UMT seminar: ‘West has different standards’

LAHORE: The US and European countries have different standards for democracy in Islamic countries, Dr Salman Sayyid, a Leeds University professor, said on Wednesday. Giving a lecture at the University of Management and Technology (UMT), he said: “When Palestinian people vote for Hamas, the West chooses to ignore their will. When democracy was taking root in Egypt, the US and European countries created hurdles in its way.” “The mass media in European countries regularly and recklessly insults Islamic religious symbols,” he said. Referring to the concept of Eurocentralism, he said that it was a way of thinking. “Its basic belief is: West is the best. Under this 7, Muslims are required to fit themselves in the norms and values of the Western world,” he said.  He said that Islamophobia was not hostility towards Muslims and Islam. “It is against the idea of Muslim autonomy and that Muslims should interpret their own history,” he said. UMT Rector Dr Hasan Sohaib Murad, Farooq Salman Murad and Dr Aijaz Aslam also addressed the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2015.