Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held a telephonic conversation with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to apprise him of the ongoing Islamophobic actions by India’s ruling party, BJP, in particular the derogatory remarks recently made by two of its senior officials towards the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and violence against Muslims, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
The foreign minister underscored that such wilful and deliberate provocation had deeply hurt the sentiments of billions of Muslims around the world. He urged the UN secretary general to take cognizance of this abhorrent development amidst the rising tide of hate speech and Islamophobia in India.
Bilawal also condemned the high-handed treatment meted out to peaceful protesters by the Indian authorities, including unlawful bulldozing of protesters’ homes as a form of punishment without any due process, which was the latest manifestation of the BJP-RSS combined unabated persecution of Muslims with complete impunity.
The foreign minister noted that despite the international denunciation of the BJP officials’ sacrilegious remarks, the failure of the top BJP leadership and Indian government to unequivocally condemn it was deeply disappointing and pointed to their complicity.
The BJP-RSS dispensation had not only persisted in its Islamophobic acts, but also shamefully chosen to handle peaceful public protests with brutal and indiscriminate use of force.
Noting the UN’s positions on hate speech and Islamophobia, and the comments by the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), Bilawal urged the UN secretary general to monitor such incidents and highlight the new and emerging threat posed by Islamophobia, xenophobia and right-wing extremism. He also urged the secretary general to play his due role in halting the grave and systematic human rights violations in IIOJK.
The foreign minister and the UN secretary general agreed to remain in contact for coordinating international efforts to effectively combat Islamophobia.
On Sunday last, Bilawal had called Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha and discussed the rise of Islamophobia in India, with particular reference to the derogatory remarks against Islam’s Prophet by two senior officials of the BJP.
Bilawal had observed that the “derogatory remarks made by the high-ranking BJP officials had deeply hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the globe.” He had noted that the BJP’s “attempted clarification,” and the party membership suspension of the two officials “could not assuage the pain and anguish they had caused to the Muslim world.”
Strongly condemning the high-handed response by Indian authorities to peaceful protests over the derogatory remarks, Bilawal had described it as “the latest manifestation of the Indian government’s ongoing persecution of Muslims.”
The foreign minister had urged the OIC and its member states to step up their efforts for protecting the life, dignity, property, culture, heritage and religious freedoms of Indian Muslims. He further urged the organization to take immediate cognizance of the aggravating situation of Islamophobia in India.
The OIC secretary general had also expressed deep concern over the insulting remarks, as well as the unending plight of Indian Muslims. “[The] OIC was sensitive to the growing trend of Islamophobia and the need to take collective action to combat it,” he added.