BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 7. Member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) note with deep concern the overall rise in cases of discrimination, intolerance and violence in various parts of world, Trend reports.
This is reflected in the Baku Declaration adopted, following the Ministerial Meeting of NAM Coordinating Bureau held in Baku on July 5-6.
"Call upon Member States to take appropriate measures to address the new and emerging threats posed by the rise in terrorist attacks on the basis of xenophobia, Islamophobia, racism and other forms of intolerance, and recognize with deep concern the overall rise in instances of discrimination, intolerance and violence, regardless of the actors, directed against members of religious and other communities in various parts of the world," said the declaration.
As President Ilham Aliyev pointed out in his address to the participants of NAM ministerial meeting, promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue should be high on the agenda.
“We are concerned by rising Islamophobia and xenophobia as well as attempts to equate Islam with violence and terror,” President Ilham Aliyev said.
Bringing the recent killing of the 17-year-old teenager of Algerian origin by French police as an example of another sign of racism and Islamophobia in this country, President Ilham Aliyev noted that France also has to apologize for its colonial past and bloody colonial crimes and acts of genocide against NAM member countries in Africa, South-East Asia and other places.
Azerbaijan has been chairing the NAM since 2019. Despite the country's chairmanship coinciding with the height of the pandemic, official Baku has successfully fulfilled its chairing mission and obtained the right to lead the movement for an additional year.