President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday condemned the just lately rising pattern of Islamophobia, the current burnings of the Quran and “populist discourse that incites hate speech.”
In a joint assertion issued following the leaders’ assembly in New York on the margins of the 78th U.N. Basic Meeting, the leaders additionally expressed concern over the emergence of a “new type of racism” characterised by xenophobia, detrimental profiling and stereotyping of Muslims.
The pair condemned “within the strongest phrases the current incidents of the burning of copies of the Holy Quran witnessed in a number of European international locations below the guise of freedom of expression in addition to the populist discourse that incites abuse, hate speech and aggression in opposition to Islam and Muslims,” it mentioned.
President Erdoğan and Ibrahim additionally expressed “deep concern” about “the pattern of accelerating hatred, intolerance, discrimination and acts of violence in opposition to Muslims and their sanctities that has reached an alarming stage in lots of elements of the world, particularly in Europe.”
The leaders mentioned they welcomed the adoption of Basic Meeting Decision 76/254 to declare March 15 as Worldwide Day to Fight Islamophobia, in addition to the pressing debate in the course of the 53rd session of the U.N. Human Rights Council to debate the “alarming rise” in premeditated and public acts of spiritual hatred as manifested by the recurrent desecration of the Holy Quran and the adoption of a U.N. Human Rights Council decision defining the burning of sacred books as spiritual hatred.
The leaders welcomed Basic Meeting Decision 77/318 on Selling Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue and Tolerance in Countering Hate Speech adopted on July 25.
In line with the assertion, Erdoğan and Ibrahim additionally underlined that actions of spiritual hatred, racism, discrimination and xenophobia pose a menace to peace and incite a tradition of violence.
The leaders additional referred to as on all related stakeholders, together with governments, to extend efforts to handle discrimination, xenophobia, racism and hate speech consistent with worldwide human rights.
Since earlier this 12 months, the incessant Quran burnings in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, below the pretext of “free speech,” have sparked widespread protests in Muslim international locations, together with assaults on diplomatic missions.
The Danish and Swedish governments have condemned the burnings and are contemplating new legal guidelines that might cease them. However home critics say such selections would undermine “freedom of speech.”
Muslims view the Quran because the literal phrase of God and desecration of the holy e-book is deeply offensive, leading to protests within the Muslim world.