Author: Priya Saha

An appeals court in Iran has sentenced eight Baha’i citizens to a total of nine years in prison for being members of their religious minority. According to the verdict issued by the Branch 36 of Tehran’s Appeals Court presided over by Judge Seyed Ahmad Zargar, the Baha’i citizens Houman Khoshnam, Elham Salmanzadeh, Payam Sha’bani, Kianoush Salmanzadeh, Soruosh Agahi, Parvan Ma’navi, Jamileh Pakrou, Peyman Ma’navi and Neda Shabani were each sentenced to one year in prison for “propaganda against the state through proselytizing Baha’ism.”The citizens had been innitialy sentenced to one year in prison on this charge, by the Branch 2…

At least 149 people of the Hindu community were killed in different incidents and 7,036 were injured in the country in 2020, which are higher than the previous years’ figures, claimed Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote on Wednesday. The organisation’s secretary general Gobinda Chandra Pramanik revealed the statistics at a press conference, said a press release. The press conference was held on atrocities on religious minorities in Bangladesh between January 1 and December 29 this year at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity in the capital. The atrocities on the Hindu community had increased in 2020 in comparison with 2019, he said. In 2019,…

PESHAWAR, pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police arrested 14 people in overnight raids after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a mob led by supporters of a radical Islamist party, officials said Thursday. The temple’s destruction Wednesday in the northwestern town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community. Local police said they detained at least 14 people in overnight raids and more raids were underway to arrest individuals who participated or provoked the mob to demolish the temple. The attack happened after members of the Hindu community received permission from local…

By Joyanta Saha, bdnews24  Communal hatred has been at the root of many incidents of violence in places across the country this year, including Bhola’s Manpura and Cumilla’s Korbanpur. These acts of grotesque violence included an incident of burning a man to death in Lalmonirhat’s Burimari area. Protesters raised voices countrywide against the oppression, yet their efforts were only met with failure to stem the spread of extremism. Building statues were subject to opposition from Islamic extremists towards the end of the year, which included a ruckus involving defacing of a statue of Bangabandhu. Activists claim that the government ignored…

By Simi Jolaoso & Hayley WestcottBBC Newsimage copyrightSALLY STORMONTimage caption”I’m like a hologram. I feel empty,” says Sally Stormont, who was adopted by two white parents”I’ve been bullied in school to the point I remember biting my hand, hoping my skin colour would come off. Having white parents doesn’t protect you from racism. Parents need to understand that.”Six years ago, the law was amended to make it easier for children to be placed with parents of a different ethnicity. It was in order to deal with a care crisis, especially when placing children from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds…

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) —Neha loved the hymns that filled her church with music. But she lost the chance to sing them last year when, at the age of 14, she was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age. She tells her story in a voice so low it occasionally fades away. She all but disappears as she wraps a blue scarf tightly around her face and head. Neha’s husband is in jail now facing charges of rape for the underage marriage, but she is in hiding, afraid after security guards…

A protest against forced conversions in Lahore, March 2019 | WhiteStar The 13-year-old Christian girl Arzoo Raja’s case sheds a stark light on the issues of forced conversions and child marriages in Pakistan. It became one of the biggest stories of 2020, exposing gaps in the system that allow for these ugly practices to continue in our society. Arzoo’s was just the latest name in the list of young Christian and Hindu girls who have faced such an ordeal. In fact, even while every development in the Arzoo case was receiving media attention, another forced conversion case was also being…

Yaqut Cholil Qoumas, the newly appointed religious affairs minister, has promised to uphold the rights of the Shia and Ahmadiyah minority religious groups and to work to prevent their persecution.”I don’t want members of Shia and Ahmadiyah displaced from their homes because of their beliefs. They are citizens [whose rights] must be protected,” Yaqut said on Thursday as reported by Tempo.co. For years, authorities and communities in Indonesia have discriminated against followers of Ahmadiyah and Shia. Members of the religious groups have, in some instances, been prohibited from constructing places of worship and driven out of their homes. Yaqut promised…

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony and Middle East, Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi. Islamabad: Pakistan intends to promote interfaith harmony and offer improved protection to the minorities so that they do not fall victim to false accusations. Talking to Gulf News, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Religious Harmony and Middle East, Hafiz Tahir Ashrafi, said that under the new policy, “Pakistan government is committed to prevent the misuse of blasphemy laws and protect minorities from becoming victims of forced marriages and forced conversions” that have already been restricted due to the rapid response by law…

Yazidi community members in northwest Syria say they are in a state of fear after Turkey-backed Islamist rebels in control of the area launched a weeklong blockade and arrest campaign against the religious minority in Afrin. The campaign started this month after an explosion near the two predominantly Yazidi villages of Basoufan and Ba’ay in southern Afrin targeted a leader of Faylaq al-Sham, an alliance of rebel groups operating under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Front of Liberation. Following the explosion, the injured leader was taken to the hospital, and the militant group besieged Basoufan, imposed a curfew on…

Web Desk On Dec 22, 2020 Last updated Dec 22, 2020 ISLAMABAD: Special Representative to Prime Minister on Religious Harmony Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Tuesday said that Pakistan will never accept Israel unless the Palestine issue is resolved, ARY NEWS reported. “We consider Palestine as the issue of the Muslim Ummah and the entire humanity,” he said while disassociating the government from elements who are adding salt to the injuries of the Palestinians through their remarks on normalizing ties with Israel. It is pertinent to mention here that even Prime Minister Imran Khan on November 25 said that there was…

Last week, Justice Marc-André Blanchard brought a cordial end to the hearings in a case about the constitutionality of Quebec’s ban on religious symbols, which bars teachers and some other civil servants from wearing such symbols at work.  “I’m very happy with how the trial went,” Blanchard told the lawyers in Quebec Superior Court on Tuesday. He said he was taking some time off to clear his head and would have a decision likely some time after February. The 29-day trial, which combined several legal challenges of Quebec’s Laicity Act brought by groups that included civil rights advocates, the English Montreal School Board and…