Alvi asks West to be mindful of Muslims sentiments

President says Pakistan committed to protecting minorities

ISLAMABAD:

President Dr Arif Alvi urged the West to be mindful about the sentiments of Muslims, while pursuing the notion of freedom of expression, saying on Friday that unfortunately, hatred was being encouraged the world over to fulfill a particular political dialogue against other countries.

Addressing a conference titled ‘Promoting Interfaith Understanding’ organised by Ambassador (retd) Akbar S Ahmed, head of the Ibn Khaldun Chair of the Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, Alvi called for encouraging tolerance towards each other.

“Creation of hatred in the clothing of freedom of speech is something the West has to look upon, in order to increase cooperation among Islam, Christianity, and all other religions,” the president said in his virtual address.

Alvi said that blasphemous caricatures in the name of freedom of expression were painful for Muslims, which the West needed to be careful about. “As in Europe, it is a crime to talk about certain ethnic atrocities of the past, similarly the love of Muslims for the Prophet (PBUH)) is of utmost significance.”

The president warned that throughout history, a conflict between religions translated into bias, which resulted in policy-making on the basis of prejudices. “We need to adjust our way of living, rewrite the history which misguides us, and also rewrite the future of cooperation and peace,” he said.

As humanity faced dangers such as global warming and pandemic, Alvi said, it was important to encourage tolerance towards each other. Pakistan, he said, was committed to continuing protecting the rights of religious minorities to promote interfaith harmony.

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Alvi pointed out the dangerous precedent in India of marginalising minorities through legislation, including discrimination between Hindus and Muslims, thus leading to interfaith friction. He regretted that hatred was being encouraged to fulfill a particular political dialogue against other countries.

Amid the flood of information on social media, he said, the new generation must be able to differentiate between truth and fake news. “The biggest misconception happening in the world is fake news, which needs to be countered,” he added.

He condemned the use of religion as a tool of terrorism and extremism to target other people. He stressed the importance of bringing people together and stimulating their minds towards achieving the goals of interfaith harmony in order to reduce tension and conflicts among communities.

Separately, during a briefing on the National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Alvi asked the universities to enhance the ratio of their online teaching content and develop partnerships with international universities for carrying out research projects.

The president said that the world’s future was linked with information technology and skills in the cyber field. Therefore, he added, it was essential for the universities to give a special focus on the field of cyber security to help strengthen the country’s cyber defence.

He said it was also vital to increase the number of IT graduates for the country’s development as well as to fulfill the market needs. The president lauded the role of the university management in imparting quality education to the people.