The irony over the matter cannot be hidden as the world has witnessed a spike in hate crimes in US
KARACHI: The US recently put Pakistan on its religious intolerance list. While the debate over the presence of religious intolerance in the country is valid, what is of more importance over here is that the US – itself a country that has seen a rise in Islamphobia and xenophobia in the recent past and with a president who is openly Islamphobic – has questioned other countries not just Pakistan for “their religious intolerance”.
The irony over the matter cannot be hidden as the world has witnessed a spike in hate crimes in the US. According to a recent report published in The Guardian, “The FBI says hate crimes reports were up about 17% in 2017, marking a rise for the third year in a row.” In the wake of this, the US list of religious intolerance seems nothing but a politically-motivated list that reeks of hypocrisy. Another surprising development is that the list does not include India – a country which has also seen a surge in hate crimes against its Muslim minority under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
Hence, it is time for the US to introspect itself before pointing fingers at others.
Fazeel Azam
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2018.
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