Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday wrote a letter to the leaders of the Muslim states, asking them to make collective efforts to confront the growing trend of Islamophobia.

“The recent statements at the leadership level and incidents of desecration of the Holy Quran are a reflection of this increasing Islamophobia that is spreading in European countries where sizeable Muslim populations reside,” the the letter, posted on Khan’s official Twitter account, said.

It comes in the wake of the publication of the cartoons in France and comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who defended the caricatures as protected under the right to free speech. “We won’t renounce the caricatures,” Macron said last week.

Khan urged the leaders of the Muslim countries to “collectively take the lead in breaking this cycle of hate and extremism, which nurtures violence and even death”. He said blasphemy was not acceptable to the Muslims.