The ugly visuals of heated arguments and flying chairs at a Sharjah stadium after Afghanistan lost a match to Pakistan during the on-going Asia Cup have caught everyone’s attention. The immediate trigger for this clash was an insulting act by Pakistani Batsman Asif Ali threatening to hit the Afghan bowler who dismissed him from the game. Pakistani fans cheered him on, only to be retaliated by the fans of Team Afghanistan. Reportedly, Pakistani fans were also using xenophobic slurs against their Afghan counterparts.
Scuffles between fans is a common sight in sports, but things actually got dangerously violent outside the stadium as per the visuals being circulated on social media. The law-enforcement agencies in the UAE have taken a note of the violence with action being mulled against the ruckus creators. This wasn’t the first time that Afghan and Pakistani fans had clashed during a cricket match. During ICC World Cup 2019 as well, a fight had erupted between Pakistan and Afghanistan fans after a plane carrying the slogan, “Justice for Balochistan” was spotted during the match in Leeds.
The fact that passions run high during India-Pakistan matches is an established one, but even Afghanistan-Pakistan matches are always full of histrionics. During the ongoing Asia Cup itself, a heart-warming visual of an Afghan man kissing the television screen while India was thrashing Pakistan in a match went viral. Geopolitical fault-lines that exist between Pakistan and Afghanistan erupt starkly when ordinary Afghans celebrate Pakistani losses and root for India — a country that they see as an effective bulwark against terror-exporting Pakistan.
This is not limited to the Indian subcontinent alone. In the last few years, xenophobia against Pakistan has become a world-wide phenomenon with even a Wikipedia page dedicated to the “Anti-Pakistan Sentiment”. It defines this sentiment as “hatred, fear, hostility or irrational fixation toward Pakistan, Pakistanis and Pakistani culture”. Association with Pakistan has become such a problem for Pakistani immigrants that just last week, a Twitter thread was trending that noted how they are mainstreaming the use of the word “South Asian” or sometimes even opening businesses with Indian-sounding names to lure customers to evade their Pakistani national identity.
Pakistan has been utilising its diplomatic energy to highlight rising incidents of xenophobia against its people at various forums, including the UN Human Rights Commission, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the UN General Assembly. It has used the larger narrative of Islamophobia to highlight the growing Pakistan-phobia in the world at these forums.
The reason behind growing hatred for Pakistani immigrants is two-fold. A major reason is Pakistan’s image as a country that supports terrorism. And the rest of the blame goes to the conduct of Pakistani immigrants towards the local community. The support to global terrorism by state actors in Pakistan is a fact that needs no more assertion. In fact, the evil designs of the deep state have irked the people of the subcontinent so much that average Afghans pounce upon something as silly as cricket to vent out their deep-seated frustration against Pakistan. In January 2022, a British man of Pakistani origin was shot dead by the FBI for taking people hostage at a synagogue in Texas, United States. There have been several instances of H1B visa holders from Pakistan pleading allegiance to ISIS after getting caught for planning lone wolf attacks in the states. This is not limited to western cities alone but has been observed in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa as well.
Besides terror links, the conduct of Pakistani immigrants towards the local community is also a major reason behind rising xenophobia against Pakistan. In the recently concluded prime ministerial election in the UK, Rishi Sunak actually made tough action against the grooming gangs by Pakistani immigrants in his poll plank. In Turkey as well, a country that Pakistan considers a great friend and ally, local people took to social media after a video of a Turkish woman was shot and circulated on TikTok by a Pakistani immigrant. People from Turkey also spoke about the patronising attitude of Pakistan men towards Turkish women who happen to have a much liberal value-set to Pakistani men’s utter disliking.
Europe that underwent a shock after links of 14 Pakistani men were found in the Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo office in 2020 was shocked at another level altogether in 2014 after the truth of Pakistani gangs grooming 1,400 children in Rotherham surfaced. At the time of its unfolding, authorities didn’t take adequate action, the reasons for which were fantastically documented by a Forbes Magazine story.
However, it seems the anger among the people in the host countries has reached a boiling point. There is a pertinent need for host countries to handle it through the established law and order mechanism. The phenomenon is tragic for the civilised, educated and well-behaved Pakistani immigrants who themselves are a victim of their state’s misplaced priorities, but even that is a community which is fast depleting.
The author is a PhD in International Relations from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. Her research focuses on the political economy of South Asia and regional integration. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
Read all the Latest Opinion News and Breaking News here
Comments
0 comment