ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to approach the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy or focal person on Islamophobia, which he said had reached an “alarming level worldwide, especially in Europe.”
The 47th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, held in Niamey, Niger, in November 2020, unanimously adopted a resolution initiated by Pakistan for the designation of March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia. Pakistan last year joined OIC member states to observe for the first time the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
The Muslim group has been working with the international community to commemorate the day at the global level.
“What is most worrisome is that Islamophobia continues to find strong resonance in political spheres in Europe, ultimately leading to the institutionalization of Islamophobia through new legislations and policies such as discriminatory travel bans and visa restrictions,” the foreign minister said at a meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Muslims in Europe held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s 77th session.
Speaking about what he called a rise in hate crimes against Muslims in Europe, the Pakistani foreign minister said:
“The gender aspect of Islamophobia is also gaining prominence, with Muslim girls and women being targeted due to mode of their dress and the general notion that Muslim women are oppressed and thus must be ‘liberated’.”
He proposed that the OIC strengthen the OIC observatory to monitor all incidents of discrimination and hate crimes in Europe and other parts of the world, and called on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe to establish an observatory to monitor acts of religious hatred, hostility and violence against Muslims and report regularly to the relevant policy organizations;
“OIC should urge the UN Secretary-General to appoint a Special Envoy or at least a focal person on Islamophobia,” Bhutto-Zardari said. “The OIC member states, within the framework of their bilateral relations with European countries, should raise the challenges facing Muslims and make specific efforts to help in addressing those challenges.”