Christian human rights groups in Pakistan are urging local courts to reject Sharia punishments for the blasphemy accused in the Muslim majority country.
Last week, a Peshawar High Court bench issued notices to the attorney general for Pakistan and provincial advocate general over a petition seeking orders for the government to remove the option of punishment other than the death penalty for blasphemy from the Pakistan Penal Code.
The petitioner claimed the issue of an alternative punishment of life imprisonment had already been decided by the Federal Shariat Court, but it had not been implemented by federal and provincial governments. The option of life imprisonment was made defunct after a Federal Shariat Court judgement in 1991.
The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS) UK, a Christian charity dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in Pakistan, rejected the death penalty for blasphemy in a March 25 press release.
“It’s time to stop the misuse of the blasphemy law. We see every day how this law is being misused by individuals and religious groups to achieve their goals and settle their personal grudges, especially against religious minorities,” said Nasir Saeed, director of CLAAS.
“Several governments have pledged to stop its misuse, and even recommended 10 years imprisonment for a false accusation, but nothing has changed. Instead, voices against the misuse of the blasphemy law have been forced into silence.”
Kashif Aslam, Deputy Director of the Advocacy and Program National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), the Church’s human rights body, in Pakistan agreed.
“Clearly the judges are prejudiced. We are experiencing such attitudes from the beginning,” he said. “Instead of being driven by emotions, they should go by the book. We demand overall reforms in judicial system,” he told.

A new study published by a bishops’ commission highlights the psychological impact of hate speech on religious and sectarian minorities in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
“Hate speech in Pakistan is accepted as a norm. One of its immediate effects is that people experience a loss of self-esteem. There is a constant fear among minority community members regarding their security and survival. A Hindu student reported losing her interest in studies, claims the study titled “The cost of hate speech.”
It was based on 12 focus group discussions, held between February 2020 and February 2021, with about 200 individuals including Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Shia and Ahmadi in both educational institutes and public places around Punjab. Similar sessions will be conducted in urban and rural areas of the three other provinces.
The National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), the Church’s human rights body in Pakistan, launched its policy brief for Punjab in Lahore on March 17.
The commission made several recommendations including monitoring and regulating religious sermons and seminary curriculum, reforming the education system, a government policy on non-discrimination, a media campaign to pro-mote equality as well as federal and provincial committees to monitor hate speech.
According to Aila Gill, program coordinator of NCJP, this is the first time such data has been collected in the country.
“We have identified more than 50 hateful terms. A lexicon has been prepared with suggestive terminologies preferred by the different minority communities,” she told.
“Religious minorities generally don’t know derogatory hate speech experienced in daily life and have become immune to this common phenomenon. Most of them hide their religious identities and never report such incidents for fear of retaliation. They demand support from the majority community to register complaints against hate speech.”

A new call for peace and an end to violence in Myanmar was launched together by 12 cardinals from different regions of Asia, through the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (Fabc), the body led by the Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo as president.
The initiative echoes a similar message of solidarity that had already been sent in recent days by the Archbishop of Seoul, Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung. In the text – which we publish in full below – the 12 cardinals appeal to dialogue to find a way out, expressing particular closeness to Cardinal Bo: “The people of Myanmar we know are peace loving and only seeking an opportunity for progress. They have been law abiding and cooperating with all authorities. At the moment they only seek harmony and end to violence Asia is a continent of peace and of hope, of warm family bonds. We are one family. Peace is possible! ”
It is with deep sadness and great distress that we have been following the events in Myanmar. There is too much anger, too much violence, too much blood shed, too much suffering and pain inflicted on a peace-loving populace which only seeks unity, harmony, and an opportunity for progress in freedom. There have been repeated appeals for calm from the highest quarters. The United Nations Security Council unanimously appealed for a de escalation of violence. Pope Francis has made repeated appeals for peace, harmony, and justice. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has called for “Dialogue, Reconciliation and Return to Normalcy.”

A Christian lawmaker in Pakistan’s ruling party has drawn flak for rejecting a report on religious persecution in the country.
Shunila Ruth, parliamentary secretary for the ministry of religious affairs and interfaith harmony, faced criticism after she rejected an international re-port that said religious minorities suffered discrimination in the Islamic nation.
Last year, a 168-page report by the UK-based All-Party Parliamentary Group for Ahmadis narrated discrimination faced by their community in Pakistan.
Ruth rejected the report and announced to issue its rebuttal in a meeting last week in Islamabad.
“I feel more protected, safe, and peaceful in Pakistan than any other country of the world,” she stated.
The report, titled ‘Suffocation of the faithful – the persecution of Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan and the rise of International Extremism,’ said “state-sponsor-ed” persecution against Ahmadis intensified following the formation of Pakistan.
It also noted how the denial of freedom of religion for Ahmadis has also led to the denial of freedom of religion for other communities including Chri-stians.
“Security improvements in churches include raised-up perimeter walls, complete with razor wire, surveillance cameras, bomb-proof gates, guards and patrols,” it stated.

Pope Francis on March 25  appointed a new archbishop in Manila Archdiocese, in the Philippine capital. He transferred Cardinal Jose Fuerte Advincula of Capiz to succeed Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who the Pope had appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in the Vatican on December 8, 2019. The See of Manila has been vacant for more than 15 months during which Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo has been serving as Apostolic Administrator.

A day after a Kachin nun’s brave act in confronting security forces, a Catholic priest played a mediator role in a Catholic stronghold in northeastern Myanmar.
Wearing a white robe, Father Celso Ba Shwe, apostolic administrator of Loikaw Diocese, walked in front of dozens of security personnel who stood ready to crack down on anti-coup protesters in Loikaw, capital of Kayah state, on March 9.
As police ordered protesters to disperse via a loudspeaker, the priest pleaded with them not to harm unarmed civilians.
“Please, I plead with you not to give harm,” he told one police officer.
The priest’s request, however, was ignored by security personnel and they started to disperse the protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas, causing several injuries.
Father Ba Shwe’s mediation followed the inspiring example of Sister Ann Rose Nu Tawng from Myitkyina, Kachin state, who knelt on the road and begged security forces not to shoot the protesters on Feb. 28 and March 8.
The priest took the role of apostolic administrator of Loikaw on Dec. 21 following Bishop Stephen Tjephe’s death on Dec. 16.

Local Catholics have praised the priest’s brave act and condemned the security forces who ignored his plea.
“I’m proud of being a Catholic as we have priests and nuns who are brave to stand up for the people,” one posted on Facebook.
“Like the priest’s brave act, I wanted to see a cardinal and bishops carrying out the same move in their respective dioceses,” said another comment.
Priests, nuns and seminarians in Loikaw have expressed their solidarity with the people of Myanmar since anti-coup protesters took to the streets nationwide following the Feb. 1 coup. They also rallied to pray for peace in the country by reciting the rosary in early February.
Kayah state is regarded as a stronghold of Catholicism in the Buddhist-majority country and ethnic groups such as the Kayah, Kayan and Kayaw reside in the remote, underdeveloped and mountainous region. About 90,000 Catholics live in a state with a population of 355,000.
Anti-coup protests have continued from urban areas to remote regions including Christian strongholds despite crackdowns bypolice and soldiers.
The military’s brutal approach in recent days has drawn strong condemnation from the United Nations and Western countries including the US and Britain.
On March 9, the 15-member UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement that would have condemned the coup, called for restraint by the military and threatened to consider further measures, according to media reports.

Five Jesuit-run universities in the Philippines have issued a joint statement condemning an ongoing deadly crackdown on street protests against Myanmar’s military coup that has claimed at least 70 lives, according to the United Nations. The military takeover on Feb. 1 and the subsequent repression of pro-democracy protesters was illegal and a gross violation of human rights, the March 10 statement called “One with Myanmar, In the Name of Human Fraternity” said.
The statement was signed by the presidents of Ateneo de Naga University, Ateneo de Manila University, Xavier University — Ateneo de Cagayan, Ateneo de Davao University and Ateneo de Zamboanga University.
Myanmar’s military seized control of the country following a national election in which State Counselor Aung San Suu Ky’s National League for Democracy won easily. The military said the election was flawed, a claim dismissed by the country’s election commission. The coup triggered street protests which the military has sought to crush.
At least 70 people have been killed, according to the UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, who said there was also mounting evidence of crimes against humanity.
“To our brothers and sisters in Myanmar, we are at your side, united in the defense of your freedom. As one family in the Southeast Asia, we are with you in your noble gift to win democracy back,” said the Jesuit-run schools in their statement.
They said that although Asian countries are diverse in culture and history, each nation is called to a spirit of solidarity.

Christians in Bangladesh claim they are being per-secuted after the demolition of a new church building in the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts region.
About 200 Catholics and Protestants formed a human chain and held a silent protest on March 8 against the demolition of the Seventh-day Adventist Church building. A group of about 10 persons including forest officials demolished the under-construction church building in Sathiram Tripura village of Bandarban district on Feb. 25.

Five Christian villages in rural Bangladesh are virtually extinct now owing to persecution by Muslims.
Some 400 Christians once lived in five villages near Dhaka’s Nawabgonj area and were spi-ritually tended by the Hasnabad Catholic parish of Dhaka. But now only one Christian woman remains living. Virgin Margarat Gomes, a former schoolteacher, is now the only inhabitant at Nagerkanda in Nawabganj.
The 65-year-old woman now only has the company of 13 cats and five dogs. She has been living alone in the village for the last 24 years, but without the fellow villagers she knew, she has become anguished.
Gomes told her story to Church Militant, explaining that persecution by Muslim “land grabbers” not only decimated her immediate family but became the last straw for other villagers who, already struggling, fled for safer communities instead of fighting to improve the living standards locally.
In Bangladesh, 90% of the people are Muslim while most of the remaining 10% are Hindu and Buddhist. Christians are nearly invisible in the country, comprising less than one-half percent of the population.

On February 14, a local Chinese church’s multilingual service was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4, the United Kingdom’s most popular radio station, for the first time in history—a gesture of welcome to the hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents expected to migrate to the country under a new visa provision.
“This feels like a watershed moment for the Church in the UK,” wrote Mark Nam, an Anglican priest in Bristol. “I never dreamed I would be alive to hear Chinese songs and voices broadcast across the nation for Sunday Worship like this.”
Nam is among hundreds of pastors, ministry leaders, and laypeople who are preparing local churches for what could be the largest planned migration to the country in over half a century.
As of January 31, nearly three million British overseas nationals in Hong Kong are said to be eligible for this new passport program, which will allow them and their families to live and work in the UK and to apply for British citizenship within six years. The UK government expects over 300,000 to register and estimates that at least 130,000 will arrive in 2021 alone.
Political tensions are high in Hong Kong, particularly for pro-democracy activists—including Christians—who have become the target of a crackdown from Chinese authorities in the region. While the government has committed to open the door for everyone who applies, Christian leaders believe the church should be waiting on the doorstep to welcome them.
“It’s in our DNA; it’s in our doctrine,” said Krish Kandiah, a former pastor, missionary, and adoption reform advocate who has rallied local Christians around the Hong Kong Ready initiative. “The welcome is an important part of what the church is about, and we don’t always get it right, but we’re keen now.”