Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday called upon the world to stand united against hatred, discrimination, intolerance, and promote mutual respect, understanding, and tolerance.
Virtually addressing a session of an urgent debate held by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on acts of religious hatred including the incident of the desecration of the Holy Quran, the foreign minister said unfortunately, the deliberate desecration of the Holy Quran had continued under government sanction and with the sense of impunity.
Increasingly, he said these acts were designed to maximize propagating hate. “We must see this incitement to hatred, discrimination and attempts to provoke violence. We must join hands in condemning it, we must isolate those who stroke hatred,” he said.
FM Bilawal said that three months ago the first international day to combat Islamophobia was observed where the first ever session was held to mark the occasion at the UN General Assembly.
The minister said the Holy Quran was a spiritual anchor for two billion Muslims.
“It is important to understand the deep hurt that at public and premeditated act of Quran’s desecration causes to Muslims,” he remarked.
Terming the desecration of the Holy Quran as an attack on the Muslim’s faith, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the call in the draft text presented before this council for prevention and accountability was reasonable and necessary.
The minister said the hate speech and free speech must be segregated as the free speech was as indispensable as hate speech was indefensible.
There is not a single Muslim country on the planet that allows to the desecration of the holy text of other religions, he said adding such an act is unthinkable to any Muslim.
“It is forbidden by faith, by culture and by law,” he said.
Participating in the debate, some Western countries also condemned the Islamophobic act in Stockholm during Eidul Azha celebrations.
Germany's ambassador Katharina Stasch called the incident a "dreadful provocation" and condemned it.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk told the council that inflammatory acts against Muslims, as well as other religions or minorities, are "offensive, irresponsible and wrong".
Diplomats said intense negotiations had not led to a breakthrough on Tuesday and expect a vote. Such a vote would almost certainly pass since Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries make up 19 members of the 47-member body and also have support from China and others.
Last month, a person, who migrated from Iraq to Sweden, burned pages of the Holy Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid ul Adha, prompting outrage in the Muslim world and condemnation from Pope Francis.
In its response, Pakistan brought a motion seeking a report from the UN rights chief on the topic and calls on states to review their laws and plug gaps that may "impede the prevention and prosecution of acts and advocacy of religious hatred".
Meanwhile, Pakistan, speaking on behalf of the OIC, has warned against inaction in combating the growing acts of desecrating the holy Quran, saying such public actions were not an expression of free speech.
“Let us be clear: commission of these willful and public desecration of a book sacred to billions of people is not an exercise of the right to free speech. They are an affront to our common humanity and human dignity,” Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN offices in Geneva Khalil Hashmi told the UNHRC which is heading towards a vote on a Pakistani draft resolution calling for holding accountable the perpetrators of desecrating the holy texts.
