Malaysian official says Islamophobia should be criminal offence
On Friday, a top Malaysian official said that Islamophobia should be made a crime and that Muslim countries should take strong action when the Holy Quran is disrespected.
“Anything that makes people afraid of Muslims, or “Islamophobic,” can be seen as a crime. So, like in many other countries where anti-Semitism is a crime, “In an interview with Anadolu, Abdul Razak Ahmad, a representative of Malaysia’s foreign minister, said the following.
Ahmad praised Turkey for its strong response to the recent wave of attacks on the Quran in Europe, which made Muslims angry all over the world. He said that Islamophobia should be a crime, especially in countries where most people are Muslim.
Ahmad pointed to an attempt to do this in Norway, where officials took back a permit to burn a Quran after getting a warning from Ankara. He said this showed how important Turkish diplomacy is.
He said that it shows how well Turkey’s soft power works. He also said that we should talk to these people, tell them we are upset, and tell them that their behaviour is wrong and doesn’t fit with an egalitarian society.
“They need to stop.”
Ahmad says that Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and a few other countries have taken the lead in fighting against Islamophobia.
He said that his biggest worry about Islamophobia was how the religion has been misunderstood and how that has made people who don’t know much about it hate it. He said it was a limited way to look at Islam as a whole.
He stressed how important it was for Malaysia and Turkey to work together to fight Islamophobia, which he said was a global problem affecting the Muslim community.
He said that the West needs to be realistic. “Freedom of speech, freedom of opinion, and freedom of expression must never come at the expense of other people’s faith, right to practise their religion, or ability to live together.”
He also said that Islamic countries need to do more to deal with the problem.
“They can burn another thousand or a million Qurans, but the teachings of Islam will always be in the hearts and minds of Muslims.