India asks UN to fully recognise 'Religiophobia' against Hindus, Buddhists & Sikhs
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Raising concerns over the emergence of certain contemporary forms of religiophobia, especially anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist, India asked the United Nations to recognise "religiophobia" along with other acts of religious hatred against different religions.
India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador TS Tirumurti, while speaking at the International Counter-Terrorism Conference 2022 on Wednesday asserted that the recognition of "religiophobia" is the only way to bring balance into the discussion on such topics. He added that it needs the attention of the UN and other member states to address the threat.
He said, "The UN has highlighted some of them over the years, namely, those based on Islamophobia, Christianophobia, and antisemitism - the three Abrahamic religions. These three find mentioned in the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. But new phobias, hatred, or bias against other major religions of the world need to also be fully recognised."
"The emergence of contemporary forms of religiophobia, especially anti-Hindu, anti-Buddhist and anti-Sikh phobias is a matter of serious concern and needs the attention of the UN and all member states to address this threat. It is only then can we bring greater balance into our discussion on such topics," Tirumurti said
He further termed the tendency of several UN members, who were driven by their political, religious, and other motivations, to label terrorism into categories, as 'dangerous' saying this will take the world back to the pre-9/11 era of labelling them as "your terrorists" and "my terrorists".
Highlighting some counterterrorism trends and development at the UN, India's UN envoy also spoke about the impact of such trends on the global counter-terrorism discourse and further India's approach towards them. "This is essentially a move to categorise terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism, based on the motivations behind such acts," he added.
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