Author: Priya Saha

By SHONAL GANGULY, Associated PressNEW DELHI — About 300 refugees from a Christian minority community from Myanmar held a demonstration in India’s capital on Wednesday against last month’s military takeover in their country and demanded the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other Myanmar leaders. They chanted “Restore democracy in Burma” and “Shame on you dictator” and carried placards as they burned a coffin with photographs of Myanmar’s coup leaders and Chinese President Xi Jinping, accusing him of supporting the military rulers. They also stomped their feet on the Chinese national flag. The demonstration was held at Jantar…

Content warning: This column discusses anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.  Since the end of the Third Reich, Germany has been praised for its acknowledgment of the horrific crimes that the nation committed during the Holocaust, as the state has devoted copious resources to the study of anti-Semitism. However, despite Germany’s highly publicized atonement for its actions during the Holocaust, far-right viewpoints and Nazi memorials are present in rural areas of the European nation. Moreover, right-wing nationalism has witnessed a resurgence in German politics. The “Alternative für Deutschland,” a far-right party running on an anti-immigrant platform, has gained significant ground in Germany’s parliament…

South China Morning PostThese Canadians say they will never return to Hong Kong, amid dual citizenship debateOne dreams of Hong Kong street food, but in a nightmare finds himself cornered by authorities in the city’s airport. A fellow activist mourns a grandmother whose Hong Kong grave she may never visit. And a teenager wonders shyly whether the friend he left behind might actually have been his boyfriend.Get the latest insights and analysis from our Global Impact newsletter on the big stories originating in China. These are the Canadian Hongkongers who say they will never return to the city they once…

ISLAMABAD: The non-Muslim minority students would be taught their own religious values instead of Islamic studies, said Federal Minister for Education and Vocational Training Shafqat Mahmood. The minister stated this during a meeting with British High Commissioner Christian Turner, while holding talks on the Single National Curriculum (SNC) and other issues. Mahmood said separate subject for the Christian, Hindu, Sikh, and Kailash communities had been prepared, in consultation with the leaders and scholars of those religions and would be taught to them. Discussing the uniform curriculum, the federal minister said English, Mathematics, and Science would be taught in English; Urdu…

You are not signed in as a Premium user; we rely on Premium users to support our news reporting. Sign in or Sign up today! DHAKA, Bangladesh (ChurchMilitant.com) – Five Christian villages in rural Bangladesh are virtually extinct now owing to persecution by Muslims. Some 400 Christians once lived in five villages near Dhaka’s Nawabgonj area and were spiritually tended by the Hasnabad Catholic parish of Dhaka. But now only one Christian woman remains living. Virgin Margarat Gomes, a former schoolteacher, is now the only inhabitant at Nagerkanda in Nawabganj. Virgin Margarat Gomes stands in front of a building owned bythe Church on land she donated…

By Pradipta Tapadar Kolkata, Mar 2 (PTI) With the stage set for high- octane polls in West Bengal, key stakeholders here asserted that the state, in a departure from the tradition, will be witnessing a communally charged election this time, largely driven by identity politics. Bengal, where the electoral discourse has mostly steered clear of divisive agenda, has been drawn into the vortex with the TMC and the BJP accusing each other of fanning communal sentiments ahead of elections. The entry of the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF) led by Abbas Siddiqui, who became the first religious leader in…

Christians in Bangladesh have had a tradition of setting aside every Wednesday in Lent, thanking God for keeping them safe during a cholera epidemic, something that has only become more poignant during this coronavirus pandemic. “I used to come to this thanksgiving gathering with my parents. My father was a schoolteacher but sang religious songs and I sing like my father, but I am a farmer,” said Bishownath Adhikary, 45, as he attended the Blessed Wednesday service at Nittyanandapur St. Thomas Church in Bangladesh’s Kushtia Diocese. “When I sing religious songs I get spiritual food. No matter how much I…

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation on Sunday urged its 57 member-countries to provide a greater financial support to maintain the expenses involving the cases at the International Court of Justice over the atrocities committed to the Rohingya people of Myanmar. ‘The OIC is engaged at the International Court of Justice to ensure some justice for crimes committed against the Rohingya people,’ OIC assistant secretary general Youssef Aldobeay said after visiting the Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday.  ‘I call on all the member-countries to support financially…keeping in consideration the humanitarian dimensions of the matter,’ he added. He has…

For the past several months, a terror-funder and fugitive sacked military officer has been running anti-Bangladesh propaganda sitting in Britain. Meanwhile, this culprit named Shahid Uddin Khan has been convicted in a number of cases by Bangladeshi courts, which include possession of illegal weapons and ammunitions, money laundering, terror-funding, fraud etcetera. Almost two years ago, Interpol has issued Red Alert on Shahid Uddin Khan. According to information, Shahid, with the help of a number of individuals with direct affiliation with pro-Islamist Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has been running dangerous propaganda giving instigation of civil riot, coup and…

The United States, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and nations throughout the world should hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) accountable for their horrific human rights violations by rebidding the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing. Last month, the U.S. Department of State determined that the CCP is committing genocide and human rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. Secretary of State Antony Blinken agrees, stating during his confirmation hearing that “forcing men, women and children into concentration camps, trying to in effect reeducate them to be adherents to the Chinese Communist Party – all of that speaks to an effort to commit genocide.” AMB. NIKKI HALEY: BIDEN SHOULD BOYCOTT CHINA’S WINTER OLYMPICS NEXT YEARSince…

A cross-sectional study of digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) screening published in JAMA Network Open indicated that women of minority race/ethnicity and lower socioeconomic status experienced lower DBT access during the early adoption period and consistently lower use when available over time.1Given these findings, the investigators suggested that future efforts should address racial/ethnic, educational, financial, and geographic barriers to receiving DBT screening at the facility level.“This study was about whether adoption of this technology is equitable. We’re showing that it has not been, even though it has been FDA-approved for a decade now,” lead author Christoph Lee, MD, MS, MBA, professor of…

Tarek Fatah, the Robert J. and Abby B. Levine Fellow at the Middle East Forum and a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, spoke to participants in a February 12 Middle East Forum webinar (video) about the problem of Islamism and the threat it poses to the West. According to Fatah, Islamism is a political ideology that seeks to “install, or implement, God’s law on earth” and holds that “the West has to be crushed” for that to happen. Today, the largest base for Islamism is the Indian sub-continent (Pakistan, India and Bangladesh), where the majority of its half a…