who is one of the highly popular figures in the Islamic world, to make such unconventional remarks but he instead opted to recall his Ambassador from Ankara, maintaining that remarks of the Turkish leader were unacceptable, forgetting that his own remarks and policies were also unacceptable. Prime Minister Imran Khan too has aptly reminded President Macron that like iconic leader Nelson Mandela, this is a time when Macron could have put the healing touch and denied space to extremists rather than “creating further polarization and marginalization that inevitably leads to radicalization”. Imran Khan also noted that Macron chose to encourage Islamophobia by attacking Islam rather than the terrorists who carry out violence, be it Muslims, White Supremacists or Nazi ideologists. Sadly, President Macron has preferred to deliberately provoke Muslims, including his own citizens, through encouraging the display of blasphemous cartoons targeting Islam and our Prophet (PBUH). Pakistan Foreign Office has also condemned in the strongest manner the systematic resurgence of blasphemous acts of republication of sacrilegious caricatures of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and desecration of the Holy Quran by certain irresponsible elements in some developed countries. These statements truly reflect the aspirations and sentiments of Muslims and must be taken in the right perspective by countries where resurgence of such acts has become a routine because of tacit official patronage on the pretext of freedom of expression. However, mere issuance of statements would not work and it is time for the Islamic world to adopt a collective stance, preferably from the platform of OIC, which has, otherwise, become lacklustre because of various reasons. We endorse call of Turkey for boycott of French goods and hope that the issue of Islamophobia would be highlighted by representatives of Muslim countries at all available forums.
