As factory workers took selfies with the burning corpse of their manager, Farhan Idrees proudly spoke to local media about the alleged blasphemy. “Priyantha Kumara tore a paper from the wall. It was inscribed with the name of Hussain [grandson of Prophet Mohammad]. He threw it in the basket,” said Idrees, who appeared to be in his 20s. “We complained to the foreman and demanded an apology. He tried to run away. We went on strike and gathered people, protested and burned him.”
“Labaik Ya Rasool Allah” chanted the mob surrounding the remains of Kumara spread on road amid stones, bricks and sticks in front of Rajco Industries, a sportswear manufacturing company in Sialkot, Punjab province. Videos of his vandalized car and lynching went viral on social media on December 3.
Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s special representative on religious harmony, disputes their claim.
“This man [Kumara] used to urge people to work efficiently. Our hearts are wounded. These three incidents were reported in the past year. We urgently send ulemas to avoid similar incidents. The United Ulema Board Punjab has reviewed 113 cases and often given relief to the innocent,” he told media.
“Ulema of all sects have condemned the killing. This is a test case. We ask for forgiveness from the people of Sri Lanka and the victim’s family.” Idrees was among more than 100 protesters arrested on charges of murder and terrorism. Both PM Khan and army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa have strongly condemned the Sialkot incident and announced strict punishment for the suspects.
According to Pastor Iqbal Masih of the Presbyterian Church in Sialkot, local Christians avoided protests about Kumara’s murder. “We are not powerful enough to challenge them. Earlier there were rumors that he had converted to Christianity in a local church five months ago. There were no prayers for him either because he was a Hindu,” he told.
Daily Archives: December 17, 2021
Philippines bans fireworks again at Christmas
The Philippine government has banned traditional firework celebrations over Christmas and New Year for a second straight year due to Covid-19 and safety fears.
The ban was based on the recommendation of the Health Department to avoid firework-related accidents during a time when medical services were being stretched because of the pandemic, national police chief General Dionardo Carlos said on Dec. 7.
Although the number of daily infections has dropped in the Philippines in recent weeks, authorities say they are mindful of the threat posed by the Omicron coronavirus variant despite there being no recorded cases there yet.
Those caught flouting the ban will face criminal and civil charges, Carlos said.
“The police fully support the Department of Health in pro-moting safety while celebrating the holiday season despite fire-work displays being a cultural tradition Filipinos are accusto-med to during personal and reli-gious events, especially during the New Year,” he added.
In 2020, the Health Depart-ment reported an 85 percent decrease in firework – related injuries thanks to the ban. There were also no fires linked to them either, according to the Fire Department.
“The country benefited from not using fireworks to celebrate Christmas. Nobody was hurt last year. No house was burned,” the police chief said.
Pakistan’s failing grade on human rights
It only takes the events of one week to summarize the situation of human rights in Pakistan. “I went to speak and perform in Government College University Chiniot but I was not allowed on campus. I was told that intelligence agencies called Dr. Shahid Kamal (the vice-chancellor) and blocked my entry,” said Taimur Rahman, an associate professor at Lahore University of Management Scien-ces, in a Facebook post on December. 8.
“I have committed no crime. My only ‘crime’ is that I’m a progressive who stands on the side of the poor and downtro-dden. Please share my video to express solidarity and record your protest against this inex-plicable censorship of progre-ssive thought,” he appealed to netizens in a post viewed by more than 3,000 people.
The same afternoon, videos of several women being assault-ed, stripped and filmed in a market in Faisalabad, also in Punjab province, surfaced on social media. Their ordeal went on for an hour with none of the spectators attempting to inter-vene. The incident comes amid 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, an annual international campaign that kicks off on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.
Many netizens justified the action after the emergence of a new video showing the women stealing from a shop.
Myanmar kneeling nun among BBC’s 100 influential women
Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng, the famous kneeling nun from Myanmar’s conflict-torn Kachin state who confronted security forces with fearlessness and courage, is among the BBC’s list of 100 influential and inspiring women of the year.
On the BBC website, a photo shows her clad in the white habit and veil of the St. Francis Xavier congregation. She was named along with Nobel laur-eates, professors and politicians.
Sister Nu Tawng inspired people around the world with her fearless acts of standing between security forces and unarmed young protesters during the military crackdowns in February and March.
The nun knelt before security personnel, pleading with them not to shoot unarmed civilians when security forces were preparing to crack down on protesters in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin state.
“Just shoot me if you want to,” said the Kachin nun, adding that “the protesters have no weapons and they are just showing their desire peacefully.”
The iconic gestures of the Kachin nun made headlines when photographs were published of her kneeling before police, shielding peaceful protesters and extending her arms begging the police not to shoot or hurt anyone.
Sister Nu Tawng’s brave act in confronting security forces went viral in late February when she was lauded worldwide as an icon of peace.
Her courageous acts also gained the attention of Pope Francis, who said in March: “I, too, kneel on the streets of Myanmar and say, ‘Stop the violence.’ I, too, spread wide my arms and say, ‘Make way for dialogue.’”
Nepal sentences pastor to two years for conversion
A court in Nepal has sentenced a Christian pastor to two years in jail and a fine of 20,000 rupees (US$166) for violating the Himalayan country’s repre-ssive anti-conversion law.
The sentence from the court in Dolpa district in Pokhara region of western Nepal on Nov. 30 came about a week after it found Pastor Keshav Raj Acharya from Abundant Harvest Church guilty of proselytization on Nov. 22, according to US-based International Christian Concern (ICC).
The evangelical pastor was first arrested on March 23 by police in Kaski district after a YouTube video of him went viral on social media. In the video he said that Covid-19 could be healed through Christian prayer.
“Hey, corona — you go and die. May all your deeds be destroyed by the power of the Lord Jesus. I rebuke you, corona, in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. By the power or the ruler of this Creation, I rebuke you … By the power in the name of Lord Jesus Christ, corona, go away and die,” he reportedly said in the video. Pastor Acharya denied uploading the video on the internet. He was released on bail about a month later.
Hindu activists intensify attacks on Indian Christian prayer meets
Hindu activists in India are stepping up disruption of Sunday prayer services under the guise of exposing forced religious conversions. Two such incidents were reported on Nov. 28. In national capital Delhi, activists of Bajrang Dal (Brigade of Hindu deity Hanuman) vandalized a newly inaugurated church in the Dwarka area.
Minakshi Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, told: “The church was inaugurated on Tuesday and was holding its first Sunday service. It was started by Ankur Nirula Ministries based in Jalandhar.”
Singh alleged the police were biased against the minority community. They merely detained one of the attackers for about an hour or so and let him go after questioning.
News website The Quint quoted a police official saying: “We received information at 9.30am on Nov. 28 that a quarrel had broken out at Matiala Road and on inquiry it was found that a group of residents and local miscreants had vandalized the board that read ‘church’.”
The official said the police have registered two reports of offense, one against those who vandalized the church and another against those present inside the church for violating the Delhi Disaster Management Act guidelines.
The guidelines prohibit large gatherings in view of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The second incident was reported from the southern Indian state of Karnataka, where Bajrang Dal activists barged into a Christian prayer hall and forced the faithful out at Belur in Hassan district.
Police intervened and the situation was brought under control. A video of the incident circulating on social media showed a mob of 20 to 25 men sporting saffron scares arguing and jostling with the faithful, including women, inside the prayer hall.
Media reports said the prayer hall is run by the Life to the Nation’s Ministries. The environment of fear caused by the aggressive mob was palpable as the Sunday worshippers denied any religious conversion activities.
Bengaluru Christians rally against anti-conversion bill
The United Christian Forum of Karnataka on December 4 organized a peace rally in Karnataka capital of Bengaluru against a proposed anti-conver-sion bill and survey on Christian institutions in the southern Indian state.
The rally was initiated by the Archdiocese of Bangalore in collaboration with all Christian denominations and other Catholic dioceses in the state to condemn the government move to enact the bill and harass the minorities.
The proposed anti-Christian bill “is nothing but a license given to Hindu radical groups to attack Christians, and persecute them,” bemoaned Archbishop Peter Machado of Bangalore while addressing the rally.
The archbishop, who is the most vocal against the bill, said the minority Christians will never bow down before the government, nor remain afraid of its scare tactics. He called all Christians to unite and fight against the injustice meted out to their community, a tiny minority in the state.
Peace rally leaders Several political leaders, religious heads, Muslim leaders, priests, religious, pastors, and lay people attended the ally held in front of the Saint Xavier’s Cathedral in Bengaluru. The gathering, which was initially planned for 25,000 people, was reduced to less than 2,000 people because of the Coronavirus pandemic
Margaret Alva, a veteran Catholic leader and a prominent politician, lambasted the BJP government for playing party politics in bringing the bill when the state is faced with several problems.
Indian tribal people up the ante on separate religion code
Indian tribal people, including some who are now Christians, assembled in the national capital New Delhi to press their demand for a separate Sarna religion code in the upcoming census.
The followers of the Sarna religion are predominantly of tribal origin and claim to be nature worshippers. They have been demanding recognition for it as a distinct religion in India for decades. At present, the census has separate codes for only six religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. While filling in these columns, a tribal person has to identify as one of these or tick against the column marked as “others” but cannot specify Sarna as a distinct and different religion.
Tribal representatives from the nine states, which are tribal dominated, are now gearing up for a mass agitation to highlight their demand,
On Dec. 7, nearly 500 tribal men and women in traditional attire sat on a fast and staged a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi.
They later handed over a memorandum of their demands to the offices of the president, prime minister, federal ministers for home and tribal affairs, besides the registrar general and census commissioner of India.
“States, where tribal people are in majority or have sizable numbers, have been demanding a separate Sarna code but our demand is not been taken seriously,” Karma Oraon, convener of a tribal people’s organization named Rashtriya Adivasi Samaj Sarna Dharma Raksha Abhiyan, told.
Catholic priest in Odisha trains India’s future women’s hockey team
A Catholic priest in Odisha hopes to achieve his childhood dream of playing hockey for India. He now trains women to become the country’s future hockey team and his main supporter is his bishop.
“I always wanted to become a member of India’s A team, stay in a sport hostel and play for my nation. But God willed otherwise,” Father Rajendra Kumar Kujur of Sambalpur Catholic diocese told Matters India. A documentary film “The Mountain Hockey” made on the priest’s resolves and love for the games was released a few months ago on OTT platforms such as Disney Hotstar, MX Player, Fearless, Amazon Prime Video and DcuBay in more than 170 countries.
The Odia language film, directed by Avinash Pradhan and Debasish Mohapatra, gives a glimpse of the cradle of Indian hockey by focusing Amlikha-man, a small village surrounded by mountains in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
The inspirational figure in the film is Father Kujur, who is currently the headmaster of Upper Primary Mission School in Amlikhaman, some 90 km northeast of Sambalpur.
Fr Kujur’s dram soared high when hockey and Odisha drew national attention when the Indian women team reached Olympics semi-final. All of them were trained in the eastern Indian state.
Now the 46-year-old priest wants his women to win the gold in future. Fr Kujur training students Along with studies, his school provides hockey training to the students, especially girls with coach Dominic Toppo another hockey enthusiast who could not make it to the top because of lack of guidance and opportunities in childhood.
Religious polarization targets voters in Indian polls
For Indian politicians, it is time again for temple runs as five crucial states, including the largest, Uttar Pradesh in the north, prepare to go to the polls in the first quarter of 2022.
And besides making a public display of offering flowers and milk to a plethora of gods, the usual election talk to polarize the electorate into majority Hindus and minority Muslims will carry on full steam in the coming months.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August is proving handy for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the pro-Hindu outfits aligned with it while warning voters to resist any attempts to Talibanize India.
Such rhetoric and the resulting public mood suit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which has high stakes in these provincial elections. It rules all but one of the five states.
The northern state of Punjab is the only state ruled by Congress, the main opposition party. The repeal of three farm laws in November in the face of sustained agitation by Punjab’s farmers was an unusual retreat by the Modi regime known for its macho-Hindu politics. The BJP could also face some tough challenges in retaining power in Uttar Pradesh, as it may in Uttarakhand in the north, Goa in the west and Manipur in the northeast, where it rules in alliance with regional parties.