Pakistan

Some of the world’s most widely-known cases of anti-Christian pressure and violence have arisen in Pakistan, a country whose founder promoted religious freedom. Asia Bibi’s case prompted international condemnation of Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws but there are still dozens of Christians and others on death row for blasphemy. Meanwhile, several churches and Christian colonies have been attacked by Islamists in recent years, leading to the loss of many lives. Although Christians are around 2% of the population, they make up about 80% of the workforce dealing with waste management (sewerage and street-cleaning). World Watch Monitor’s journalism brought changes in employment legislation in Punjab for such ‘sweepers’ in September 2015. `

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No future in Pakistan as minority woman

April 10, 2015 Blasphemy, Easter, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Minorities, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Women

Pakistan’s prime minister promised to provide equal rights for people of all religions in a speech over the Easter weekend. Nawaz Sharif said: “My government is committed to safeguarding the fundamental rights, safety, honour, life and property of all minority communities”. He added that minorities were granted “equal rights and […]

Pakistan’s first female Christian footballer

March 31, 2015 Balochistan, Caste, Football, Karachi, Minorities, Pakistan, Women

Al Jazeera reports on the growing popularity of a young woman from Karachi who, as Pakistan’s first Christian women to play football for her country, is emerging as a voice against religious intolerance. Joyann Geraldine Thomas made her international debut in November 2014 at the age of 17, but the match barely […]

Asia Bibi made honorary Paris citizen

March 20, 2015 Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Women

Asia Bibi, the first Christian woman to be sentenced to death under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, has been awarded an honorary citizenship of Paris by the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo. The mayor’s statement said receiving the award is a “rare distinction granted to the world’s most emblematic defenders of human rights. […]

100s attend funerals of Pakistan Christians

March 17, 2015 Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban

Tight security surrounded the funerals in Lahore on Tuesday of Pakistan Christians killed by two Taliban suicide bomb attacks. Hundreds of Christians had to submit to security checks as they attended the funerals in Lahore’s biggest Christian neighbourhood. The bomb attacks on Sunday left 17 dead and more than 80 […]

Bombers kill 17, injure at least 80 in Pakistan church attacks

March 16, 2015 Imran Khan, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, Kasur, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League, Pashtun, PTI, Taliban

At St. John’s Catholic Church, the bomber was kept outside of the courtyard by a security volunteer who dragged the attacker off the wall.World Watch Monitor At least 17 people were killed, and 80 others injured, as two churches in the main Christian district of Lahore, Pakistan, were attacked […]

Mother accuses Pakistan police of killing son by torture

March 10, 2015 Police, Torture

A Pakistan mother claims Pakistan police tortured her son to death to extract from her a confession to a theft she says she did not commit. Zubair Masih was buried March 9 in a Christian graveyard in Lahore, under a heavy police presence. He was 20. His brutalized body was found […]

Charges relaxed for murderer of Asia Bibi defender

March 9, 2015 Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Mumtaz Qadri, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Salmaan Taseer, Women

When Mumtaz Qadri confessed to the 2011 murder of Pakistani politician Salman Taseer, he said he did it because the Punjab governor had supported a Christian woman, Aasiya Noreen (also known as Asia Bibi), facing the death penalty for blasphemy. Qadri, who was Taseer’s bodyguard, was himself sentenced to death, […]

Fixing Pakistan’s ‘broken’ blasphemy laws

March 8, 2015 Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Minorities, Pakistan, Pakistan Ulema Council, Rimsha Masih

Al-Jazeera at Pakistan’s volatile religious politics through the eyes of two Muslims trying to reform the country’s notorious anti-blasphemy laws. Attorney Saif-ul-Malook, for whom Aasiya Noreen (also known as Asia Bibi) is the latest of several clients he has defended against charges of offending Islam, lives in daily fear of an […]

After ‘Charlie’: latest incident of Pakistani Christians targeted by Muslim anger

February 21, 2015 Charlie Hebdo, Jamaat-e-Islami, Karachi, Kasur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Lahore, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Madrassas, Mardan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Multan, Pakistan, Pashtun, Peshawar, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Taliban

Protests over their latest Charlie Hebdo cartoon depiction a weeping Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying, 'I am Charlie', led to violence in the West African nation of Niger over the weekend January 18, 2015.

World Watch Monitor

The publication of Charlie Hebdo’s ‘memorial edition’, with its depiction of the Prophet Muhammad crying, sparked – in one or two countries – a violent backlash against Westerners in general and Christians in particular. It was notable in Niger, where 70 churches were destroyed, Algeria where police and protestors clashed, […]

Life in Islamabad’s Christian slum

February 11, 2015 Blasphemy, Children, Education, Islamabad, Pakistan

A makeshift ‘tent city’ on the outskirts of Islamabad, which has become home to Christians who’ve left Pakistan’s capital city in fear after strings of blasphemy allegations and killings, is the subject of a new photo essay by the Associated Press. Christians are shown living in simple cement-block homes or […]

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