Author: Priya Saha

India09:51 GMT 20.07.2021(updated 14:22 GMT 20.07.2021) Get short URLThousands of Rohingyas fled to India and Bangladesh from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state after a major crackdown was launched against them by the Myanmar security forces in August 2017. Indian authorities started taking steps to identify Rohingyas by collecting their biometric data in 2019.Illegal migrants, including Rohingyas, pose a threat to national security, the Indian government told parliament on Tuesday. “There are reports that some of them have indulged in illegal activities,” India’s Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in a written reply to a question from Bahujan Samaj Party…

NATHIAGALI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 19th Jul, 2021 ) :Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani on Monday said that Pakistan is a safe country for religious minorities, where Christian, Hindu, Sikh and others are living with their Muslim brothers and sisters in peaceful manners. He expressed these views while addressing a training workshop “Gali Fateh Youth Camp” for Christian youth from across the country which was organized by the Diocese of Peshawar at Donga. Earlier, the special guest of the program Speaker KP assembly also welcomed the camp participants on their arrival at Donga Gali. He also…

Kenny Xu, author and president of the advocacy group Color Us United, told Hill.TV that “Asian Americans showed that critical race theory cannot be true.”In discussing differences between Asian American and Black education achievement rates in the United States, Xu said the experiences and historical disadvantages in both communities were “of similar magnitude.”“We always try to posit the worst victim narrative that we could, and you just did for Black Americans, but I could do the same for Asian Americans,” said Xu, author of “An Inconvenient Minority: The Attack of Asian American Excellence and the Fight for Meritocracy.”He went on to say that…

After teaching assistant Zahra Khan was instructed to tell a student to remove her hijab, a religious headscarf worn by some Muslim women, she donned one herself as an act of solidarity. “I started to wear a hijab to support the students, and to make the teachers understand what it is,” Khan, who works at a Salvation Army school in Hong Kong, told HKFP. “I wanted them to be more accepting of their non-Chinese students.” File photo: Piqsels. But what Khan – herself a Muslim – experienced left her feeling “upset and frustrated” about the way ethnic minority groups are…

There are high hopes and some concerns surrounding The Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Care and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2021, which is likely to be tabled in the upcoming Monsoon Session of the Parliament. Several anti-human trafficking organisations, lawyers and researchers have welcomed the draft of the Bill which states that the legislation is aimed at preventing and countering trafficking in persons, especially women and children, to provide for care, protection, and rehabilitation to the victims, while respecting their rights, and creating a supportive legal, economic and social environment for them, and also to ensure prosecution of offenders. The draft of the…

An Indian Bahai body on Saturday flagged concerns over an increase in hate speech and propaganda targeted against its community members in Iran and asked the government of that country to stop the spread of misinformation.It said the ”unfolding strategy to demonise” the Bahai community is reflected in a growing and coordinated network of hundreds of websites, Instagram accounts, Telegram channels and Clubhouse Rooms.The websites and social media channels are compounded by videos, newspaper articles and other written media, books, seminars, exhibitions, graffiti and fatwas from both official outlets and others sponsored by the government but purporting to be…

The demand for a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) — one that streamlines personal laws across religions — was revived again last week. The Delhi High Court, while responding to a divorce petition, stressed the need for a UCC, observing that the traditional barriers of religion, community and caste are slowly dissipating” in modern India; thus, there is a need for a “code — common to all.”The conversation around the UCC is as old as the creation of India in itself. The UCC is envisioned as a common set of civil laws that govern varied matters of marriage, adoption, inheritance, succession,…

Just 14 years ago, on July 16, 2007, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina was arrested from her Sudha Sadan residence at Dhanmondi in Dhaka by the military-backed interim government, which assumed power in the political changeover of January 11, 2007. Sheikh Hasina was released from the special sub-jail set up on the premises of the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) Building on June 11 in 2008 after remaining captive there for nearly 11 months. As Sheikh Hasina fell sick during her captivity, demands were raised then from different quarters including the Awami League and its associate bodies to send her abroad for…

(UCA News) — Christian leaders in Bangladesh have demanded an apology from a Hindu leader accused of hurting religious sentiments by describing Jesus as a “divisive figure” whose words and actions were “Satanic.” Christians have reacted angrily on social media over the inflammatory comments by Govinda Chandra Pramanik, a Supreme Court lawyer and secretary-general of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, a conservative Hindu group. He made his controversial comments during a virtual meeting on Hindu family laws on July 8. He referred to the Gospel of Luke where Jesus said: “Do you think I have come to bring peace…

Widely seen as a populist with ultra-conservative inklings, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan increasingly appears to reinforce widespread traditionalist attitudes that reject religious tolerance as well as the rights of women and minorities. In doing so, Mr. Khan is aligning Pakistan in religious and social terms closer to Turkey than his country’s traditional allies, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has bolstered religious education at home as well as in Turkish schools abroad and recently withdrew from an international women’s rights convention. Mr. Khan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, reportedly was scheduled to meet…

Video goes viral on social media showing lawyer Gobinda Chandra Pramanik speaking out against an alleged anti-Hindu plot, accusing Christians of stealing the Vatican from Hindus. For the Bangladesh Christian Association, “This kind of hate speech is a barrier to religious harmony in the country.” Dhaka (AsiaNews) – A Bangladesh Hindu leader has launched surreal accusations in a video that has gone viral, sowing confusion and raising concern among Christians Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, a lawyer and secretary general of Bangladesh Jatiyo Hindu Mohajote, said, during an online seminar last Thursday, that “The Vatican was Hindu and Christians grabbed it,” just…

Government urgently needs to rethink and redirect UK aid to Pakistan to make sure it helps the women, girls and religious minorities who need it most.  That’s the blunt message Prof Javaid Rehman gave MPs in the House of Commons International Development Committee.  Speaking at its inquiry into UK aid to Pakistan, the human rights lawyer painted a grim picture of how the nation treats its women, girls and religious minorities.  “There has been a systematic and systemic erosion of the rights of minorities and the right to freedom of religion.  “Forced conversions and forced marriages of girls is a…