Author: Priya Saha

The U.S. State Department again on Monday accused the Chinese government of genocide in its repression of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, citing it as one of six places in the world where crimes against humanity are being committed or are at risk of happening. In a report on atrocities and genocide prevention, it listed imprisonment, torture, enforced sterilization, and persecution as among Beijing’s crimes. The very public accusations will further ramp up tension, on a day when Beijing claimed it ‘drove away’ an American warship and accused Joe Biden of ‘provocative actions’ after the destroyer sailed in the South China Sea.’This year,…

Commentary The Chinese regime blocks Chinese citizens from accessing nearly all Western social-media platforms—Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and others—not to mention such conventional international news sources as the BBC, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. China’s “Great Firewall,” as it is called, is said to be the most technologically sophisticated system of media censorship in the world. Yet censor as it may inside China’s own borders, the Chinese regime has no qualms about using Western social media, YouTube and Twitter in particular, to wage a propaganda war elsewhere, particularly on the issue of its treatment of…

Several documents, including Jihadi materials, lists of JMB top leaders and their associates in other terror groups were seized from their possession Three young Bangladeshi men have been arrested in Kolkata of Inia for their alleged connection with the terrorist organisation Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).The special task force (STF) of the Kolkata Police arrested Naziur Rahman Pavel, 30, Mekail Khan, 30, and Rabiul Islam, 22, on Sunday, police said in a press conference, reports the Hindustan Times.The police are trying to find out if the trio had plans to carry out a terror attack in Kolkata, STF Joint Commissioner V Solomon…

India, like Bangladesh, has found unique ways to resolve issues regarding minority communities In the recent years, there has been much debate about secularism in India, which for some like its democratic credential is apparently in permanent decline. Like the apocryphal scientific assessment that proves that the bumblebee ought not to fly, there is no shortage of friends and foes who seem to be constantly seeking confirmation of their convoluted conviction that secular and democratic values are eroding in India. Some even tend to conclude that in a large developing nation with one large majority religious group, the life of several…

Jeay Sindh Freedom Movement(JSFM) organised 40 events in Sindh and abroad to pay rich tribute to the last indigenous King of Sindhudesh, Maharaja Dahir, on the anniversary of his martyrdom. This is the first time that a nationalist movement of Sindh has organised so many events in remembrance of Maharaja Dahir in Sindh. The main event was organised in Washington DC by JSFM founder and chief organiser Zafar Sahito. Sindhi, Baloch, Pashtun, Bangladeshi, Gilgit-Baltistani political representatives joined the programme to show solidarity with the historical Sindhi nation and their hero Maharaja Dahir, who fought bravely with the Arab invaders in…

Kolkata: Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Harunur Rashid has pitched for an Islamist Bangladesh, opposing the secular polity that the ruling Awami League seeks to uphold. During his speech in the Bangladesh Parliament this week, Rashid said, “There is no place for secularism in Islam.” His comment was opposed by the Awami League lawmakers, including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. But Rashid continued to strongly push for a Constitution based on “Islam as enshrined in the Holy Quran”, negating the often-made claims by the BNP politicians that their party is for “equality before law” of all Bangladeshis. The BNP had made…

President Biden’s decision to ‘end the war in Afghanistan’ means the complete withdrawal of 3,500 US troops by the 20th anniversary of 9/11. However, what may be domestically popular — particularly among Trump voters — will soon have consequences for the Afghans left unguarded by foreign troops. The Taleban and other jihadist militias are already making significant territorial gains while nuclear Pakistan will be strengthened by the vacuum left by the US military. But it is Afghanistan’s non-Muslims who will really suffer. Extinction is a word normally associated with dinosaurs — but it’s no exaggeration to say some minority religions…

Florist Barronelle Stutzman and Robert Ingersoll have shared many details from the 2013 conversation that changed their lives and, perhaps, trends in First Amendment law. For nine years, Ingersoll was a loyal customer at Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Washington. His purchases included special work Stutzman did for Valentine’s Day and for Ingersoll’s anniversaries with his partner, Curt Freed. Then, a year after the state legalized same-sex marriages, Ingersoll asked Stutzman to design the flower arrangements for his wedding. Stutzman took his hand, Ingersoll recalled, and said: “You know I love you dearly. I think you are a wonderful person, but…

Photo: DutchNews.nlA majority of Dutch MPs have backed a motion calling the crimes committed by IS against the Yazidi people in northern Iraq as genocide and a crime against humanity.The move is an important one to the Yazidi community in the Netherlands. ‘I hope that this motion is the first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice and offering the victims the help they need,’ Wahhab Hassoo told broadcaster NOS.The Yazidi, an ethnic and religious minority in Iraq, were attacked by IS in the north of the country in August 2014. Thousands of women and children were enslaved and thousands…

The Islamic Republic of Iran is a monstrous tyranny that likes to pretend it’s a democracy. And so in a vote with historically low turnout — and all candidates pre-vetted by the unelected Guardian Council, of course — Ebrahim Raisi was “elected” president. He will be inaugurated in August. His rise is bad news for all Iranians, especially members of religious minorities. Raisi is the hard-line prodigy of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and is tipped as a potential successor to the role of Top Tyrant. Raisi, who leaves the position of chief of the judiciary to take up…

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said “secularism in the constitution of Bangladesh never conflicts Islam… and it would be better to not say such things in the Parliament”, in reply to Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) lawmaker Harunur Rashid who claimed “there is no mention of secularism in the Quran… it conflicts Islam”.Responding to this, Hasina said: “Of course, there is a clear direction on secularism. In the Quran – ‘La’kum Dinukum Waliyadin’ means everybody has the right to follow their own belief and religion and s/he will follow his religion.”Hasina made the remarks on Saturday during her concluding speech…

India oi-Vicky Nanjappa | Published: Friday, July 2, 2021, 12:17 [IST] New Delhi, July 02: The Muslim dominated insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989 eventually fired the Kashmiri Hindus out of the Kashmir Valley. The peak phase of the exodus was in the 1990s when the Hindus were targeted by terrorist groups. Representational Image A petition in the Supreme Court compared the exodus of Hindus in West Bengal to that of the one in Kashmir. As a result of the violence, loot, killing and terror, enmasse Hindus have been forced to leave their native place and to migrate to…