World must shun ‘Islamophobia’: Nisar

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Wednesday said the goal of ensuring durable peace, lasting stability and continued development would remain elusive till the regional powers aided by international community worked hand in hand for overcoming shared challenges and issues.

The international community, he said, must come out of Islamophobia.“I feel humiliated when my religion is targeted and is equated with terrorism.” He said 1.2 billion Muslims were in fact the worst sufferers and victims of terrorism.



Earlier in February, the Interior Minister urged the West to honour its commitments and agreements while stressing that terrorism could not be linked to any religion.

The minister was referring to a summit held in Washington on ‘countering violent extremism’ in February 2015, and recalled that over 60 countries participating in the moot agreed upon the need to delink terrorism from religion.



“Within just one year of the summit, the action emanating from Washington banning visas for seven Muslim countries has sent a negative message across the Muslim world,” the interior minister said. “The situation in South Asia cannot be seen and understood through foreign security paradigms and foreign solutions cannot address security-related issues of the region.”

“To win the war against terrorism, there has to be an international coalition, but this coalition should be based on mutual and greater understanding of regional dynamics and regional compulsions," he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2017.