According to a Business Recorder news item “France summons Pakistan’s envoy over Alvi remarks” carried by the newspaper yesterday. According to it, the French foreign ministry has summoned Pakistan’s envoy to protest claims by President Arif Alvi that a French bill cracking down on radical Islam stigmatises Muslims.
It increasingly appears that the incumbent French government has singled out the entire Muslim community for unmerited blame and consequent negative treatment. President Arif Alvi has said nothing but truth. According to him, for example, “When you see that laws are being changed in favour of a majority to isolate a minority, that is a dangerous precedent.”
The Modi government in neighbouring India has also marginalized minorities, particularly Muslim, through its perilous descent from Hindu appeasement to incitement. Such approach to governance or politics is always fraught with grave dangers for minorities. The incumbent governments in France and India are required to stop treating Muslims as insignificant or peripheral.
Ahmed Hassan (Islamabad)
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.