ISLAMABAD:
The Foreign Office (FO) on Monday strongly condemned the “increasingly racist and Islamophobic” rhetoric targeting Pakistanis in the UK, expressing deep concerns over the demonization of the entire community based on the actions reprehensible by some.
FO’s statement follows a social media controversy involving tech billionaire Elon Musk, who entered into a heated debate over the term “Asian grooming gangs.” Musk’s remarks raised concerns about reinforcing harmful stereotypes about Pakistanis.
Using his X platform (formerly Twitter), Musk criticized the British government for its grooming gangs and accused a prominent Labor leader of being an “apologist for rape genocide.” He went further to demand that Labor leader and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer be jailed.
The debate intensified when Priyanka Chaturvedi, leader of India’s Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray’s faction), tweeted: “Repeat after me, these are not ASIAN grooming gangs but PAKISTANI grooming gangs.” Musk responded with a curt “real.”
Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan issued a detailed statement, expressing deep concern at the growing tendency to conflate the criminal actions of a few individuals with the wider British Pakistani community.
“This is why we note with deep concern the increasingly racist and Islamophobic political and media commentary in the UK, which seeks to conflate the wrongful actions of a few individuals with all of Britain’s 1.7 million diasporas Pakistani women,” Khan said.
He highlighted the long-standing friendship between Pakistan and the United Kingdom, calling it a relationship marked by “warmth, cordiality, strong cooperation and trust”.
“Nurtured over decades, this relationship remains an important foreign policy priority for Pakistan,” he added.
