20 US lawmakers urge US State Secy Antony Blinken to tackle Islamophobia across the globe

A group of over two dozen United States lawmakers have written to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to urge him to appoint a special envoy to tackle the alleged rise in attacks against the Muslim community across the globe including China and Myanmar. In a letter written on July 21, the American lawmakers termed Islamophobia a “global problem” while calling for a comprehensive strategy for establishing US leadership in tackling the issue globally. They reportedly also suggested state-sponsored islamophobic violence and impunity for such acts to be included in next year’s human rights reports. 

The acts included a drastic rise in anti-mosque incidents reported in different parts of the world in May and June including instances of vandalism and attempted stabbing and several other forms of physical assaults targeting Muslim women for wearing a head covering or ‘Hijab’, the lawmakers said in the letter. “As part of our commitment to international religious freedom and human rights, we must recognise Islamophobia as a pattern that is repeating in nearly every corner of the globe.”

"It is past time for the United States to stand firmly in favour of religious freedom for all, and to give the global problem of Islamophobia the attention and prioritisation it deserves," they said.

Over 20 lawmakers also said that due to the ongoing human rights abuses being committed against an ethnic minority of Uyghurs in China and the Rohingyas in Myanmar and other restrictions faced by the Muslim community in several nations, along with the “stoking of Islamophobia by political actors that is leading to violence in North America and Europe, to the severe human rights violations against certain sects of Muslims in Pakistan and Bahrain, this is a genuinely global problem that the United States should tackle globally."

"For this reason, we are writing to strongly urge you to appoint a Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting Islamophobia, and to specifically include anti-Muslim violence per se in next year's annual human rights reports," they said.

‘500 incidents of hate in US’

Apart from being among one of the over 20 lawmakers who write to Blinken, US Congresswoman Ilahi Omar separately noted that “Anti-Muslim hate is on the rise both here at home and around the world...This year has seen over 500 incidents of hate in the US and those are just the ones that have been reported. Last month, we witnessed a deadly attack wipe out three generations of a Muslim family in Canada. In countries around the world...Muslim communities are being discriminated against. We must all stand united against this horrific rise in hate."

IMAGE: AP

(With PTI inputs)