West must penalise anti-Muslim hate, Pakistani PM says

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged Western nations to prosecute hatred against Muslims with the “same standards” it applies to Holocaust denial, amid a wave of anti-French riots in his own country, reports the Arab News.

Writing on Twitter, Khan urged Western governments “who have outlawed any negative comment on the Holocaust to use the same standards to penalise those deliberately spreading their message of hate against Muslims by abusing our Prophet”.

Khan blasted “extreme right politicians” in the West who spread hatred against Muslims “under the guise of freedom of speech”.

Khan’s remarks came after his government banned hardline Islamist party Tehreek-e-Lebbaik Pakistan (TLP) on Thursday for inciting anti-French riots across the country.

A statement from the Pakistani government said that TLP was engaging in terrorism, disturbing the peace and “creating anarchy.”

TLP leader Saad Rizvi was arrested.

Pakistani newspaper Dawn quoted Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid as saying that at least 580 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters this month. Earlier reports said that several people, including two officers, were killed in the riots.

The protests erupted after French President Emmanuel Macron took a hard stance on defending the nation’s secularism. He argued that the right to publish cartoons and caricatures of Prophet Muhammad – which is considered blasphemous in Islam – is protected under the freedom of speech.

The French government initiated a crackdown on mosques and Muslim groups that were deemed radical after a string of terrorist attacks last year, including the murder of a school teacher who showed a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on freedom of expression.

On Thursday, the French embassy in Pakistan advised French nationals and companies to leave the country, citing safety concerns.

The term “Holocaust” is used to describe the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews and others in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Denying that this ever happened was made illegal in France in 1990.