Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia unite to fight Islamophobia

KARACHI-Anadolu Agency

Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia have agreed to jointly fight the rising global trend of Islamophobia, mainly in the West.       

The understanding was reached at a trilateral meeting on Sept. 25 on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Pakistan's Prime Minister's Office said in a statement.       

The meeting was attended by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Pakistani Premier Imran Khan and his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad.       

The three leaders discussed ways to enhance cooperation in a broad range of areas, the statement said, adding Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia will exchange views on regional and global developments and trends.       

The three countries also decided to launch a TV channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia.       

"President Erdoğan, Prime Minister Mahathir and myself held a meeting today in which we decided our three countries will jointly start an English language TV channel dedicated to confronting challenges posed by

 Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion – Islam," Khan said in a series of tweets.       

"Misperceptions which bring people together against Islam would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualized; series and films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people  & the world; Muslims would be given a dedicated media presence," he went on to say.       

The foreign ministers of Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey held the first ministerial trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 14th OIC Summit in Jeddah on May 30.       

Keeping in view the magnitude of bilateral cooperation between Pakistan, Malaysia and Turkey, the three foreign ministers had decided to hold a trilateral summit meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.