KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey are cooperating for a television channel to address wrong views of Islam, as part of a larger campaign against Islamophobia, Imran Khan disclosed today.
On Twitter, Khan said the English language channel is aimed at “setting the record straight” on Islam and will also offer educational content about the religion’s history.
“President Erdogan, PM Mahathir and myself had a meeting today in which we decided our three 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,” he said.
Khan was referring to Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“Misperceptions which bring people together against Muslims would be corrected; issue of blasphemy would be properly contextualised; 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,” Khan tweeted.
Turkish media agency Anadolu Agency (AA) said that Dr Mahathir, Erdogan and Khan held a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that is ongoing in New York.
In June this year, the world was shocked with a mass shooting that took place in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which 50 people were shot dead by a man.
Malaysia lost one of its own in the attack, with Muhammad Haziq among those killed.
His father Mohd Tarmizi Shuib, 42, was hurt when the gunman fired at the congregation at the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Mosque.
Two other Malaysians, Muhammad Nazril Hisham Omar and Rahimi Ahmad, were also injured in the incident which was branded as a hate crime.
