Interim Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, representing his country amid an ongoing political crisis following the ouster of popular Prime Minister Imran Khan, used his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday to demand that nations outlaw “Islamophobia” and that the international community enforce blasphemy laws.
Pakistan is home to one of the most draconian penal codes against blasphemy in the world. A defendant found guilty of desecrating the Quran can be sentenced to life in prison; those accused of insulting Muhammad may face the death penalty. Equivalent punishments for alleged blasphemy against other religions do not exist.
Khan, a radical Islamist with fervent support among Pakistani fundamentalists, launched a campaign in 2018 to pressure other countries to adopt similar speech codes as part of a war against alleged “Islamophobia” — intended, in his own words, to “prevent people [from] using freedom of speech as a cover for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims around the world,” he added, according to Hamari Web News.
Kakar reserved his discussion of the topic on Friday to the end of his speech.
“Our progress, based on [a] rich history of cooperation, understanding, exchange, and synthesis of ideas among civilizations, is imperiled today,” Kakar claimed, citing the threat to that progress as “Islamophobia.”
“The narratives advocating a clash of civilizations have done considerable harm to humanity’s progress. Such ideas have bred extremism, hatred, and religious intolerance, including Islamophobia,” he continued. “Make no mistake; it is a latent threat that undermines millennia of progress.”
Kakar claimed that an “epidemic” of “Islamophobia” had gripped the world in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, jihadist attacks, planned and orchestrated by radical Muslims with ties to Pakistan. Osama bin Laden, the head of the terrorist organization al-Qaeda at the time of the mass murder, was found and killed hiding in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011.
He cited as examples of this Islamophobia the recent burnings of the Quran in Europe, initiated after an Iraqi migrant burned a Quran in Sweden in June. The act, which resulted in no property damage or human casualties, prompted a wave of Islamic rioting in the country. Ongoing attempts to continue burning the Quran in response to violence by Muslim extremists have resulted in European countries considering laws to prevent the burnings in an attempt to stop further violence — a reaction Kakar celebrated.
Supporters of a radical Islamist party ‘Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan” burn the Swedish flag during a rally to denounce the burning of the Quran in Karachi, Pakistan, on July 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)
“Earlier this year, the Human Rights Council adopted an OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] resolution submitted by Pakistan, urging States to outlaw the burning of the Holy Quran and similar provocations,” the prime minister recalled. “We welcome the legislation initiated by Denmark and contemplated by Sweden towards this end.”
“Pakistan and the OIC countries will propose further steps to combat Islamophobia,” he promised, “including the appointment of a Special Envoy, creation of an Islamophobia data center, legal assistance to victims, and an accountability process to punish Islamophobic crimes.”
Kakar did not elaborate on what an “accountability process” at the international level would look like or what kind of enforcement Pakistan would be demanding of the United Nations against individuals anywhere in the world whom the Pakistani government considered “Islamophobic.”
The prime minister also only addressed the Quran burnings and violence against Muslims and Christians in neighboring India, which Pakistan has long maintained poor diplomatic relations with. Kakar did not discuss the plight of Christians in his own country, often killed by Muslim mobs after being spuriously accused of blasphemy. In August, a Muslim mob of as many as 10,000 people burned down entire Christian neighborhoods in Jaranwala after unsubstantiated rumors began spreading that a Christian had desecrated the Quran.
Pakistani Christians lament outside the torched Saint John Church in Jaranwala, Pakistan, on August 17, 2023, a day after an attack by Muslim men following allegations that Christians had desecrated the Quran. (AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images)
Kakar’s United Nations address was in line with Khan’s prior to his removal from office, the result of a vote of no confidence by opposition parties in April. Khan remains Pakistan’s most popular politician, and his removal and subsequent arrests on multiple occasions have prompted waves of rioting.
In 2019, Khan took the General Assembly stage to declare that radical Islam does not exist.
“There is no radical Islam. There is only one Islam,” he asserted, lamenting that “Muslim women have been asked to take off their hijab in other countries. A woman can take off her clothes in other countries but cannot put on hijab.”
In 2020, Khan made his first call on that podium for a global blasphemy law.
“We stress that willful provocations and incitement to hate and violence must be universally outlawed,” Khan asserted. “This Assembly should declare an ‘International Day to Combat Islamophobia’ and build a resilient coalition to fight this scourge — scourge that splits humanity.”
With the help of fellow Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Pakistan successfully pushed for the United Nations to brand March 15 “International Day to Combat Islamophobia” in 2023.