Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced that he would join hands with Turkey and Malaysia to launch a new English language Islamic television channel.
The main objective of the TV channel will be to confront challenges including Islamophobia faced by the Muslim world.
Imran Khan, who is in New York to participate in the 74th session of the United Nation General Assembly, tweeted late Wednesday night explaining the need behind launching the joint venture.
“President Erdogan, PM Mahatir and myself had a meeting today in which we decided our three countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam,” Imran said on his official twitter account
In another tweet, he said: “Misperceptions which bring people together against Muslims would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualised; series & films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people and the world; Muslims would be given a dedicated media presence.”
This new channel aims to give Muslims a more diverse media presence, however it has already been met with some backlash on social media, according to Sputnik News, with many Pakistanis believing Khan should focus on extremism instead. Many sceptics have questioned whether a media presence on this scale will prevent Islamophobia in the West, given there are already many Islamic channels worldwide.
This new channel could also secure political ties between the countries, as Pakistan is keen to strengthen its relationship with Malaysia, who is sheltering controversial Pakistani Islamist preacher Zakir Naik, who is facing money laundering charges by the Indian Enforcement Directorate.
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, also attended a high-level, roundtable discussion on ‘Countering Hate Speech’ co-hosted by Pakistan and Turkey.
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The prime minister in his address called for effective measures to counter hate speech and Islamophobia, stressing upon the importance of addressing both the causes and consequences of these phenomena, Geo Tv reported.
About the increasing incidents of discrimination and violence based on religion and belief, Prime Minister Imran made it clear that religion had nothing to do with terrorism.
The prime minister pointed out that marginalisation of any community could lead to its radicalisation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in his remarks, said Muslims were the most vulnerable community to hate speech across the world.
President Erdogan termed hate speech as among the worst crimes against humanity.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also said that Western leaders were not solely to blame for contributing to Islamophobia, as Muslim leaders had failed after the 9/11 attacks to explain that “no religion preaches radicalism.” Khan believes that he knows “how the Western mind works” when it views religion. Perhaps with Khan’s own Westernised background, he will be able to use that experience and insight to help create a channel which will persuade an audience to abandon their Islamophobic views.
