(Reuters) – Religious extremism could derail Myanmar’s much-vaunted reform process, the Buddhist-majority country’s first Catholic cardinal, Charles Maung Bo, said on Tuesday. Bo, who was named a cardinal by Pope Francis on Jan. 4, warned that Buddhist nationalism directed against minority Muslims could drive the latter to connect with international […]
ET: Social media is once again flooded with outrage at ‘Dr’ Aamir Liaquat – our nation’s foremost televangelist. During an episode of his morning show Subh-e-Pakistan, aired on Geo TV on December 22, one of Liaquat’s guests, Syed Arif Shah Owaisi, used inflammatory language to accuse the Ahmadi community of being responsible for terrorism […]
The Daily Beast: The failure at the UN of the Palestinian resolution underscores the point: The two-state solution isn’t happening. What now? Don’t ask. The two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dead. (At least for now, because few things about this dispute are absolutely certain.) But on Tuesday, we […]
Guardian: The invasion of Iraq in 2003 and its aftermath can be seen in hindsight as the greatest catastrophe to strike the ancient Christian communities of the Middle East since […]
Dawn: IT is time to fight and take back at least some space that we have, over the last 30 odd years, ceded to self-proclaimed religious authorities, those who act as bigots and those who use religion or interpretations of religion to oppress others. If this means taking some risks, […]
Yahoo news: NEW DELHI (AP) — In small-town northern India, Muslims are offered food and money to convert to Hinduism. If that doesn’t suffice, they say they’re threatened. Across the country, the Christmas holiday is canceled for hundreds of government servants who spend the day publicly extolling the policies of […]
Christiansinpakistan.com: According to details, eleven Christians all resident of the Capital. These eleven include a pastor who have been allegedly accused of committing blasphemy by a women namely Naseem Bibi. […]
NY times: LONDON — Only a week ago, the Red Mosque seemed a nearly untouchable bastion of Islamist extremism in Pakistan, a notorious seminary in central Islamabad known for producing radicalized, and sometimes heavily armed, graduates. On Friday evening, though, the tables were turned when hundreds of angry protesters stood at […]
The Independent: The grief has given way to rage. Three days after Pakistan suffered its worst ever terrorist attack, with the massacre of 132 schoolchildren in Peshawar, the country has hit back. In the tribal areas of North Waziristan and Khyber along the Afghan border, Pakistani jets strafed militant targets […]
Telegraph: Two men have been arrested following a storm over extremists handing out leaflets in London’s Oxford Street urging Britons to join Isil. The men, both from Luton, were arrested […]
Rappler.com: PARIS, France – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused European governments on Monday, December 15, of siding with the Palestinians over their latest UN bid for statehood, saying their […]
HRW: Pakistan’s blasphemy law goes Bollywood Pakistan’s blasphemy law has claimed its first Bollywood victim. DECEMBER 15, 2014 Enlarge Members of the Pakistani Christian community chant slogans during demonstration to condemn the death of a Christian couple on November 6, 2014. © 2014 Reuters Enlarge Employees of Pakistan’s biggest television station, […]
Global Post: For the vast majority of American Christians, attending church is a racially segregated experience. Just 7 percent of all US congregations were racially mixed in 1998. By 2012that number had climbed to 13 percent, according to Michael Emerson, professor of sociology at Rice University and author of three […]
Source: The Telegraph Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are a menace to everyone in the country; even speaking out against them now constitutes blasphemy itself It’s hard to read about the blasphemy convictions handed […]
Russia Today: Obligatory celibacy could have contributed to child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, a group of Australian archbishops has admitted, becoming the first-ever Catholic institution to publicly acknowledge […]
Source: The Guardian By Yassin Musharbash Islamophobia is on the rise in Germany. That is troubling enough. But what’s even more concerning is that many of those whom I would define […]
.itv.com: A United Nations human rights expert has called for the prosecution of US officials who ordered acts of torture against detainees. Ben Emmerson, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights […]
RNS: In an article originally published in early 2012 and originally titled “Word power,” Aung San Suu Kyi wrote: “Words allow us to express our feelings, to record our experiences, to concretise our ideas, to push outwards the frontiers of intellectual exploration. Words can move hearts, words can change perceptions, words can […]
Pakistan can be allowed to become radicalised or it can be salvaged as a large Muslim majority, democratic nation state Starting with the Lahore Resolution, every major landmark constitutional document, including the Objectives Resolution, has promised religious freedom and equal rights for minorities in Pakistan. Despite this, the situation of […]
Market watch: MOSCOW — Striking a defiant tone, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the West of provoking a crisis in Ukraine and using sanctions to try to constrain […]