Author: Priya Saha

(Photo: Unsplash/Faruk Kaymak) Iran goes to the polls on June 18 to elect its new president. The election has been described as fraudulent and rigged and is likely to be spurned in record numbers by Iranian voters, who consider the outcome a fait accompli. Most of the candidates are hard-liners, which UK charity Release International warns will increase pressure on the persecuted Church, writes Andrew Boyd. There is little doubt as to the outcome of this weekend’s presidential election in Iran. A hard-liner, almost certainly Chief Justice Ebrahim Raisi, will win. Release International, which supports persecuted Christians around the world, warns…

Photo Credit: TwitterDruze and Israeli Flags In my long career as a tour guide , I have met all kinds. Just name them; Jews and Christians of every stripe, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and probably lots of others I wasn’t aware of – but never Druze. This week I can add Druze to my list. It was a fascinating experience. The Druze are a religious minority that lives in the mountainous areas of Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Their religion is one that broke away from Islam in the eleventh century. Because of the fatal consequences of heresy, details of their faith…

Religious and ethnic minorities have been overlooked in the country’s mainstream media and it is because reporting priorities in the media industry are dictated by commercial interests rather than human rights or public good. Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists President Shahzada Zulfiqar said this while addressing a session on marginalised communities and the media’s role in a two-day interfaith harmony workshop that was recently organised by the Pak Institute of Peace Studies, an Islamabad-based advocacy and research think tank.Citing examples of the recent past, he said mainstream media preferred to give airtime to a politician’s private affairs in Punjab rather…

MHA directive discriminates against a group, says plea in Supreme Court. A May 28 order of the Ministry of Home Affairs inviting non-Muslim refugees such as Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists belonging to Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan residing in 13 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab to apply for Indian citizenship is increasingly becoming the focus of challenge before the Supreme Court.A recent petition filed in the Supreme Court by Anis Ahmed, through advocate Selvin Raja, said the government order “utterly discriminates and deprives a class of persons namely, the Muslims”.Mr. Ahmed argued that the May 28 order…

In Pakistan, an Islamic extremist group has threatened minority Hindu traders in Wadh town of Balochistan province days after a Hindu businessman was gunned down.“Women should be stopped from unnecessarily leaving their houses and roaming the markets.They are mostly seen in shops of Hindus,” stated Karwan Saif Ullah, an Islamist militant group, which recently circulated pamphlets asking women to stop leaving their houses unnecessarily and to refrain from frequenting shops owned by Hindus. It also warned Hindu traders against allowing women in their shops. Hindus in Balochistan protest the murder of Ashok Kumar at the Press Club in Lasbela on June 3.…

By Stephan Uttom (UCA News) — As Bangladesh’s government inaugurated 50 model mosques across the country, Catholic officials called for state funding to build churches on the basis of equality of all religions. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the mosques on June 10. The government had planned to build 560 model mosques with Saudi Arabian funding but is now funding the mosques itself because the Saudi government did not provide funds. Project director Najibur Rahman said the mosques would become centers of social activities as well as propagating pure Islam. Each mosque is built at an estimated cost of US$…

A wedding card circulating on social media shows a bride named P Mamata Banerjee will take 7 rounds with a groom named AM Socialism on June 13 A marriage between Mamata Banerjee and Socialism is set to take place on June 13 in Tamil Nadu’s Salem district in India. A wedding card circulating on social media shows a bride named P Mamata Banerjee will take seven rounds on June 13, 2021 with a groom named AM Socialism, the Hindu reported. The family members of the couple have confirmed the authenticity of the invitation card. According to reports, the groom AM Socialism is the…

[*]Every year the anniversary of the constitutional amendment recognising Islam as state religion is marked as a ‘black day’. “If this state of affairs continues, Islamic extremism and communalism will end up creating serious problems”, says the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council. Dhaka (AsiaNews) – in Bangladesh, Hindu, Buddhist and Christian religious leaders yesterday marked “Black Day” together. On 9 June 1988, Islam became state religion following the adoption of the eighth amendment to the constitution. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) has promoted the initiative on June 9 each year. This year, in a virtual meeting…

Breadcrumb Trail Links Columnists Author of the article: Tarek Fatah Publishing date: Jun 09, 2021  •  8 hours ago  •  4 minute read  •  39 Comments Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lays flowers at the London Mosque prior to a Tuesday a vigil being held in memory of the Afzaal-Salman family. Four members of the family were killed Sunday in what police allege was a hate-motivated attack. Photo by MIKE HENSEN /POSTMEDIA NETWORK Article content The horrific killing of an entire Muslim family, allegedly mowed down in London by 20-year-old Nathaniel Veltman has left all Canadians traumatised. We had barely absorbed news…

52 percent Indian Americans believe other minority groups discriminated against more than them. Portrayed as the poster child of America’s historic opening to new immigrants, the Indian American community today finds itself tested over religious cleavages, generational divides and political polarization, according to a new survey. More than half a century after the historic 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act brought a new wave of Indian migration to the United States, the Indian American community has come of age, notes the Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS). “Its rapidly growing size, economic success, and growing political visibility have given it greater salience…

An expert’s point of view on a current event. June 8, 2021, 2:39 PM In January, the U.S. government determined China’s actions in its northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region constituted genocide against its Uyghur ethnic minority population. Four other national parliaments have since followed suit. These determinations were mainly based on evidence of systematic suppression of births, since the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide stipulates the act of “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group” constitutes an act of genocide if it is “committed with intent to destroy, in…

Sulaymaniyah City, Iraq – On May 18, Behzad Mahmoudi, a Kurdish asylum seeker from Iran, set himself on fire in front of the United Nations office in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq. Four years ago, the 26-year-old fled his home city of Boukan in western Iran, hoping to find a better future away from the persecution and discrimination many Kurds in Iran say they face. But when Mahmoudi arrived in the KRG, he was unable to find a stable job or income. Desperate for a way out, he applied to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees…