PM Imran says Islamic TV channel will be like BBC

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday shared a picture of his meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in which the three leaders decided to set up a TV Channel to fight Islamophobia.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister shed further light on the project saying the English language TV Channel will be like BBC which will highlight the issues faced by the Muslim world.

The decision to launch a TV channel was taken in a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of recent UN General Assembly session in New York.

"President Erdogan, 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," PM Imran had announced in a series of tweets last week.

"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.

PM Imran, President Erdogan and Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad have been very vocal about the issued the Muslims facing amid rising trend of Islamophobia across the world.

They also raised this issue in their speeches at the UNGA.

Speaking of hatred towards Muslims in his landmark address, PM Imran said Islamophobia had grown apace after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

“There are 1.3 billion Muslims in the world. It is creating a division,” he said. “Muslim women wearing Hijab has become an issue in some countries. It started after the 9/11 [attacks].”

He maintained that terrorism had nothing to do with any religion. He said Muslims were being marginalised in Europe.

“We all know marginalization leads to radicalism,” the prime minister said. “We must address this issue. No religion preaches radicalism.”