The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution to mark march 15th as International Day to Combat Islamophobia. This resolution was introduced by the Organization of Islamic Corporation, was cosponsored by 55 countries mainly Muslim including China.
Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram introduced the resolution at the general assembly under the agenda item Culture of Peace.
India’s at UN General Assembly
As the UN General Assembly proclaimed the resolution, India’s permanent representative to the UNGA stated India’s diverse stance on the resolution.
Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti said, “Hinduism has more than 1.2 billion followers, Buddhism more than 535 million and Sikhism more than 30 million spread out around the world. It is time that we acknowledged the prevalence of religiophobia, rather than single out just one.”
India’s Tirumurti drew notice to the fact that phobias are not restricted to Abrahamic Religions per se. Such phobias are relevantly directed to all religions. He emphasized that the stature of the UN stands beyond religion.
The UN as a platform of peace and harmony, should treat the religious spectrum broadly and not limit its vouch to the limited bandwidth of Abrahamic religion and its concerns. Indian envoys stated, “It is in this context that we are concerned about elevating the phobia against one religion to the level of an international day, to the exclusion of all the others.”
Dr Anna Sapir Abulafia refers to Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. While Baha’i Faith, Yezidi, Druze Samaritan and Rastafari also belong to the Abrahamic religion.
India’s urge to acknowledge ‘Religiophobia’
Indian envoy Tirumurti cited examples of the destruction of the Bamiyan Budha, temple and gurudwaras desecrations, also the abject glorification of damaging idols of worships and massacre justification by the sectarianists. He registered his condemnation for raising an issue to the level of calling out commemoration for combating hatred.
He firmed the general assembly on India’s general fluid practice of pluralism and as a hub of democratic acceptance of all persecuted whether Zoroastrians or Buddhists any faith. He said, “We firmly believe in equal protection and promotion of all religions and faith.
It is, therefore, unfortunate that the word ‘pluralism’ finds no mention in the resolution and the sponsors have not found it fit to take on board our amendments to include the word ‘pluralism’ in the text for reasons best known to them.”
Indian envoy remarked in the session that this resolution downplays the pluralistic and democratic ideology. While the French envoy to the UNGA Nicolas de Riviere stated his unsatisfaction with this limiting commemoration and said, The term Islamophobia does not have any agreed definition in international law, contrary to the freedom of religion or belief,”
Published By : VATSAL KOTHA
Edited By : KHUSHI THAKUR
