The Indonesian government has issued a decree banning state schools from interfering in the religious beliefs of students and teachers in a move that is being hailed as part of increased efforts to ensure the Muslim-majority country remains inclusive.
The decree was announced on Feb. 3 following an outcry last month after a state vocational senior high school in Padang, West Sumatra province, ordered all female students to wear a hijab.
According to the decree, schools must not force students and teachers to wear clothing that identifies people with a certain religion. “The essence of this decree is that students, teachers and education officials have the right to choose. Wearing religious-oriented attire is an individual decision,” said Minister of Education and Culture Nadiem Anwar Makarim when announcing the decree with Religious Affairs Minister Yaqut Cholil Qoumas and Home Affairs Minister Muhammad Tito Karnavian.
The decree also demands that local governments and school principals revoke regulations that require or prohibit such attire within 30 days.
Makarim called on the public to report any violations. The regulation, however, exempts Aceh province in Sumatra, the only region in Indonesia authorized to impose Islamic Sharia law.
Minister Quomas said the decree was necessary to stamp out religious intolerance in schools and cited the Padang school which had tried to force a Christian girl to wear a Muslim headscarf.
“I believe that case was just the tip of the iceberg,” said Quomas, adding that the government hopes everyone will respect each other’s beliefs.
Ahmad Nurcholish from the Indonesia Conference on Religion and Peace welcomed the decree, saying it upholds the concept of freedom of religion and belief guaranteed by the Indonesian Constitution.

Three Christians were flogged in public in Indonesia’s Aceh province on Feb. 8 after being caught drinking alcohol at a small shop in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, according to a local government official.
Heru Triwijanarko, acting head of the Banda Aceh public order agency and Sharia police, said the three unnamed men received 40 strokes of the cane for violating bylaws prohibiting alcohol.
It was not clear whether any of the men were Catholic.
“They were all given the choice of a prison sentence or caning, and all chose to be caned,” he said.
The conservative province is the only area in the country allowed to implement Sharia-based bylaws.
They stipulate that violators must be given the option of being tried in a Sharia court or in a regular criminal court using Indonesia’s national penal code. However, if the offense does not fall under the penal code, even non-Muslim violators can be tried under Sharia law.
One of the caned Christians said he chose to be flogged to avoid a prison sentence of up to six months.

A Christian nurse was reportedly tied up and tortured by a mob at a Pakistani hospital after a Muslim colleague falsely accused her of blasphemy.
Tabitha Nazir Gill, 30, was attacked and beaten by staff at the Sobhraj Maternity Hospital in Karachi where she has worked for nine years, Rabwah reports.
The head nurse was allegedly falsely accused of blasphemy after she challenged a coworker for accepting money from a patient.
Gill is said to have implemented a rule which stops staff receiving money from people using the hospital services.
After seeing a Muslim coworker breaking the order, she told them about their breach and the member of staff subsequently accused them of blasphemy.
Footage from the hospital has emerged on social media which shows a group of people in the hospital hitting the woman.
Several woman can be seen surrounding her, smacking her while another appears to hit her with a stick-like object.
One man in the angry mob can be seen attempting to climb through a window to get to the woman before they gain access to the room she is in.
There are also claims that she was tied up by the angry mob, tortured and locked inside a room before being taken to the police station.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Card. Joseph Coutts of Karachi and transferred Bishop Benny Travas of Multan to take his place as arch-bishop of Pakistan’s largest city.
Cardinal Coutts has headed the southern archdiocese since Jan. 25, 2012. He was appointed chairperson of the Christian Study Centre, a key Christian research centre, in Rawalpindi last month.
Cardinal Coutts was born on July 21, 1945, in Amristar in the Diocese of Jullundur in British India. He was ordained a priest in Lahore on Jan. 9, 1971
Bishop Travas was born in Karachi in 1966 and ordained a priest on Dec. 7, 1990. He served as vicar general of Karachi Arch-diocese and was ordained bishop of Multan on Aug. 15, 2015. He has also served as a professor of canon law at the National Catho-lic Institute of Theology in Kara-chi. Karachi has a population of 20 million. According to the Catholic Church directory 2018, the seaport archdiocese has 182,000 Catholics and 16 parishes. “The son of Karachi has returned,” Father Mario Rodrigues, former rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Karachi, told UCA News.

Catholics and Protestants in Malaysia are praying for victims of enforced disappearances as they remember a Christian pastor who went missing four years ago. The prayers of solidarity on the weekends on Feb. 6-7 and Feb. 13-14 are in response to a call from the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), the interdenominational Christian forum in the Muslim-majority country. Archbishop Leow, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, referred to several cases of enforced disappearances that made headlines in recent times. Anglican pastor Richard Koh, 62, went missing on Feb. 13, 2017, from Selangor state in western Malaysia. He had been accused of proselytizing among Muslims in the state by Islamic radical groups.

A Christian group in the north-eastern Indian state of Nagaland has urged the faithful not to believe a claim by a healing ministry that the Covid-19 vaccine is against the will of God.
The Chakhesang Baptist Church Council (CBCC), an association of Baptist Churches in the Christian-majority state, has warned people to ignore such claims.
In a press release issued on Jan. 17, the CBCC clarified that a prophecy made by the Eastern Zion Healing Ministry of Pfutsero claimed that the Covid-19 vaccine is “not the will of God.”
“Such false prophecies are contrary to the Bible and the Christian faith and believers should be careful about alleged divine revelations,” its statement said.
Catholic Bishop James Thoppil of Kohima, the state capital, said Nagaland has several small sects over which Christian churches have no control.
“Most of these sects parted ways from the main churches for various reasons. They are free to give any statements which are not in line with mainline churches,” he said.
“There are many healing and prayer ministries here which claim they are the main church. They sometimes even argue that followers of the Catholic Church are fake Christians, but we don’t pay heed to their claim as it has no meaning.
“The Covid-19 vaccine is intended for all. Let’s not make it a religious issue. People are free to get vaccinated as they wish. The CBCC is an associate church of the Nagaland Baptist Church Council and we support its stand on the issue.”

Christians in six Asian countries live under extreme persecution where feudal, oligarchic, authoritarian and theocratic governments call the shots, says the latest report by a Christian advocacy group.
The 2021 World Watch List, compiled by the US-based Christian advocacy group Open Doors, says North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iran and India are hotbeds of Christian persecution in Asia.
These countries have been occupying positions ranging from first to 10th for global Christian persecution since 2015, according to the report released on Jan. 13.
Christians in these nations are harassed, discriminated against and put to death for their faith because the majority community and authoritarian governments view Christianity as a relic of white privilege and a symbol of Western colonialism, the group said.
Except in North Korea, where the communist party’s diktats run riot, governments in the other five countries are remote-controlled by hardliners and conservatives who fear that Christianity is always susceptible to external influences and use it as a ploy to mobilize the majority against the Christian minority, the report said.
Of late, violence in the form of abduct-ions, forced conversions and sex attacks perpetrated against Christian women go unnoticed and unreported as the governments and law-enforcement agencies, including the legal system, openly appease the majoritarian mob. Less surprisingly, in countries such as Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Pakistan, the fringe elements act as the mainstream and inflict horrific abuses on Christians, the report said.
Christians in the worst-hit Asian countries are holed up in harsh labour camps where forced labour, torture, persecution, starvation, rape, forced abortion and sexual violence have become the order of the day.
Moreover, extrajudicial killings are staged when it suits the fringe elements and governments to enter the good books of the majoritarian mob after molding the political narrative of the country to suit violence.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was observed by the National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP), the human rights organization of Pakistan’s Archdiocese of Kara-chi. Celebrated from Jan 18-25 since 1908, this year’s unity week had a special theme of “Abide in my love… You shall bear much fruit” (John 15:17).
The role of the NCJP in the community was highlighted by Christian leaders of different denominations, lawyers and journalists.
Father Saleh Diego, director of the NCJP and vicar general of the Archdiocese of Karachi, said it was the desire of Jesus mentioned in the Bible that “they may be one,” noting that “we must keep in our minds St Paul’s words that we all are different parts of the same body and if there is a pain in any part of our body, our whole body feels it.”
“All Christians, united and bonded in Jesus’ body, must feel the pain of each other and be united. If someone cuts himself, he actually cuts himself from the Body of Christ,” he added.
Kashif Anthony, a rights activist, said the first week of unity was celebrated in the small chapel of Atonement Franciscan Convent of the Episcopal Church, located on a remote hillside outside New York City.
The dates of the week were proposed by Father Paul Watson, co-founder of the Gravmoor Franciscan Friars, keeping in mind the feast of the Confession of St Peter on Jan. 18 and concluding with the feast of the Conversion of St Paul on January 25. “We must keep in our minds and practice ecumenism in our lives in which Christians belonging to different denominations work together and develop closer relationships and promote Christian unity among their churches,” Anthony said.

At the start of this year, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith of Colombo, the outspoken leader of the Sri Lankan Church, addressed environmental issues in his archdiocese regarding Muthurajawela, a wetland 30 kilometres north of Colombo. This marsh-land is notable for its unique and highly diverse ecosystem and is listed as one of the 12 priority wetlands in Sri Lanka.
Muthurajawela, which translates as “Swamp of Royal Treasure,” has a long history of 700 years. It covers 4,390 acres and while only 700 acres are ear-marked for development, the project will have a drastic effect.
Prominent environmentalist Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thera joined the cardinal in speaking out against the Muthurajawela development project. Ven. Sagara Thera has condemn-ed almost all destructive projects in the country, castigating rulers who make promises during election campaigns but act differently once they are in power.
The monk and the cardinal conducted a joint press conference against the development of this prime land, which was cultivated until the 1950s but later abandoned due to problems with water resources.

Cardinal Joseph Coutts, the Archbishop of Karachi, has been appointed as the chairperson of a key Christian research and study centre.
He is taking charge of the Christian Study Centre in Rawalpindi, said Father Nasir William, director of the Diocesan Commission for Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
“It’s a big responsibility but since this prelate of the Catholic Church is well known for his experience and personal interest in the interfaith and ecumenical field, I would say he is the right man for the right place,” Father William told.
Founded in 1967, the Christian Study Centre aims to work for peaceful coexistence, coope-ration, better understanding and strong bonding between the Christian and Muslim communities and with people of other faiths.
Supported by both the Catholic and Protestant churches, it has been serving as an ecumenical institution for the study of Christian-Muslim relations. Christian-Muslim dialogue has been the key component of the center since its establishment.
It is also running projects related to developing Christian theology in Pakistan, interfaith harmony and peace-building and human/minority rights.