Charges of desecrating the pages of the Qurân saw three young Christian women, including two minors, placed under arrest. It was later discovered that none of the charges were true, but by then the news had spread across their Karachi neighbourhood, provoking a violent reaction by local Islamic radicals who forced some 200 Christian families living in the area to abandon their homes to save themselves.

In Pakistan the accusation of blasphe-my-even without evidence-triggers action by Muslim extremists. Thankfully, Christian clerics were able this time to intervene quickly and mediate the affair, which ended peace-fully. One of the clerics, Fr Saleh Diego, a member of the Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan (CBCP), told AsiaNews that “police released the young women, who now live at a secret location for security reasons.”

The three victims falsely accused of insulting Islam are Permisha, 16, Suneha, 15, and Sunaina, 22. The latter is married. All live in a predominantly Christian part of the Farooq-e-Azam district.

At the centre of the incident is a woman related to all three, Mrs. Khurshid Bibi, who is the grandmother of the first two and Sunaina’s mother-in-law.

In January 2019 she rented a flat to a Muslim couple, Fayaz and Samina Riaz. After three weeks, however, given the disrespectful behaviour of the couple, she asked them to leave the premises.

On 19 February, the three Christian women went to the flat owned by their relative to clean it. Since the Muslim couple had not yet moved, they asked Fayaz and Samina to take away their belongings so they could clean the rooms. At that point, Samina, by her own admission, decided to accuse the three of blasphemy.  She went outside and started screaming that the “kafirs” (infidels) had stolen a copy of the Koran and thrown it into a tub.

Her screams attract the attention of Muslims, who surround the area and attacked several Christian homes causing damages.

A Catholic bishop in the Philippines said his government’s controversial war on drugs is really a war against the country’s poor.

“There is no war against illegal drugs, because the supply is not being stopped. If they are really after illegal drugs, they would go after the big people, the manufacturers, the smugglers, the suppliers. But instead, they go after the victims of these people. So, I have come to the conclusion that this war on illegal drugs is illegal, immoral and antipoor,” said Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan. Sign up for NCR’s Copy Desk Daily, and we’ll email you recommended news and opinion articles in each weekday.

The Philippines has suffered for years from widespread drug abuse, principally shabu, a cheaply produced form of methamphetamine. President Rodrigo Duterte ran for office promising a crackdown on drug use, and since he took office in 2016, rights groups say more than 20,000 people have been killed in extrajudicial killings, mostly carried out by the country’s police.

Church leaders have grown increasingly critical of the violence. The country’s Catholic bishops conference acknowledged in a Jan. 28 pastoral message that they had been slow in responding as a “culture of violence has gradually prevailed in our land.”

The bishops spoke “of mostly poor people being brutally murdered on mere suspicion of being small-time drug users and peddlers, while the big-time smugglers and drug lords went scot-free.” While they said they had “no intention of interfering in the conduct of state affairs,” they said they had “a solemn duty to defend our flock, especially when they are attacked by wolves.”

Duterte has repeatedly slammed the church in response to its criticism, and David, who also serves as vice president of the bishops’ conference, has become the principal target of Duterte’s angry outbursts at the church.

Anti-Christian persecution in the Middle East is a major concern, said Pope Francis in Angelus before leaving for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he remained, something Chaldean Patriarch Card Louis Raphael Sako stressed as he spoke about the first papal visit to a Gulf State.

With persecution in Iraq, Syria and Yemen in his mind, the Pope will try to turn a page in ChristianMuslim relations in order to renew the journey of peace.

The 70-year-old cardinal, originally from Zakho in northern Iraq, plays a leading role in interfaith dialogue in his country.

“Pope Francis is saying that this is enough. Let us live in peace, love, tolerance and renounce violence and hatred,” Card Sako noted, adding that in the UAE, the Pope promoted Christian-Muslim outreach, trying to oppose any fanatical, violent or hateful discourse.

According to the prelate, the pontiff will raise awareness among the believers of various religions of the situation of Christians in the region and will refer to the values found in various sacred texts and scriptures, which call for human coexistence.

The Christian community in Nepal has not been spared the wrath of society’s caste based inequality, even though bottom-rung Dalits are increasingly turning to Christianity as a means to escape their fate.

Religious conversions are illegal in Nepal but the numbers suggest many consider it a risk worth taking as the “untouchables” are among the most oppressed by this complex social system, which leaves no sphere untouched. Testament to how legions of Dalits are prepared to gamble on breaking the law in search of a more dignified life, Nepal now harbours one of the fastest growing Christian populations in the world. At least 12,000 churches have been built and millions are believed to have turned to Christianity despite a 2011 census claiming Christians make up just 1.4% of the population, or several hundred thousand people. A whopping 65% of the newly converted are Dalits, according to the National Christian Federation of Nepal.

Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed said: “The Pope’s visit was a call for peace. Throughout history we see, people who make war are two types of people, politicians and religious leaders. That is why wanted to take a step towards achieving peace. Summit gathers 4,000 high-profile officials from 140 countries, heads of state “We must be responsible to put an end to our conflicts and try hard to put an end to the wars. “We may not succeed but we will most definitely try.

“Religions did not come to push people to violence. But we know it has been distorted throughout history to justify war and violence.”

He added: “The declaration that was signed during the papal visit was a call for peace.

“The UAE has decided to extend the declaration and initiate a Zayed fund for cohabitation. A fund will be dedicated to organisations making an effort to create peace and harmony among various communities. In order to promote the values of tolerance and fraternity all over the world. “We are happy that this document will be a part of our UAE school curriculum starting next year.

“We in the UAE were very proud to see 180,000 of our Catholic brothers gather for this event.

“This meeting was a message by the UAE The UAE are not only responsible to provide you with a good life but also respect your religion because it is our national duty and your right.”

About 3,000 people gathered in Myeongdong Cathedral to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the death of South Korea’s first cardinal and most respected spiritual leader.

A memorial Mass for Cardinal Stephen Kim Souhwan was celebrated by Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, bishops and priests.

A memorial ceremony included speeches by Archbishop Alfred Xuereb, apostolic nuncio to South Korea, and Archbishop Hyginus Kim Heejoong, chairman of the Catholic Bishops’  Conference of Korea. A speech by South Korean President Moon Jae-in was read by Kim Yong-sam, viceminister in the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

“This commemoratory Mass was not only just to miss him. Even in the many difficulties and challenges all of us are undergoing in everyday life, we all should try to inherit his message of love and gratitude engraved in his last words ‘Thank you, love each other,’” Cardinal Yeom said in his homily on Feb. 16.

Msgr Felix Machado is the archbishop of Vasai and president of the Office for Ecumenism and Interfaith Affairs of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences. For him, “It is not just where Catholics are that the Church must go.” The papal visit is not a waste of time. He was in Abu Dhabi from 3 to 5 February along with the pontiff for an international interfaith meeting called Human Brotherhood. This will be the first visit by a Pope to the Arabian Peninsula. The archbishop’s comments follow.

The visit of the Pope to UAE is very important. There are conservative and politicized voices which criticize Pope’s visit, saying that it is a waste of time to invest Pope’s efforts on a visit to a place where there is no native Catholic. It is not just where Catholics are that the Church must go. We must go to such places where there are no Catholics, precisely to explore the possibilities for the future.

Pakistani authorities have moved Asia Bibi, a Christian woman recently acquitted of blasphemy charges, to a new “secure area” and are barring her from leaving the country, a close friend and rights campaigner has claimed.

Bibi, who spent eight years on death row, was transferred from a location near the capital to a house in the southern port city of Karachi, her friend Aman Ullah told the Associated Press. She and her husband are locked in a single room in a house where the door opens only “at food times,” he added.

Canada has offered her asylum and she wants to join her daughters there. Pakistani authorities have said she is free to travel, but  Bibi, 54, says she is being prevented from going.

“She has no indication of when she will leave,” said Ullah, who added that Bibi was frightened and frustrated. “They are not telling her why she cannot leave.” He spoke to her by telephone, after the threats from extremists angered by his assistance to Bibi forced him to flee the country.

Ullah has been liaising with diplomats over the case, and he says they were told Bibi’s departure would only come “in the medium-term.”

Publicly, Pakistani authorities insist that Bibi is free both inside Pakistan, and to leave it. “She is living with her family and given requisite security for safety,” the information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, told the AP in an email.

He said the government was responsible for taking “all possible measures” to protect her and her family, adding that “she is a free citizen after her release from jail and can move anywhere in Pakistan or abroad.”

At least seven churches and their communities have been suppressed in recent months in the diocese of Qiqihar, whose bishop, Msgr Giuseppe Wei Jingyi is recognized by the Holy See, but not by the government. Members of the United Front, police, representatives of the Religious Affairs Bureau entered the churches while mass was being celebrated, interrupted the liturgical services, chased the faithful away, threatened them and decreed the closure of the communities. The priests were asked to leave the territory if they did not want to be forcibly expelled. The suppressed communities are all “underground,” that is unregistered. However, until now they had good relations with the local authorities. There are two curious facts: first of all the suppression began at the end of September, shortly after the signing of the agreement between China and the Vatican (22 September) and the lifting of the excommunication of the official bishop of the area, Msgr Giuseppe Yue Fushen of Harbin; secondly, it should be emphasized that Msgr Wei, despite being an underground bishop, also enjoyed good relations with the authorities. The dynamics of the suppressions reflect the implementation of the new regulations for religious activities (launched in February 2018), which provide for the elimination of the underground Church. The implementation has been ongoing since the end of September, as if the China-Vatican agreement had precipitated the times: as a sign of challenge, or of the united front’s certainty towards the Vatican.