Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on the Muslim world to show solidarity against Islamophobia and ongoing “black propaganda campaigns against Muslims” across the world as well as to engage in self-questioning rather than accusing others in the face of this campaign.

“Some people are showing up and, based on extreme examples, are trying to equate Islam with terrorism, intolerance, poverty and violence. A mistake by a member of a religion or a community can never be attributed to that religion or community. … Islamophobia is a crime that needs to be condemned as strongly as racism and anti-Semitism. We have been explaining that in all international meetings. But the international community is continuing to carry out a black propaganda campaign [against Muslims]. But what are we doing? We are still confronting each other. We are still not in solidarity. … We should first check ourselves. We should now see that we have to first question ourselves without automatically accusing others,” Erdoğan said during a speech he delivered at a meeting of religious leaders from Muslim countries and communities in Africa on Monday.

The meeting was hosted by Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate and was attended by top state officials as well as religious leaders from many African countries. According to Erdoğan, the reason behind all problems in the Muslim world is lack of consultation among Muslim countries. “I believe that unbiased and sincere consultation would be a lasting remedy for the issues our countries, nations and the entire Muslim geography face today,” Erdoğan said.

During his speech, Erdoğan referred to many verses of Quran and the hadiths -- the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad -- calling for unity and brotherhood among Muslims. Noting that the Muslim world today unfortunately cannot represent these messages, Erdoğan was worried to see that predominantly Muslim regions today are unfortunately facing poverty, violence, bloodshed, exploitation and oppression.

Stating that it was not Islamic civilization that fell behind other civilizations but members of Islamic civilization who fell behind, Erdoğan said today’s negative perception of Muslims was not created by Islam, but by those who misinterpreted Islam and who do not practice Islam.