International Day To Combat Islamophobia:
As the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution to proclaim March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia, India expressed concern over phobia against “one religion being elevated to the level of an international day”.
- India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti said in the General Assembly that India hoped the resolution adopted “does not set a precedent”, which will lead to multiple resolutions based on selective religions and divide the United Nations into religious camps.
- 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.
- The 193-member General Assembly adopted a resolution, introduced by Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram under agenda item Culture of peace, to proclaim March 15 as the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
- Following the adoption of the draft resolution, Mr. Tirumurti said while India condemns all acts motivated by anti-semitism, Christianophobia or Islamophobia, such phobias were not restricted to Abrahamic religions only.
- He pointed to the emergence of anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias.
