(Asghar Ali Mubarak)
\nISLAMABAD (TNS) The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday condemned what it called \u201cincreasingly racist and Islamophobic\u201d commentary directed at the Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom (UK).<\/p>\n
This was stated by FO spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad.<\/p>\n
His remarks came after billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk sparked debate about \u201cAsian grooming gangs\u201d, specifically targeting the Pakistani community in the UK.Musk has been actively targeting the incumbent UK government, accusing it of protecting the \u201cgrooming gangs.\u201d He also labelled UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer a \u201crape genocide apologist\u201d and demanded his imprisonment on X.Things got more complicated when Priyanka Chaturvedi, a leader of India\u2019s Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena demanded that these gangs be called \u201cPakistani grooming games\u201d, and not \u201cASIAN grooming gangs\u201d. Musk replied to her tweet \u201ctrue,\u201d showing his support for her remarks.During the press briefing Shafqat Ali Khan denounced the growing anti-Pakistani discourse observed in the UK.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs such, we note with deep concern the increasingly racist and Islamophobic political and media commentary in the UK that is aimed at conflating the reprehensible actions of a few individuals with the entire 1.7 million British Pakistani diaspora.\u201dHe added that the friendship between the two countries was characterised by warmth, cordiality, robust cooperation and trust. \u201cNurtured over decades this relationship remains an important priority of Pakistan\u2019s foreign policy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Shafqat highlighted how British Pakistanis have contributed to the United Kingdom\u2019s growth, development and, indeed, freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn exceptionally large number of predominantly Muslim soldiers from what is now Pakistan served in the British Indian army and laid down their lives for the cause of democracy in both World Wars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Today, British Pakistanis are the backbone of the UK\u2019s health, retail and services sectors.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany British Pakistanis hold high public office, and thousands serve their communities as Members of Parliament, mayors, councillors, and members of local police and municipal services. British Pakistanis have excelled in sports and arts. Their cuisine and music enrich British culture,\u201d the FO spokesperson noted.<\/p>\n
To demonise such a large and diverse community on the basis of the actions of a few individuals needs to be condemned, he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Asghar Ali Mubarak) ISLAMABAD (TNS) The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday condemned what it called \u201cincreasingly racist and Islamophobic\u201d commentary directed at the Pakistani diaspora in the United Kingdom (UK). This was stated by FO spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan during a weekly press briefing in Islamabad. His remarks came after billionaire CEO of SpaceX and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":120695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120696,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120694\/revisions\/120696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/120695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}