Author: Priya Saha

Censorship fears related to Hindu nationalism, or “Hindutva”, have driven US-based academics to mobilise into a new activist group and organise a major academic conference. The South Asia Scholar Activist Collective (SASAC) launched in July with founding members from at least eight US universities. Its first action was to publish a “Hindutva Harassment Field Manual” to help those who have been targeted by the Hindu right wing and also as a resource for university staff or management who want to learn about the issue. SASAC’s materials list various threats, the most dramatic of which came in 2020 to Vinayak Chaturvedi, an…

Eight non-government organisations in a joint statement on Sunday expressed concern over the cutting down of betel plants of the ethnic minority people at Khasia Punji in Kulaura upazila of Moulvibazar on August 24 and a sudden attack on Garo and Khasia communities on Friday. They demanded that those who were responsible for the attacks on lives and livelihood of the ethnic minorities must be arrested and the security of the minorities must be ensured. The rights bodies also demanded justice and compensations for the affected families, according to a release from Bangladesh Adibashi Forum. Rights organisations, including Sammilita Samajik…

ANI | Updated: Aug 29, 2021 09:47 IST Kabul [Afghanistan], August 29 (ANI): The Taliban on Saturday ordered Afghans to hand over vehicles, weapons, ammunition and other government property to concerned authorities.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued the directive on Twitter, reported Geo News.”Announcement by the security of the Islamic Emirate: All those in Kabul city who possess vehicles, weapons, ammunition, or other government property, are being informed to handover the said items to the relevant authorities of the Islamic Emirate within a week in order to avoid any legal action against them,” wrote Zabihullah.Similar orders were issued by the Taliban…

Pakistan and its notorious spy agency ISI have become extremely active with the agenda of seeing resurgence of Islamist militancy activities in Bangladesh as part of its conspiracy of unseating the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Pakistan’s connections, affiliations and collaborations with radical Islamist militancy is not new. For the past several decades, Islamabad’s military leadership and its spy agency have been actively harboring militancy as Pakistan uses these forces in spreading terrorism within the region, particularly India and Bangladesh. Despite Islamabad’s active role in sponsoring terrorism, Washington was rather compelled in forming alliance with them because…

PESHAWAR: Speakers at an award giving ceremony have stressed the need for interfaith harmony and religious tolerance to strengthen national unity and termed it the best way forward for an inclusive, progressive and just society. Mafkoora, a private research institute, arranged an event at its centre here on Friday to confer a commendation shield on a noted social activist Wagma Feroz for winning the $3,000 grand prize for her short film on religious freedom by an international organisation ‘Empower Women Media’ for the year 2021. Young scholar Mufti Maaz honoured Ms Feroz with a shawl as a token of respect…

Breadcrumb Trail Links World News National Local News “I remember, when I was a kid, I remember how they would just kick the door in and come into the house and look for any reason to take you in.” Author of the article: Stephanie Babych Publishing date: Aug 27, 2021  •  16 hours ago  •  5 minute read  •  5 Comments Jihan, left, and Sharif Sharifi and their two-year-old son Armaan pose for a photo at South Calgary Park on Friday, August 27, 2021. Photo by Azin Ghaffari /Postmedia Article content Calgarian Sharif Sharifi’s family fled Taliban-controlled Afghanistan when he was…

Forced conversions are not a new phenomenon in Pakistan but unfortunately, most of the people in Pakistan remain unaware or unconcerned of this major issue that religious minorities in Pakistan are facing. With an already uphill life in terms of economic opportunities in society, religious minorities are hard-pressed against multiple odds. Though Pakistan has international obligations to fulfil, these are seldom met in a satisfactory way. Now several clerics and religious scholars have objected to the draft of a bill prepared by the human rights ministry to prohibit forced conversions. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Religious Affairs called a meeting…

An apex students’ organisation has welcomed the Arunachal Pradesh government’s decision to relocate Chakma and Hajong settlers beyond the State. The Buddhist Chakmas and Hindu Hajongs were displaced by a dam in erstwhile East Pakistan and mostly settled in southern Arunachal Pradesh from 1964-69. Some had faced religious persecution. Indigenous communities in the frontier State have for decades demanded the resettlement of the refugees, now numbering more than 60,000, arguing that they had not been consulted when New Delhi decided to settle the Chakmas and Hajongs 1,200 km east of their home in present-day Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts.“We appreciate Chief…

Uyghur Muslim women in the Grand Bazaar in Kashgar, Xinjiang, China | Representational Image | Flickr/David Stanley Text Size: A- A+ New Delhi: With forced birth control measures and ‘re-education camps’, China has been deliberately reducing the population of Uyghurs, a Muslim minority ethnic group, a new study has claimed. The study by Dr Adrian Zenz, a German anthropologist known for his research on Muslim minorities in China, estimates that the country’s policies could lead to a loss of over 4.5 million lives by 2040 and suggests that this could be classified as genocide under the 1948 UN…

The Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference – scheduled for September 10 and featuring a number of reputed scholars, activists and journalists who are intimately acquainted with different aspects of Hindu nationalism – is a long overdue, important and necessary initiative. The conference is jointly sponsored by over 40 departments in major American universities and colleges. Hindutva, as described by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in a publication in 1923, is an ethno-nationalist majoritarian ideological project. The ideology of Hindutva proposes that India is essentially a Hindu country defined by a Hindu cultural ethos, Hindus are the true and authentic inhabitants of the land…

“Go ahead (Taliban), the future world is waiting for you to lead it,” S. Islam, a user from the northeastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet, wrote on the DW Bengali service’s Facebook page.    A. Shek, another Facebook user from the district of Sirajganj, considers the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul “a victory of Islam.” “I’m so happy to see the victory of Islam before my death. I was never that happy before in my entire life,” he wrote.  Thousands of users have been incessantly posting comments on social media to praise the Islamic fundamentalist group’s victory and denounce Western media outlets “for…

Washington hasn’t just destabilized a country; it’s potentially created problems across Southeast Asia. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization may be called on to fill the breach.   The US pullout from Afghanistan and the chaotic manner in which it has been undertaken looks more like a comprehensive defeat than any organized withdrawal. It is now the Taliban that is dictating terms to the United States, and a deadline of August 31, 2021, imposed by them on the US to complete an exit, and not the other way around.  As has been noted elsewhere, there will be consequences, and especially among Muslim insurgents elsewhere across South…