Tag: Pakistan

Most of today’s wars are in Muslim countries

May 18, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

Most wars across the world are taking place in majority-Muslim countries, with Muslims mainly fighting each other, says . In 2012, there were six civil wars worldwide. All took place within Muslim countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Of the nine rebel groups in these conflicts, seven had . . . Read More

US religious-freedom report urges government to add 7 countries to worst-offenders list

May 2, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, BJP, Boko Haram, Central African Republic, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Iraq, Middle East, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Taliban, Turkmenistan, USA, Uzbekistan, Vietnam

What is happening? The primary US government agency on global religious freedom issued its annual report 2 May. It says “religious freedom abroad has been under serious and sustained assault” during the past year, and says America should add seven countries to its list of worst offenders: Central African Republic . . . Read More

Calls for Christian asylum centres in Sweden

April 29, 2016 Assyrians, Asylum seekers, Converts, France, Germany, Iran, Islamic extremism, Middle East, Pakistan, Refugees, Sweden, Women

Increasing reports about Christians harassed by hardline Muslim fellow migrants are prompting calls for non-Muslim asylum centres to be set up in Sweden. According to the Swedish Evangelical Alliance, one Christian refugee in Kalmar in the southeast of the country was threatened with having his throat slit by a man . . . Read More

Pakistan court grants bail to chief suspect in oven killings of Christian couple

April 19, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Gojra, Joseph Colony, Kasur, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Quran, Shahzad Masih, Shama Bibi

A Pakistani court has granted bail to the lead suspect in the brutal 2014 killings of a young Christian couple, burned alive in a brick kiln where they worked as bonded labourers, itself illegal in Pakistan. National outrage over their deaths meant the case had moved to Pakistan’s Anti-Terrorism Court . . . Read More

Faith-based persecution on the rise in Asia-Pacific

March 31, 2016 Asia-Pacific, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Religious freedom, Taiwan

The first Asia-Pacific Religious Freedom Forum was held in Taiwan from 18-21 Feb, and hosted by former Vice-President of Taiwan, Annette Lu.World Watch Monitor Persecution due to people’s faith has increased over recent years in the Asia-Pacific region, said speakers addressing the first Asia-Pacific Religious Freedom Forum, held from . . . Read More

Pakistan’s bombing ‘part of wider struggle’

March 29, 2016 Pakistan Blasphemy, Easter, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Lahore, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Taliban, Terrorism

The Lahore bombing on Easter Sunday that killed at least 70 is part of a wider struggle against extremism in Pakistan, explains a British correspondent for . He was in the country during what he calls an Easter ‘weekend of madness’; it also saw 25,000 hard-line Islamic protestors march on . . . Read More

Bomb kills scores of Easter revellers in Pakistan

March 28, 2016 Pakistan Easter, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban, Youhanabad

A bomber killed at least 72 people and injured at last 300 more on Easter Sunday in Lahore, Pakistan. The bomber struck in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal park, which was unusually crowded with families celebrating Easter. “[T]he terrorist hit a very soft target of women and children,” Deputy Inspector General of Operations . . . Read More

Christians fleeing Pakistan are stuck in Thailand

March 4, 2016 Asylum seekers, Bangkok, Burial, Gojra, Lord Alton, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, UK, UN

A Thai immigration police officer directs Pakistani refugees released on bail to a waiting bus after their detention at the Immigration detention centre in Bangkok in June 2011. AFP PHOTO/ Nicolas ASFOURI / Getty Images What just happened A group of members of Britain’s Parliament on 24 Feb. urged their . . . Read More

Pakistan’s blasphemy laws ‘fundamentally unfair’

November 11, 2015 Pakistan Blasphemy, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Prisons, Religious freedom

Pakistan’s implementation of its controversial blasphemy laws is “fundamentally unfair”, according to a report by the International Commission of Jurists. The ICJ report documents problems including: intimidation and harassment of judges and lawyers, bias against defendants, undue rejection of bail and prolonged pre-trial detention, “incompetent” investigation and prosecution, the prosecution . . . Read More

Global Church meets to seek unity in face of persecution

November 6, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Albania, Aleppo, Algeria, Catholics, Churches, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador, India, Iraq, Islamic State, Kenya, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Nineveh Plains, Orthodox, Pakistan, Pentecostals, Protestants, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yohanna Ibrahim

Twenty-five years ago, on 4 Nov. 1990, a priest risked his life to hold a mass in a cemetery in Albania. In 1967 his president, Enver Hoxha, had declared that he had “abolished” the Christian faith, and that his country was henceforth the world’s first atheist state. On 4 Nov. . . . Read More

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