Author: Priya Saha

In early January, at least 10 coal miners were brutally killed in southwestern Pakistan.Witnesses and local security officials said the victims were specifically selected because of their ethnic and religious background. They belonged to a minority group called the Hazaras.ISIS has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.The incident shocked the community, who say they have been targeted by Sunni extremist groups for years. They say they demand justice and an end to the persecutions.Related: Hazara community demands justice for slain coal miners in PakistanThe World’s Shirin Jaafari interviewed Fernand de Varennes, UN special rapporteur on minority issues, to ask about…

The Muslim community in India, the largest minority of roughly 172 million people who account for 14.2 per cent of India’s total population of roughly 1.32 billion, has gone through a tough time in recent years in the backdrop of the RSS and BJP’s Hindutva politics. While the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is accused of eroding the secular and liberal principles of the Constitution, it is common knowledge that the BJP thrives on the grievances and prejudices of the majority community against the minorities. The last six years have been hard for India’s largest minority – they…

Lake Michigan College kicked off its MLK Week with a celebration on Monday morning. LMC has released the following: Now is the Time! The MLK Celebration Week, a free, virtual, community-wide effort inspired by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” opened festivities Monday morning with an inspiring kickoff celebration.  The event, attended virtually by more than 240 households, was highlighted by a passionate keynote address from Tékeidra Masters, an 18-year-old graduate of Benton Harbor High School and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America 2020 Midwest Regional Youth of the Year.  In her speech, Masters urged attendees, regardless of race or ethnic background, to no longer remain “voiceless” when it comes to…

A High Court bench today withdrew its bail order to banned Islamist outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) activist Md Redwanul Huq alias Redwan in two separate bomb blast cases in which he was sentenced to life in 2005. The bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo also rejected the petition filed by Redwanul. The HC bench came up with the order after Deputy Attorney General Md Aminul Islam prayed to the bench to withdraw its order of bail saying that Redwanul is a JMB activist and cannot be granted bail. The bench had granted him bail…

Shahamat Uddin moved to the United States recently to look for a better future after living in fear for his life as a marginalized gay man in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. The numerous instances of violence and persecution of the LGBT community in Bangladesh shocked Uddin. The murder of Xulhaz Mannan in 2016 was perhaps the most disturbing incident. Mannan and another LGBT activist, Mahbub Rabbi Tonoy, were hacked to death in Mannan’s apartment by men armed with machetes.  Al-Qaida in Bangladesh eventually claimed responsibility for the murders. Mannan had founded Bangladesh’s first, and only, LGBT magazine, Roopbaan. The attack forced many members of Bangladesh’s LGBT community to…

Express News Service KOLKATA: BJP’s national general secretary and Bengal observer Kailash Vijayvargiya and national vice president Mukul Roy on Monday visited the Matua community’s headquarters at Thakurnagar, North 24 Parganas, ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit scheduled on January 30.  Shah is likely to address the Hindu refugees who migrated from Bangladesh on the issue of implementing the CAA, a promise that the saffron camp had made to woo the Dalit vote-bank comprising Matuas. “It is yet to decide whether Shah’s rally will be organised under the banner of the party or Matuas. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s…

Additional police officials have been stationed outside lead actor Saif Ali Khan’s house A local official from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party on Sunday registered a police complaint against an Amazon Prime web series alleging it insults Hindu gods and goddesses, and threatened to launch a protest at the company’s office in Mumbai.Protests against Amazon.com have been organized for Monday to warn it not to show scenes insulting Hindu gods and goddesses, Ram Kadam, a BJP member of the Maharashtra legislative assembly, said in a tweet after filing a complaint with police in Mumbai on Sunday.The political drama Tandav also drew…

Rights activists in Pakistan have endorsed the findings of a leading advocacy group that reported a grim situation for religious minorities last year. Attacks by Islamist militants targeting law enforcement officials and religious minorities killed dozens of people in 2020, according to the recently released World Report 2021 of Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Women, religious minorities and transgender people continued to face violence, discrimination and persecution, with authorities often failing to provide adequate protection or hold perpetrators to account,” the report states. “The Pakistani government did not amend or repeal blasphemy law provisions that have provided a pretext for violence…

Screenshot of the CECC annual report on China on its website. Screenshot of the CECC annual report on China on its website. Editor’s note: Hamzah Rifaat Hussain is a former visiting fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and currently serves as assistant researcher at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) in Pakistan. The article reflects the author’s opinions and not necessarily the views of CGTN.The old adage by the famed English theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, that “the greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge,” fits perfectly into the Trump administration’s narratives on various global…

The Christian community is facing huge harassment in Pak. He is facing difficulties in every sphere of life. The year-long report on the persecution of Christians says that Pak is present in the top five in 50 countries that have conducted a positive investigation against Christians. He is in the 5th position. In all these countries, Christians are born on the basis of religion.Assessment of America’s global body: According to sources, those who have become Christians by leaving Islam are being the worst victimized in Pak. While the rest of the Christians are living in Pak, they are living a…

Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka on conversation Mohammad Tarikul Islam: By and large, every nation formulates foreign policy to ensure that its needs are represented in the global community. The fundamental Foreign Policies of Bangladesh originate from Article no. 25 of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The foreign policy of Bangladesh comprises of personal circumstance techniques picked by the constitution of the nation to defend its national advantages and to accomplish objectives inside its worldwide relations milieu. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs details and executes the strategies as indicated by the direction from the important segment of the constitution of Bangladesh.…

China possibly carried out genocide against Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in its northwestern region of Xinjiang, a bipartisan commission of the US Congress said in its report on Thursday. The Congressional-Executive Commission on China said “new evidence emerged that crimes against humanity — and possibly genocide— are occurring” in Xinjiang. “Disturbing new evidence has also emerged of a systematic and widespread policy of forced sterilization and birth suppression of the Uyghur and other minority populations,” the report said. It also cited a 2017 policy document that showed elementary and middle-school-age children in the region were involuntarily separated from their…