NEW YORK — Saudi Arabia has expressed "grave concern" over growing hate speech and intolerance against Muslims around the world. Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Kingdom's permanent UN representative to the United Nations Abdulaziz Al-Wasil said that Islamophobia has become a clear threat to the security of stable societies. "Saudi Arabia expresses concern that religious minorities are being increasingly targeted due to their beliefs and mounting hate speech among political groups that use the terminology of exclusion and marginalization, the Saudi diplomat said, adding cross-border social media platforms have fueled extremism, hatred, and negative stereotyping of Muslims," the Saudi diplomat noted. Participating in an online forum with the UN special rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, Al-Wasil underlined the importance of consolidating values of understanding, dialogue, pluralism, inter-culture cooperation, and combat ideologies of hate and violence. Therefore, it is important for strong international willpower to combat extremist and hate speech wherein religion should be viewed as part of the solution and not the cause of the problem, he stressed. Highlighting the Kingdom's efforts in this regard, Al-Wasil said Saudi Arabia established the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) to promote peace. Apart from this, Saudi Arabia has taken several other initiatives to confront extremism and to promote the values of coexistence, he pointed out.
