Pakistani actress Iffat Omar’s comments against a Turkish series on Salahuddin Ayyubi is sparking immense criticism on social media. Social media users have called the actress out for her expressing her disapproval of Pakistan praising Turkish heroes.
To clarify, earlier, Iffat Omar gave an interview to actor Naumaan Ijaz. During the interview, the talk turned to the government’s promotion of Islamic history by airing popular Turkish shows. At this, Iffat Omar made some hard comments.
“They [Turks] invaded us. Understand this. We do not need fictional characters, we need stories about scientists. There’s not a single mathematician, a scientist in Pakistan that is known the world over,” the actress said.
Speaking further about the upcoming Pak-Turk collaboration on an upcoming series on Salahuddin Ayyubi, Omar iterated that Ayyubi is not a Pakistani hero.
“He [Salahuddin Ayyubi] is not our hero,” she asserted. “This has been indoctrinated in Pakistanis since our country has been formed. We think of ourselves as superiors. Our history is of sub-continent, we need to endorse that. Our history isn’t of Turkey.”
Read more: Pakistan, Turkey to jointly produce series on Salahuddin al-Ayubi
Needless to say, her statements did not sit well with Twitter who immediately criticized the actress for not knowing Islamic history. In other words, Sultan Salahuddin Ayyyubi is an important Muslim warrior and ruler. Above all, he recaptured from the Crusaders in 1187. Muslims around the world hold him in high esteem due to his contributions to Islam.
The problem with Iffat Omar's reasoning is that she fails to mention that Pakistanis tend to have a very strong Muslim identity too, so for them, it's not just their land but their Islamic history too. https://t.co/3aJ6mWdpIS
— Amna Khalid (@amnakm) November 27, 2021
Iffat Omar’s controversial statements
Important to note, this is not the first time the actress came under fire for her controversial statements. She is also very critical of the current PTI regime.
In the same interview, the actress shared her political views and said both Musharraf and Zia were better leaders than Imran Khan.
“We grew up in Zia-ul-Haq’s era and then even saw Pervez Musharraf’s regime, itnay buray halaat nahi thay”, implying that both of these leaders were much better in comparison and the economic situation wasn’t as worse as in Imran Khan’s regime.
She also clarified that she will never become a politician since “they lie alot.”
Read more: WATCH: Iffat Omar mocks PM Imran for proposing changes to rape punishments