Author: Priya Saha

A large crowd comprising of ethnic minority communities gathered at the Madhupur Jalchatra Football Field on January 31 condemning the decision of the Forest Department to evict them from their ancestral lands. — Alik Mree Protests erupted in different parts of the country on the last week of January were members of ethnic minority communities and rights activists demonstrated demanding land rights to ethnic minority communities. Protesters pressed a seven-point demand that includes bringing an end to the eviction of ethnic minority people from their land in the name of protecting reserve forest, eco-park or national project, writes Nahid Riyasad…

Every human being holds fundamental rights, which is called human rights, as enshrined in the international legal framework and globally endorsed legal system. The UN Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 says that everyone is entitled to all rights and freedom outlined in this declaration without distinction of any kind such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinions, birth, or another status. Human beings enjoy human rights locally and globally under the premise of global justice. However, many states worldwide are marked as violators of human rights whilst they are supposed to be protectors. Thousands of…

Big Four firm PwC has ramped up its ethnic minority hires over the last year. In its latest financial year, 35% of PwC’s new hires were from an ethnic minority background, lifting the share of total workforce by 2% from FY19. The gap in pay between workforce demographics has increasingly become a major cause for concern among the public. While much of the attention pertaining to gaps in the workforce is aimed at gender, people from various ethnic backgrounds are also often underpaid for similar work or unable to climb the corporate ladder. In a bid to promote action from…

‘Centre relies on religious nationalism to gain political legitimacy, muzzles democratic protests’ There is a need for Christians to close ranks with the protesting farmers who are fighting for justice, says Father Y.T. Vinayaraj, theologian, writer and chief editor of the Malankara Sabha Tharaka, the organ of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church headquartered in Thiruvalla.“The Christian faith is essentially anti-imperialist and the Church is duty-bound to join forces with people’s resistance movements,” says Dr. Vinayaraj, who took to Facebook the other day to make a fervent appeal for support to the farmers. ‘Offer resistance’According to him, the Centre is…

OPINION: I don’t know about you but when I think of Buddhism, I think about saffron-robed peaceful monks with shaven heads. What I don’t think about is religious extremism – but the truth is Buddhism, like all other religions, is not totally free of violence. The world was horrified when, in August 2017, some soldiers in the Myanmar military gang-raped Muslim women and girls and tortured and murdered Muslim members of their community known as Rohingyas. They did this mostly because of an anti-Muslim discourse, which regards Rohingyas as illegal immigrants and therefore a threat to Buddhist nationalism. If you…

USA (MNN) — A political move in the U.S. presents an opportunity for believers. A travel ban enacted in 2017 limited entry to the U.S. from a handful of countries known for terrorist activity – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. However, those restrictions were overturned in recent days, along with previous changes to the vetting process. While some celebrate the change, others voice concern about national security. “We can sit and debate this all day. But for us, as believers, we know this: it’s a golden opportunity,” Tom Doyle of Uncharted Ministries says. “Never before have Muslims…

With Prince Charles at an event hosted at Wayra UK Photo by Gary Stewart After 8 years of investing in 185 start-ups that had raised $265 million and are worth more than $1.1 billion, I’d mistakenly presumed that I understood the rules of the start-up game. I’d envisaged the existence of relationships, results and a reputation that might make me “investable” when I once again became a founder. For example, the start-up ecosystem: Demands traction. My start-up, FounderTribes, generated revenue before launching; Celebrates founder-market fit. FounderTribes is the direct result of my experience helping to set up and occupying an…

Once Napoleon said, “Give me an educated mother I shall promise you the birth of a civilized and educated nation”. Our Islam has also emphasized the education of the woman folk. The prosperity of a country mainly lies in the education of her population. It is said that education is the backbone of a nation. The most common barrier to the implementation of female education is early marriage. There are also some group of people who tries to bring false religious arguments against religion. About fifty percent of the total population in our country is female. A country cannot achieve her prosperity avoiding…

Bangladesh is witnessing a surge in Islamist activism and violence. For example, in October and November 2020, the hardline Islamist Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh (HIB) led massive demonstrations to protest French President Emmanuel Macron’s defense of free speech laws that allow cartoon depictions of the Prophet Mohammed (Dhaka Tribune, November 2, 2020).  Weeks later, HIB activists were on the streets again demanding the removal of political statues, which HIB’s new leader Junaid Babunagari said were “against the Sharia” (Bdnews24.com, November 28, 2020). Then, on December 5, an under-construction statue of Bangladesh’s founding father and first President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was vandalized by…

The order came through a police automation system in Ürümqi, the largest city in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. The system had distributed a report — an “intelligence information judgment,” as local authorities called it — that the female relative of a purported extremist had been offered free travel to Yunnan, a picturesque province to the south. The woman found the offer on the smartphone messaging app WeChat, in a group known simply as “Travelers.” Authorities homed in on the group because of ethnic and family ties; its members included Muslim minorities like Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and Kyrgyz, who speak languages beside…

England’s most extensive ever study of ethnic minority health in the over-55s ever has revealed huge inequalities across most groups, compared with white British people.The University of Manchester study showed people from some ethnic minority groups – particularly those belonging to Asian groups – were more likely to report poor experiences at their GP surgery.That suggests, say the authors, unfairness within NHS services may be exacerbating health inequalities for some ethnic minority groups.It found that the average health of 60 year olds belonging to Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Arab groups was similar to that of a typical…

Iran denied the United Nations’ investigation report on the country’s “systematic persecution of Christians.” According to the International Christian Concern, the investigation group of the U.N., which included special rapporteur on freedom of religion of belief, Ahmed Shaheed and special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, released a report that outlines Iran’s persecution of Christians. The report was only made public after the country failed to respond within the given 60-day deadline. In a letter dated Nov. 11, the U.N. report highlighted Iran Government’s “reported persecution of members of the Christian minority in Iran, including converts from Islam, as…