Turkish Minister of Religious Affairs Dr. Ali Erbas has said that Islamophobia is a grave menace based on extremism and its mass dissemination by anti-Muslim elements has resulted in misleading and negative image of Islam.
He expressed these views in his address as Chief Guest in a seminar on the topic of “ Islamophobia: dimensions and its possible solutions”at the Interna-tional Islamic University (IIU) on Monday. The seminar was jointly organized by University’s Fac-ulty of Social Sciences.
The Turkish Minister said that disseminating mis-guidance and hatred is tantamount to following the devil. The Turkish Minister of Religious Affairs said Western media outlets are trying to distort the image of Islam and atrocities against Muslims are on the rise even in India and Myanmar.
He said that the language based on Islamophobic content is common on electronic and social media and West-ern media houses are pursuing anti-Islamic policy. Dr. Ali Erbas called upon intellectuals, media, lead-ers, researchers and human rights organizations to raise voice against the mistreatment of Islam.
Addressing the seminar, Federal Minister for Reli-gious Affairs Pir Noor-ul-Haq Qadri said that Islamophobia had started with the proclamation of Prophethood. He said that the Heads of States of Pakistan and Turkey are known across the world to utter the word of truth, therefore both countries are active to tackle the challenge of Islamophobia. He referred to the Prime Minister’s speech at the United Nations saying that the PM represented the senti-ments of Muslims across the world. The Minister of Religious Affairs said that the worst form of Islamophobia is in India where Muslims face this negative attitude every day. He thanked the gov-ernment of Kuwait for raising the voice of Muslims in the assembly.
Rector of the University Prof. Dr. Masoom Yasin-zai in his speech said that there is large a number of Islamic University graduates in the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs. “At the moment, we have to formulate a narrative to dispel misconceptions against Islam,” he said.
