ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday called for strict action against the websites fanning hatred to create a divide in humanity, also urging the Muslim world to present their case at international forums and improve understanding of Islam.<\/p>\n
The prime minister, in an interview with the CBC\u2019s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton, also aired by the PTV, said the use of terms Islamic extremism and Islamic radical started after publication of Salman Rushdie\u2019s book and then the 9\/11.<\/p>\n
The interview was aired as in London, Ontario, the funeral prayer of four members of Pakistani family, killed in run over by a pickup truck on last Sunday evening, was held.<\/p>\n
The Canadian police say the family was targeted because they were Muslim. The family moved to Canada from Pakistan in 2007. <\/p>\n
The prime minister said the use of term \u201cIslamic radicals\u201d shows as if there was something wrong with the religion which made them radical. Contrarily, terrorism has no religion as extremists were found in every society, he added.<\/p>\n
He said the Muslims living in western countries, not the Muslim states, suffered due to Islamophobia and called for closing the gap by improving the understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is shocked in [Pakistan], because we saw the family picture, and so a family being targeted like that has had a deep impact in Pakistan,\u201d Prime Minister Khan said.<\/p>\n
The prime minister said the recent pattern of domestic terror in Western countries demanded a heightened focus on online radicalization. <\/p>\n
After the tragic incident, the prime minister took to his twitter handle to express his feelings. \u201cSaddened to learn of the killing of a Muslim Pakistani-origin Canadian family in London, Ontario.\u201d <\/p>\n
He said the condemnable act of terrorism revealed the growing Islamophobia in Western countries. \u201cIslamophobia needs to be countered holistically by the international community,\u201d he remarked. <\/p>\n
The prime minister told the interviewer that he had raised the issue with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau, describing him as a leader who understood the importance of fighting online hate and Islamophobia. <\/p>\n
He urged other leaders to make such commitment. \u201cThe world leaders, whenever they decide upon taking action, this will be dealt with,\u201d he opined. <\/p>\n
Imran Khan reiterated that there was not enough motivation and that some international leaders, or leaders in the Western countries, actually did not understand this phenomenon. <\/p>\n
He further said that he \u201cmostly agrees\u201d with Trudeau and his position on extremism, but also expressed concern with some Canadian laws that he believed were contributing to Islamophobia. <\/p>\n
He described Quebec\u2019s Bill 21 \u2014 which banned public servants, including teachers and police officers, from wearing religious symbols at work \u2014 as a form of \u201csecular extremism\u201d that led to intolerance against Muslims. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou want humans to basically be free to express the way they want to be, as long as it doesn\u2019t cause pain and hurt to other human beings,\u201d he emphasized. <\/p>\n
He asked as why it became a big issue when someone wears Hijab or grows beard in west. \u201cPeople objecting to Hijab and beard is quite bizarre for me. In liberal democracies, why this is an issue,\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n
Yumna Afzaal, 15, Madiha Salman, 44, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal 46 were out for an evening walk when they were run over by 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman who police said was motivated by anti-Muslim hate. He had participated in online activity that promoted extremism or violence. <\/p>\n
The perpetrators of other recent mass killings \u2014 such as the 2017 gun attack at a Quebec City mosque and the 2018 Yonge Street van attack in Toronto \u2014 took part in online activities that are believed by investigators to have contributed to their radicalization. <\/p>\n
Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau pledged to crack down on online hate speech when he introduced a new digital charter in 2019, though critics say Ottawa had been slow to implement changes that could stop online radicalization. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD, Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday called for strict action against the websites fanning hatred to create a divide in humanity, also urging the Muslim world to present their case at international forums and improve understanding of Islam. The prime minister, in an interview with […]<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4238,7953,121,7954],"class_list":["post-11704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan-news","tag-humanity","tag-intl-action","tag-pm","tag-websites"],"yoast_head":"\n