Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in New York to participate in the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, took to twitter to make the announcement late Wednesday.
This comes a day after Khan spoke at a “Countering Hate Speech” event with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Khan said the channel will broadcast series and films to educate and inform the world on Islamic history. Muslims will be given a dedicated media presence.
President Erdogan, PM Mahatir and myself had a meeting today in which we decided our 3 countries would jointly start an English language channel dedicated to confronting the challenges posed by Islamophobia and setting the record straight on our great religion - Islam.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) September 25, 2019
Misperceptions which bring people together against Muslims would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualized; series & films would be produced on Muslim history to educate/inform our own people & the world; Muslims would be given a dedicate
Should I come back to Pak🙈
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) September 25, 2019d media presence.
Twitter users disagreed with Khan, calling him out by saying he should first focus on promoting English in Pakistan.
Pakistani twitterati went all verbs blazing at Khan, asking him to focus on other issues of Pakistan, including “extremism, radicalism and bigotry”.
Islamophobia is a problem in the West. Pakistan has a problem of Islamism. You should first address and resolve domestic issues of extremism, radicalism and bigotry.q#DontBeAHypocrite
— Taha Siddiqui (@TahaSSiddiqui) September 26, 2019
Is that English channel going to help you fight corruption, drop food prices and lift people from poverty?🤔
— Sanghi-Ta Singh🔱 (@HinduWarrior12) September 26,
Btw, Barkha is jobless.😂😂
You guys can never grow beyond this Islam thing.....your economy is in doldrums....and your focus is on english Islamic channel....great!!!! You can start channels in all the languages but as long as you are fueling terror your doom is certain..
— Deejay (@deeeeejayyyyyyy) September 26, 2019
First u need to address the terrorism training & development activities taking place in your country
— Manvendra Singh (@Manvend03129323) September 26, 2019
And whole World will become peaceful🙏
Others took jibe at Khan over that post that has garnered 17.5k mentions within 24 hours of posting.
Great! Zakir Naik is also looking for job these days..
— Keh Ke Peheno (@coolfunnytshirt) September 26, 2019
Masha-Allah, boyz played well. But, start English language courses first in Madarsaz first. Or hire @sagarikaghose
— Ace (@Ace73031706) September 26, 2019
Should I come back to Pak🙈
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) September 25, 2019
Other social media users, however, lauded Khan’s efforts, saying it was a much-needed step to highlight a “very sensitive issue for billions of Muslims across the world”.
Mr. Khan as you are sitting in a Non Muslim State but your confidence/bravery & u r trust on Almighty Allah & u r way of speech delivered 2 the world leaders is amazing. May Almighty Allah give u success & highest image in the General Assembly with All Muslim World leaders Ameen pic.twitter.com/OmYNPBEmWt
— 🌼HIBA KHAN 🌼🇵🇰 (@Hibakhan0007) September 26, 2019
Fantastic initiative...much needed. It should be objective, fair and unbiased putting the ummah first whoever and where ever they may be - Palestinians, Kashmiris, Philippines, Uyghurs, Rohingyas, Syrians, Sudanese, Libyans, Egyptians, Iranians and Yemenis.
— Arif Ayyub (@arifayyub) September 26, 2019
