PAKISTAN: The houses of Ahmadis are under attack and the police are providing protection to the attackers ISSUES: Religious intolerance, torture, impunity, no rule of law ——————————————————————— The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the attacks on the houses belonging to Ahmadis. The attackers were from two […]
Express Tribune: KASUR: Local clerics attacked a house belonging to an Ahmadi family in the Kasur district of Punjab on Tuesday and subjected the family members to violence allegedly over their religious belief, The Express Tribune has learnt. A mob led by a local cleric chanted slogans against Ahmadi families, their religious beliefs […]
Mailonline: David Goodhart argues that a new patriotism can unite our nation again We will have an ethnic minority population of around 25 per cent by 2020 Goodhart says a […]
New Europe: BY STANISLAVA GAYDAZHIEVA | MARCH 20, 2013 – 3:15PM Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March, the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) called the European Union (EU) institutions […]
tWN: 90% of governments in Middle East and North Africa limit religious media Click on chart to enlarge. 90% of governments (18 of 20) in the Middle East and North Africa limit religious literature or broadcasting, including 55% (11) that limit religious content on the Internet. Worldwide, the new report by the […]
The Independent: The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun dismantling some of the oldest sections of Islam’s most important mosque as part of a highly controversial multi-billion pound expansion. Photographs obtained by The Independent reveal how workers with drills and mechanical diggers have started demolishing some Ottoman and Abbasid sections […]
vimeo: Excellent documentary where even Mr. Farooq Maududi accepts that this is wrong according to Islam. He states that State should be secular. It also details how these laws target […]
The New York Review of Books: This spring was supposed to open a new chapter in Pakistan’s tenuous embrace of inclusive democracy. At midnight on March 17, following constitutional rules, the Pakistan government of Asi Ali Zardari stepped down and the national assembly was dissolved, in preparation for national elections in […]
COMMENT : Are Pakistan’s non-Muslims ‘dhimmis’? — Yasser Latif Hamdani No Pakistani is a dhimmi. All of us, whatever our faith, are equal citizens with equal obligations and equal responsibilities As Pakistan has mercifully completed one complete democratic cycle and is now heading towards, hopefully, a second one, one hopes that […]
Dawn: Muneeb says blasphemy accused should be tried by FSC LAHORE: Religious scholars belonging to the Sunni school of thought have proposed that accused in blasphemy cases should be tried by the Federal Shariat Court (FSC) and the changes introduced by former president Gen (retd) Musharraf’s regime in the registration […]
Express Tribune: LAHORE: Several Christian families fled their homes in Shibli Town on Friday in anticipation of a mob attack after accusations surfaced over the desecration of a mosque’s ablution area. There are about 70 houses in the Christian locality of Shibli Town, where Naseer Ahmed, a prayer leader of Jamia […]
Asian Human Rights Comission: When a small lady weighing hardly 60 kilograms working for the betterment of poor slum-dwellers, and amongst the under-privileged in poorer residential areas, is viewed as a dire threat to the Taliban and the local administration, the sanity of these institutions, and those that man them, […]
Express Tribune: LONDON: Britain’s Labour Party suspended Pakistan-born Lord Nazir Ahmed on Thursday over reports that he blamed a Jewish conspiracy for his imprisonment over a fatal car crash, a spokesman […]
Hindustan Times: Islamic activists have attacked dozens of Hindu temples and hundreds of homes across Bangladesh since an Islamist leader was sentenced to death for war crimes last month, a Hindu group said on Wednesday. Bangladesh Puja Udjapon Parishad, a group which looks after Hindu temples, said 47 temples and […]
globallegalforum: by Yasser Latif Hamdani: Supreme Court hears the Ahmadi Supplementary Lists Petition The Supreme Court of Pakistan’s Bench No. 1 comprising the Honourable Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, Mr. Justice Gulzar Ahmad and Mr. Justice Azmat Saeed is hearing what is in this writer’s opinion the most important case which […]
Express Tribune: By Faheem Younus: Billa was his nick name. An uneducated Christian boy, who used to clean sewer lines, remove garbage, and on a good day, play cricket with us on the streets of Lahore. I fondly remember how he could hit the ball out of the park and […]
Source: vimeo: by Sarfraz Shiekh An angry mob attacked Joseph Colony, a Christian neighbourhood belonging to an alleged “blasphemer”, burning down 180 houses. They robbed the houses and burnt everything, […]
The Daily Times: It is with deep sadness that one contemplates how 2013 is turning out to be one of the worst years for minorities in Pakistan’s sordid history of sectarian violence. Militant ire has been directed at the Shias throughout the first three months of this year and now […]
Zeenews.com: Human Rights Watch: Islamabad: The Pakistan government should immediately take legal action against Islamist militant groups and others responsible for threats and violence against minorities and other vulnerable groups, Human Rights Watch has said. HRW said Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law had “come under renewed scrutiny” after a mob torched […]
Express Tribune: LAHORE: A highly-charged mob of thousands burnt more than 40 Christian houses in Badami Bagh area of Lahore on Saturday to “take revenge of the blasphemy” allegedly committed by a Christian two days earlier. Express News had earlier reported that around 100 houses were burnt by the mob. Eyewitnesses said […]