Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday shed further light on the proposed English language Islamic TV channel which Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia will jointly launch to correct misconceptions and confront the challenges posed by Islamophobia.
The premier shared a picture of his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad in which the three leaders decided to set up the channel.
Taking to Twitter, he said the “BBC type English language TV Channel, apart from highlighting Muslim issues, will also fight Islamophobia”.
Our meeting in which we decided to set up a BBC type English language TV Channel that, apart from highlighting Muslim issues, will also fight Islamophobia. pic.twitter.com/GA6o15oJFH
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) September 30, 2019
The decision to launch a TV channel was taken in a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the just-concluded 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York City.
“President Erdogan, Prime Minister Mahathir and myself held a meeting today in which we decided our three countries will jointly start an English language TV channel dedicated to confronting challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam,” PM Imran had announced in a series of tweets last week.
“Misperceptions which bring people together against Islam would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualized; series and films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people & the world; Muslims would be given a dedicated media presence,” he went on to say.
The trio had also raised the issues in their respective speeches at the Assembly.
Speaking of Islamophobia in his maiden UNGA speech, PM Imran said it had grown apace after the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
“There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. It is creating a division,” he said. “Muslim women wearing Hijab has become an issue in some countries. It started after the 9/11 [attacks].”
He maintained that terrorism had nothing to do with any religion observing that Muslims were being marginalised in Europe.
“We all know marginalization leads to radicalism,” the prime minister said. “We must address this issue. No religion preaches radicalism.”