Pakistan voices concern over increasing hate crimes against Muslims in the West

NEW YORK, February 5: Pakistan has voiced serious concern over the increasing hate crimes targeting Muslims in the West.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi has stressed the need for unity among Muslims as they build bridges to other religious communities through stepped up interaction.
She said interfaith cooperation is the way to bring about a harmonious environment and peaceful conditions. Speaking at an event organized at the UN by Pakistan Mission and the OIC on “Countering Xenophobia through Interfaith Cooperation”, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said that Islamophobic acts are unfortunately happening in countries, which are the traditional champions of human rights and humanitarianism. She regretted that some unprincipled politicians in the West have sought to build their political fortunes by spreading fear and xenophobia – promising to build walls against migrants; barring refugees, even widows and orphans; threatening to ban the adherents of a specific religion from entry to their countries’ shores.
Unfortunately, she said, this campaign of hate and prejudice has received a fillip from ignorant Western media portrayals of Muslims. Initiating the discussion, as the organizer of the event, Ambassador Lodhi said that the purpose of the event- during a week at the UN, devoted to Interfaith Harmony – was to highlight the concern of Pakistan and OIC countries over certain recent developments which pose a danger to such harmony, to social cohesion and to the observance of human rights and humanitarian norms.-DNA