Pakistani premier hails Erdogan’s stance on NZ attacks

By Aamir Latif</p> <p>KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan's prime minister on Friday hailed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad for taking a quick and clear stand on deadly terror attacks on mosques in New Zealand.</p> <p>In a live televised joint news conference with his Malaysian counterpart in capital Islamabad, Imran Khan said there were only a few Muslim leaders who took stand on issues affecting Muslims across the world. </p> <p>Last Friday, at least 50 Muslims were killed and as many injured when a terrorist — identified as 28-year-old Australian-born Brenton Tarrant — entered the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch and shot worshippers in cold blood, including four children younger than 18. </p> <p>&quot;Unfortunately, a very few Muslim leaders do take stands on the issues that affect the other Muslim world. One of them is Erdogan and the other is Mahathir Mohamad&quot;, Khan said.</p> <p>He was referring to Turkey's timely steps, including an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) in Istanbul on Friday.</p> <p>&quot;We have seen transformation of Turkey and development of its economy under his (Erdogan) leadership&quot;, the prime minister went on to say.</p> <p>Khan also appreciated Mahathir's war against corruption and vowed to learn from Malaysia's anti-corruption drive.</p> <p>Terming the rising Islamophobia in the West as the reason behind the Christchurch terror attacks, the prime minister lamented that all the Muslims were blamed for any crime committed by a Muslim individual in any part of the world.</p> <p>&quot;Any crime committed by a Muslim was immediately blamed on the whole 1.3 billion Muslims and this was reflected in the Christchurch killings where a man, a terrorist, brazenly filmed shooting innocent women and children and innocent people in a mosque and then he didn't regretted. This was because of Islamophobia,&quot; he added.</p> <p>The Malaysian premier, for his part, called for an increased trade between the two countries, which would help in growing both economies.