Move to launch TV to confront Islamophobia hailed

Imran Khan (Geo. TV)

By Nasir Yousoff
Contributor to AsiaN

Kuala Lumpur: The plan by Malaysia, Turkey and Pakistan to launch an English language channel to confront Islamophobia and other challenges has been warmly welcomed as a timely decision.

“In fact, the move is long overdue as Islamophobia has been steadily and ominously heightening since September 11, 2001,” an Asian relations observer told AsiaN.

“These are highly respected Islamic countries that made the move and we look forward to other Muslim countries to join the effort and contribute to disseminating the genuine values of Islam and the bright image of Islamic cultures and civilizations.”

Talking directly to the people through the television channel and engaging with them on all matters related to religion are significant moves towards better understanding among people of all faiths and a robust move towards peace and security for all, the observer added.

“We should expect well prepared programs, documents and movies that will help counter the negative propaganda that has been targeting Islam in the most unfair and most blatant ways, condemning a religion whose very name is related to peace and savagely aggressing its followers often verbally, but sometimes physically,” he said.

“With the launch of a television channel, we expect a wider worldwide audience to have a great opportunity to know the true religion of peace.”

Muslim scholars who have been trying mostly individually to shed light on Islam and to refute the relentless attacks on it can use the TV channel to unite their efforts and work together as they will be addressing viewers from different backgrounds, the observer added.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan announced the move by the three countries on his Twitter account.

“President Erdogan, PM Mahatir and myself had a meeting today in which we decided our 3 countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam,” he said in the tweet.

In another tweet, Imran who has stressed that Islam had nothing to do with terrorism, elaborated on the decision: “Misperceptions which bring people together against Muslims would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualized; series & films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people & the world; Muslims would be given a dedicated media presence.”