Pakistani PM Imran Khan Slams French President Emannuel Macron, Who He Thinks Spreads Islamophobia

PM Pakistan Imran Khan (Instagram/@imrankhan.pti)

JAKARTA - The hatred towards Muslims in France increased after the death of Samuel Paty, a history teacher. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has stepped up to address Islamophobia. He also criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for attacking Islam with his statement.

Apart from Macron, Imran's criticism also targets Facebook. He asked Facebook to ban Islamophobic content on the platform. According to Khan, Mark Zuckerberg's social media findings are one of the main mediums for spreading Islamophobia.

Launched Reuters, Monday, October 26, Khan conveyed this in an open letter that he posted on Twitter. In the letter Khan warned against the dangers of developing Islamophobia in promoting extremism and violence around the world.

"I would ask you (Facebook) to place a similar ban against Islamophobia and hatred of Islam on its platform, as Facebook did for the Holocaust," Khan said.

My letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to ban Islamophobia just as Facebook has banned questioning or criticizing the holocaust. pic.twitter.com/mCMnz9kxcj

- Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) October 25, 2020

This month Facebook is in the middle of cleaning up its policies regarding hate speech around the Holocaust. In the future, Khan also wants Facebook to do something similar about Islamophobia.

A spokesman representing Facebook responded to Khan's criticism. The spokesman said Facebook had stood up against all forms of hatred, especially those related to race, ethnicity, national origin or religion.

"We will remove this hate speech as soon as we become aware of it," the spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesman added, Facebook will soon clean up as a form of seriousness against hate speech. It was also through this statement that it was not once or twice that Pakistan criticized Facebook content.

In Facebook's last transparency report for the six months to December 2019, Pakistan came in second in terms of criticizing Facebook content. Generally, the criticism that is leveled is related to Islamophobia. Pakistan marked Facebook as the most critical country highlighting Islamophobia.

Critique for Macron

Regarding his criticism of Macron, Khan said Macron was one of the masterminds who allowed many cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in France. This is a concern for Khan, considering that many French citizens adhere to Islam.

It's not just Khan who has harshly criticized Macron. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even said Macron needed mental care because of his attitude.

In France, the Prophet Muhammad cartoon was first published in 2005 by the Danish newspaper, Jyllans-Posten. Because of the cartoon, waves of protests then emerged from various parts of the world, including Pakistan.

In the last month alone, dozens of people in Pakistan staged a demonstration because the Prophet Muhammad cartoon was re-published by the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo. Therefore, Khan immediately tightened his surveillance of a number of social media applications in his country at once.