Author: Priya Saha

Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance holds a roundtable discussion at the National Press Club in Dhaka on Friday marking the organisation’s 15th founding anniversary. — New Age photo The government should immediately enact a new law to protect the interests of religious minorities, said leaders of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance on Friday. At a roundtable discussion organised marking the 15th founding anniversary of the organisation, religious minority leaders and cultural activists said that minorities were being persecuted after 50 years of the country’s independence as the state was not secular. Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance organised the roundtable…

Local Puja committee president arrested in face of protests by locals Police have arrested a member of a minority community in the face of protests against him for allegedly making slanderous remarks against Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (pbuh) in Bhola.Gouranga Chandra Dey, 50, who serves as the president of the district’s puja celebration committee, was arrested on Thursday, said Superintendent of Police (SP) Sarkar Mohammad Kaysar.He was arrested under Section 54 of Code of Criminal Procedure and produced before court the same night.According to Section 54, the police may arrest an individual without a warrant or order from a magistrate if…

SYDNEY (Reuters) -The Chinese embassy in Australia rejected on Friday s “unfounded accusations” against China made by the defence and foreign ministers of Australia and their U.S. counterparts after annual talks in Washington.The two countries, in a statement after Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, expressed concern over China’s “expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea that are without legal basis”, and stated their intention to strengthen ties with their “critical partner” Taiwan.The comments from Australia and the United States came a day after they announced a submarine deal as part of a security partnership that includes Britain, which China denounced as…

Leaders of 25 religious and ethnic minority organisations on Thursday called on the ruling Awami League to fulfil its election pledges made before the last general election held in December, 2018. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and 24 other Hindu and ethnic minority organisations put forward their demands at a press conference at the National Press Club in Dhaka. Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council general secretary Rana Dashgupta said that the Awami League made some pledges in its election manifesto for the welfare of the minority communities, but most of the pledges remained unfulfilled. The pledges included…

Leaders deplore condition of minorities 50 years after independence The alliance of religious and racial minorities has asked the government to form a national commission and protection law to end discrimination and violence.At a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday, the alliance leaders deplored the condition of the minorities in Bangladesh, some 50 years after the achievement of independence, where secularism is one of the four pillars of the constitution, and urged the ruling Awami League to fulfil their promises regarding the minorities issued before the 11th parliamentary polls.Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Oikya Parishad leader advocate Rana Dashgupta, Bangladesh Puja…

Orthodox Hindus label reformists as apostates The Law Commission’s move to amend the colonial-era Hindu Law by including the elimination of gender discrimination with regard to the inheritance of property, has created divisions among reformist and orthodox Hindus in the country.The commission has also suggested jail terms and fines for failing to register marriages within 15 days.Aiming at eliminating discrimination with regard to gender, caste and marital status, the reform proposals include provisions allowing men and women to divorce and remarry, citing reasons mentioned in the law.The division among the Hindu community has stalled the process of amending the law, according to…

Politicians, academics and human rights activists on Wednesday at a discussion meeting called on the Awami League government to give constitutional recognition of the country’s ethnic minority people. The ethnic minority people are deprived of their rights as a citizen of the country, for the lack of the recognition, they said Bangladesh Adivasi Forum organised the online discussion meeting to mark the 82nd anniversary of birth of ethnic minority leader Manabendra Narayan Larma, a former member of the parliament who was assassinated in Chattogram Hill Tracts, home to various ethnic minority people. Adivasi Forum general secretary Sanjeeb Drang presided over…

On the day the Taliban captured Kabul, newly inaugurated Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi cheered the United States’ “military defeat and withdrawal.” But although Iran may be happy to have U.S. troops gone from its northeastern border, the reconstituted Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan poses another set of challenges Tehran’s decision-makers have been reluctant to openly debate. As much as Iran has supported the Taliban in recent years, worrisome scenarios for Tehran include the Taliban turning against Iran or Afghanistan’s Shiite minority as well as the specter of Sunni jihadism metastasizing westward. Iran and the Taliban were sworn enemies in the late 1990s. When…

Jama Masjid, New Delhi | Representational Image| Photo by Suraj Singh Bhisht | ThePrint Text Size: A- A+ Apart from Kashmir, where the Muslim population is highest in India, Muslims are in minority. Many Muslims in north India face serious problems such as exploitation and religious discrimination. Even the Urdu language is violated by those who are non-Muslims or cannot speak it. Muslims usually do not hold any top rank in the country’s capitalist or industrialist class. Many of them are employed as artisans, craftspersons and so on, in urban India, and they are economically backward, due…

Much has been debated about the Single National Curriculum (SNC) on electronic media, with misinformed memes on social media apps and counter narrative essays presented overwhelming newspapers. Late last year, the debate mainly focused on the content of curriculum and the agony of the private school chains in discontinuing their own flashy syllabi, highlighting the economic disparities of society, which can be described as an education apartheid. Since, the dust has settled on this, a new point of contention was expressed by the members of the civil society, academics, and minority rights activists about the Islamisation of the national curriculum,…

09/14/2021 Middle East (International Christian Concern) –  Several countries across the Middle East North Africa region have utilized the time of a global pandemic to restore its religious and cultural sites in order to better present faith tourism as countries open up for travel again. However, the efforts to promote faith tourism should not be confused with religious freedom. Middle Eastern countries with a reputation and history of restricting religious freedom can and do still promote tourism built around religious identities that do not enjoy full privileges in their country. Egypt for example recently launched the Holy Family Trail and…

CAIRO, September 12. /TASS/. Leaders of Afghanistan’s Shia community demand their representatives be included in the country’s new government that has been formed by the Taliban (outlawed) who seized power in the country, the Kandahar-based Taand newspaper reported on Sunday. According to the newspaper, tens of Shia representatives met on Sunday with Afghanistan’s former President Hamid Karzai, who is a member of a coordinating council for the peaceful transfer of power. It was Karzai’s second meeting with the Shia in the recent days. On September 9, Karzai wrote on his Twitter account that he had held consultations with Afghanistan’s Shia…