Expelling French ambassador won’t end Islamophobia: PM Imran

ISLAMABAD – Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that the government and the banned Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) are on the same page regarding protection of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)’s honour, but the methods are different.

"Expelling the France ambassador is not the way out," he stressed in an address to the nation on Monday.

"The West has made this an issue of freedom of speech and if we send back the French ambassador, some other European country will follow the same," he said. He said that if Pakistan starts sending back ambassadors of different countries, the economy will suffer, but it would not make a difference to France or any other country.

“The western world is least affected by the protests taking place in Pakistan. We are just harming ourselves,” the prime minister said.

"Pakistan was built on the principles of Islam," Khan said, vowing to lead a campaign against the type of blasphemous content which triggered nationwide protests in the past few days.

Talking about the violent countrywide protests, PM Imran said that four policemen were martyred and 800 others injured during the clashes. He said that 100 roads were blocked during the protests. He said that 380 Indian websites were found doing propaganda against Pakistan via Facebook.

He revealed the government's strategy to deal with the Islamophobia. He said that he had been raising the issue on different international forums, including the United Nations.

Imran Khan said that the government believes in approaching the heads of all Muslim nations so that a collective strategy could be formulated to deal with Islamophobia.

Citing the example of how European nations came together to strengthen laws regarding Holocaust denial, he said that Muslim nations, too, should work collectively to eliminate Islamophobia which is being practised in the West in the name of freedom of speech.

At the end of his speech, the prime minister appealed to the religious scholars to cooperate with the government to get out of this situation.