Tag: Minorities

Christians matter least in Pakistani politics

July 5, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Constitution, Elections, Imran Khan, Karachi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, Patras Masih, PTI, Punjab, Sajid Masih, Shahbaz Bhatti, Sindh, Taliban, Youhanabad

As Pakistan prepares for elections later this month, the country’s minorities – particularly its Christians – have expressed dismay at their lack of representation among the candidates. Among the thousands of candidates contesting hundreds of provincial and national constituencies across the country, not a single Christian is nominated by any . . . Read More

Indian state’s ‘anti-conversion law’ to be repealed

June 29, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Arunachal Pradesh, Baptism, BJP, Catholics, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Minorities, Missionaries, Narendra Modi, Proselytism, Pune

Christian groups have welcomed a surprise announcement by a nationalist chief minister of a state in north-east India that he will ensure that a law preventing conversions from one faith to another is repealed. Pema Khandu, a Buddhist who heads the nationalist BJP-led state government in Arunachal Pradesh, told an . . . Read More

Pakistan’s new cardinal says government unable to stop religious extremism

June 29, 2018 Pakistan Asylum seekers, Blasphemy, Constitution, Faisalabad, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Karachi, Minorities, Pakistan, Religious freedom

Newly-appointed Pakistani Cardinal Joseph Coutts during a courtesy visit of relatives following the ceremony for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on 28 June. (Photo: TIZIANA FABI/AFP/Getty Images)

Pakistan’s first cardinal in nearly a quarter of a century says his country’s government is unable to control Islamic extremism. “Our government is not strong enough to control the kind of extremism that has developed in the country,” Joseph Coutts, Archbishop of Karachi since 2012, said, adding: “It is enough to accuse . . . Read More

Religious freedom ‘essential goal’ in normalising relations with Sudan – US commission

June 28, 2018 Sudan Churches, Darfur, Human rights, Khartoum, Minorities, Religious freedom, Sanctions, Sudan, Terrorism, USA

While church properties were returned to the SCOC, other church bodies like SPEC are also in conflict with the government over the ownership of their properties in Bahri (Khartoum North) and Omdurman. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A new report highlights the lack of religious freedom in Sudan and says improvements in this area remain “an essential goal” for the US before relations between the two countries can be fully normalised. A delegation from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent, bipartisan advisory body, . . . Read More

Tajikistan: Christian convert’s burial delayed as relatives call for husband to return to Islam

June 20, 2018 Tajikistan Apostasy, Burial, Central Asia, Converts, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Tajikistan

When an elderly Christian woman from a Muslim background died last week in a Tajikistan hospital, her husband Mihrab* and children – all of them Christians – organised a funeral ceremony and invited people from their church. But Mihrab’s Muslim relatives also invited local Muslims, including a cleric, who demanded . . . Read More

What churches can do to help victims of sexual violence in conflict to stay ‘part of us’

June 19, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Central African Republic, Children, Iraq, Islamic State, Minorities, Rape, Religious freedom, Seleka, Trauma, UN, USA, Women, Yazidis

Women affected by violence in the Central African Republic, have formed self-help groups in the capital Bangui and run a small shop where they sell their products. (Photo: Open Doors International)

Adrienne* survived a brutal sexual attack during a conflict with ex-Seleka militants in Central African Republic (CAR), only to be ostracised from her own community. Adrienne was alone in her greatest time of need, and the baby born to her nine months later bears the same vulnerabilities, and a label: a . . . Read More

Myanmar: ‘400 villages destroyed, 150,000 people displaced’ in Kachin

June 13, 2018 Myanmar Churches, Genocide, IDPs, Kachin, Minorities, Myanmar, Rakhine, Rohingya, Shan, UN

An elderly Kachin woman looks for shelter after fleeing fighting between Myanmar's army and Kachin rebels in December 2011. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

More than 400 villages have been damaged or destroyed and 150,000 people displaced since the collapse of a ceasefire in 2011 between Myanmar’s army and rebels in northern Kachin state, reports Catholic website AsiaNews. In 2018 alone, 50 villages were abandoned and more than 7,000 people fled their homes, seeking . . . Read More

‘Christianity in Syria is under threat from forces the West is supporting’

June 11, 2018 Syria Bashar al-Assad, Civil War, Damascus, Free Syrian Army, Hezbollah, Human rights, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Maaloula, Middle East, Minorities, Russia, Salafism, Shia, Sunni, Syria, UK, USA

Two thousand years of Christianity in Syria could be wiped out by the very forces Western governments are supporting, an Anglican vicar has claimed. Rev. Andrew Ashdown, who has made ten trips to Syria since 2014 and is studying for a PhD in relations between Christians and Muslims there, also . . . Read More

Pakistan: Christians told they can’t have a church in Muslim-majority village

June 4, 2018 Pakistan Churches, Crosses, Faisalabad, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League, Punjab, Terrorism

Christians in a village in Pakistan’s Punjab province have been told to remove every visible sign of Christianity from their church, six months after being forced to sign a form pledging they would no longer hold services. The 40 Christian families in Nayya Sarabah (Chak 336) village, part of Toba . . . Read More

US religious freedom report shows ‘no progress’ in Myanmar

May 30, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Aung San Suu Kyi, Iran, Islamic extremism, Kachin, Middle East, Mike Pompeo, Minorities, Mohammad bin Salman, Myanmar, Prisons, Refugees, Religious freedom, Rohingya, Sam Brownback, Saudi Arabia, USA

Displaced Kachin residents cross the Malikha river on 26 April to escape the fighting between the Kachin Independence Army and the Myanmar government troops. (Photo: ZAU RING HPARA/AFP/Getty Images)

Myanmar, Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the countries criticised for their religious-freedom records in the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report for 2017, launched yesterday (29 May) in Washington DC. The report references the violence against the predominantly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar, whose situation is still . . . Read More

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