Tag: Pakistan

UN Special Rapporteur: ‘repeal blasphemy laws that invite hatred’

October 27, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country ASEAN, Blasphemy, New York, Pakistan, Religious freedom, UN, Uzbekistan

Banner protesting against changes to the blasphemy laws, Peshawar 2017 (World Watch Monitor)

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB), Ahmed Shaheed, has said that states that have blasphemy laws “should repeal them because of their stifling impact on the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief, and on the ability to engage in a healthy . . . Read More

New UNHRC members criticised for ‘dismal rights record’

October 23, 2017 Afghanistan, Human rights, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Religious freedom, UN

Afghanistan and Pakistan were among the 15 States elected last week (16 October) to serve on the UN Human Rights Council, with human rights groups calling it a “crisis in the UN and its intergovernmental system”. Maliha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, called it an “endorsement of Pakistan’s strong . . . Read More

Asia Bibi nominated for award as human rights defender

October 5, 2017 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Europe, Human rights, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, UN

Aasiya Noreen, a Pakistani Christian woman who has been on death row for over seven years for alleged blasphemy, has been nominated for this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The 52-year-old, who has become widely known as Asia Bibi (‘Bibi’ is an affectionate title given to women in . . . Read More

UN calls for abolition of death penalty for blasphemy and apostasy

October 3, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Ahok, Amin Afshar Naderi, Apostasy, Asia Bibi, Blasphemy, Human rights, Indonesia, Iran, Mariam Ibrahim, Pakistan, UN, USA

During protests against Jakarta's Christian former governor Ahok for alleged blasphemy, some protestors called for the death penalty. Blasphemy is a criminal offence in Indonesia and carries a penalty of up to five years in jail. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The UN Human Rights Council last week passed a new resolution, demanding the abolition of the death penalty for apostasy and blasphemy. The resolution called on UN member states that still have the death penalty to, among other things, “ensure that it is not imposed as a sanction for specific . . . Read More

Pakistani woman calls for Western countries to recognise Christian persecution

September 26, 2017 Pakistan All Saints Church, Pakistan, Peshawar

Kashmala in an interview with Australian broadcaster SBS in August 2014. (Photo: SBS)

A young Pakistani Christian woman who travelled to Australia for surgery, after she was seriously injured in a twin suicide bombing at her church in Peshawar in 2013, says that three years on “countries in the West still fail to recognise the persecution of Christians in Pakistan”. Kashmala Munawar was . . . Read More

Pakistan Christian sentenced to death for WhatsApp ‘blasphemy’, despite gaps in police case

September 20, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, Nadeem Masih, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Punjab

Six days after a Pakistani Christian was sentenced to death for blasphemy, the young man’s lawyer says there was insufficient evidence against his client and that the police failed to investigate the matter properly. Nadeem Masih, 24, from the Yaqoobabad area of the religiously conservative city of Gujrat, in Punjab . . . Read More

‘Extreme negligence’ of Pakistan’s school authorities led to student’s murder

September 14, 2017 Pakistan Education, Pakistan, Punjab, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

Pakistan’s government has been severely criticised over a Christian student beaten to death by his classmates on only his second day in school, reports Catholic news agency Fides. A statement, signed by Bishop Joseph Arshad and Fr Emmanuel Yousaf, both of the Catholic Bishops’ National Justice and Peace Commission (NCJP), . . . Read More

Pakistani, 17, targeted by teacher and students, dies after beating on second day of high school

September 12, 2017 Pakistan Burewala, Caste, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Islamic extremism, Mardan, Pakistan, Punjab, Sharoon Masih, Vehari

The mother of a 17-year-old Christian beaten to death in his classroom, on his second day in high school, has told the police that her son was “hated because of his religion”. Sharoon Masih was on only his second day at MC Model High School in Vehari, Punjab when it . . . Read More

As China goes global, its Christian missionaries go too

September 4, 2017 Balochistan, China, Islamic State, Lee Zingyang, Meng Lisi, Missionaries, Pakistan, Quetta, Zhejiang

A Chinese Christian holds a Bible standing outside the largest Chinese church in the world: the Three Self church which seats 5,000 people, in Hangzhou city. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

China’s drive to develop new trading routes to the West and beyond comes with an unintended and often overlooked by-product: Chinese Christian missionaries, who are putting the self-proclaimed atheistic country in a difficult spot, according to the BBC. The latest example is the story of two young Chinese who travelled . . . Read More

Pakistan: illiterate Christian boy, 16, forced to confess ‘blasphemy’ to escape mob violence

August 21, 2017 Pakistan Blasphemy, Bonded labourers, Gujranwala, Islamic extremism, Lahore, Nabeel Masih, Pakistan, Quran, Rimsha Masih

An angry Pakistani mob almost killed a 16-year-old Christian boy – who is completely illiterate and also slightly mentally challenged – for allegedly burning the pages of a Quran. He was then apparently forced to confess to the alleged crime, and is now in custody – despite apparent inconsistencies in . . . Read More

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