An eight-year-old Hindu boy is being held in protective police custody in east Pakistan after becoming the youngest person ever to be charged with blasphemy in the country.
The boy’s family is in hiding and many of the Hindu community in the conservative district of Rahim Yar Khan, in Punjab, have fled their homes after a Muslim crowd attacked a Hindu temple after the boy’s release on bail last week. Troops were deployed to the area to quell any further unrest. On Saturday, 20 people were arrested in connection with the temple attack.
The boy is accused of intentionally urinating on a carpet in the library of a madrassa, where religious books were kept, last month. Blasphemy charges can carry the death penalty.
The Guardian knows the name of the boy and family members, but has chosen to protect their identities for their safety.
Inside China’s brutal death row with mobile injection vans & firing squads as Canadian diplomat sentenced to death
A Canadian man is set to join hundreds of shackled inmates on China’s degrading death row as they await agonising lethal injections or firing squads. Robert Schellenberg, believed to be 38, from Abbotsford, British Columbia, was detained by the Chinese authorities for drug smuggling and after a retrial he had been condemned to die. Robert Schellenberg is now on death row in China where doom-ed inmates are caged in humiliating conditions.
Hundreds of Chinese citizens are handed the death penalty each year – more than the rest of the world combinedCredit: AFP A ‘cell trustee’ removes shoes of a prisoner before she is taken away to be killedCredit: chinasmack.com
Schellenberg, who maintains his innocence, has been locked up in China since 2014, when he was accused of attempting to smuggle 225kg of methamphetamine to Australia. In December 2018 he was sentenced to 15 years but after he appealed a retrial was ordered and the Dalian intermediate people’s court instead ordered his execution.
It comes as human rights organisation Amnesty Inter-national has branded China the world’s top executioner.
Schellenberg and others facing death are sent to detention centres where they await their fate on death row in tiny overcrowded cells or in solitary confinement. According to the blog Dui Hua, those on death row wait just two months before being put to death compared to an average of 15 years in the United States.
It says the doomed prisoners are degraded by being shackled at all times by their hands and feet.
Cell trustees help them to eat and go to the toilet and strip them ready for execution after which the chains are removed and cleaned.
Firing squads and lethal injections are two favourite methods of the death penalty used by China.
China arrests leaders of Evangelical church demolished in 2018
Authorities in China have arrested leaders and members of a prominent evangelical church that was destroyed with dynamite about three years ago, sparking a global outcry.
Nine leaders and members of the Golden Lampstand Church, a house church in Linfen in Shanxi province, northern China, were arrested on August 7 in a “well-prepared and coordinated” public security operation, reported Bitter Winter, a magazine on religious liberty and human rights.
Among the detainees were Pastor Wang Xiaoguang and Evangelist Yang Rongli. Both had previously been arrested in 2009. Before it was demolished with explosives by local authorities in January 2018, the Golden Lampstand Church was a mega-church and one of the largest churches in China.
Its congregation was part of a network of 50,000 members and the church was constructed at an estimated cost of US$2.6 million, according to Bitter Winter. It was the second destruction of a church in China in one month after a Catholic church was destroyed in the neighbouring province of Shaanxi, about 20 years after it was opened, The Guardian reported.
Abducted priest, catechist released in Myanmar’s Chin state
A priest and a catechist from Hakha Diocese in Myanmar’s Chin state who were arrested by a local militia have been released following mediation by Catholic leaders.
Father Noel Hrang Tin Thang and a catechist were arrested by the Chinland Defense Force (CDF) while they were traveling from Surkhua to Hakah on July 26. They are from the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary Parish in Surkhua. They were released on Aug. 4 evening following the intervention of church leaders, according to local sources. “The pair were in good health as they were treated well during nine days of detention. They returned to their parish yesterday evening,” a church social worker from Hakha told. He said the release followed agreeing to the demands of the CDF, which included transferring the priest from Surkhua to Hakha to avoid contact with the military and an agreement not to undertake government projects.
Catholic religious to move India’s Supreme Court over tax order
Catholic religious congregations in Kerala are to challenge a state court’s order which withdrew tax exemption that religious priests and nuns enjoyed as employees of government-aided educational institutions for decades. The court in the southern Indian state refused to accept their argument that they do not take their salaries for their personal use but instead they go to their respective religious societies.
“We have now decided to appeal against the order before the Supreme Court of India,” said Father Jacobi Sebastian, president of the Kerala Conference of Major Superiors.
Father Sebastian, a member of the Oblates of St. Joseph, told on Aug. 9 that they are also planning a larger meeting of church officials, major superiors and financial consultors on August 16 to chart the next steps.
The court quoted the Bible to say “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
“We are reminded of the above teachings of Jesus Christ … while we consider an engrossing question on the liability of tax deduction at source from the salary paid to teachers who are nuns or priests of the religious congregations,” the court said.
The legal clash began in 2014 after the federal Income Tax Department ordered an end to tax exemption given to the Catholic religious priests and nuns since 1944. It asked the government treasury to deduct tax before paying salaries.
Three priests and a nun challenged the order soon after it was issued. A single bench of Kerala High Court dismissed their demand for exemption and upheld the Income Tax Department’s order.
The petitioners appealed before a higher bench of the court along with 49 others, but the court dismissed their demand on July 13.
The lawyers of the petitioners also quoted from the Church’s canon law to say that people who take “a perpetual vow of poverty” undergo a civil death and thereafter they are not considered persons under the Church’s laws.
Card Gracias: Tribal groups suffer ‘injustice and exploitation’ around the world
In his morning Mass online, the Archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai) – and is also president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) – spoke about his participation two years ago in the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region, enjoined by Pope Francis.
On that occasion, the cardinal realised that “challenges faced by Indigenous people in South America were similar to the challenges faced by Tribals in India.”
Card Gracias also spoke about Fr Stan Swamy, who gave his life for indigenous tribes in India, and mentioned the many men and women religious who work among the Adivasis.
“We are present in Bihar, Chotanagpur and Raighad, to give them hope, education,
dignity and a future,” the prelate said. “But tribes around the world suffer injustice and exploitation.”
For the past three days, the CBCI has been holding webinars to mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, noted Father Nicholas Baria, executive secretary of the CBCI Tribal Affairs Committee.
On paper, the clergyman acknowledges that “The Constitution guarantees the rights of tribal people; in practice, how-ever, their land rights are not recognised” by the authorities.
Bishop inaugurates first Jesuit residence in Indian state
Jesuits in India have opened their first residence in the north-eastern state of Tripura.
The Arrupe Inn in Jamtalibari was inaugurated in the presence of faithful by Bishop Lumen Monteiro of Agartala on July 31, the feast day of Jesuit founder Ignatius of Loyola.
“We welcome them to our diocese and wish them our prayers and support as they enter into new ministries. They will be engaged in social, pastoral and education fields in the diocese,” Bishop Monteiro told.
In 2018, two Jesuit missionaries, Babu Paul and James Morias, came to Jamtalibari from the southern state of Kerala.
“As we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius, it is an important occasion for Jesuits to refocus on their life and mission,” said Father Irudaya Jyothi, who was part of a Right to Food campaign in West Bengal state before he joined the mission in Tripura.
“The Arrupe Inn is dedicated in a special way to the implementation of the universal apostolic preferences of the Society of Jesus.”
Priest’s all-India journey to promote peaceful, green world
Throughout his career as the principal of Sacred Heart College, in Kochi’s Thevara suburb, since 2010, he was known to use a bicycle to travel short distances, trying to inculcate a sense of ecological responsibility among his students and the general public. In fact, he has been known among people in Thevara as the “padiri” who rides his bicycle.
He has also been part of green activities in the southern Indian city of Kochi, promoting organic agriculture, garden-ing and creating concern for nature in young generation.
The 56-year-old member of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate retired from his academic career earlier this year. He will now undertake a tour of India on his favorite motorbike. He said he was not using a car since it consumed too much fuel. “Using a motorbike is better, because it was lighter on the environment,” he said as he prepared to set out on the Trust-Green-Peace journey from August 10.
Father Palakkappilly was instrumental in acquiring about four acres of paddy fields in Arayankavu, near Kochi, under the aegis of the Sacred Heart College, as a center for biodiversity where students could be introduced to the basics of nature.
He said he was a “sanyasi” who would be available for any duty to be performed on the orders of his superiors.
The solo bike ride will be flagged off from Thevara and will reach Kottayam on the same day. He will cover Kashmir and Kolkata, Kutch and Konkan as the journey progresses over a period of two months.
Churches in north-eastern India pledge to fight human trafficking
Representatives of various Christian denominations in north-eastern India on July 30 pledged to fight human trafficking in the region.
“Human trafficking is a serious concern all over the world. It is a sad truth that the northeast region has become the hub of cross-border human trafficking,” said Reverend Roger Gaikward, the former president of the National Council of Churches in India and present presbyter at Christ Church, Guwahati.
He was addressing an online meeting to mark the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. It was convened by the United Christian Forum of North East India, an ecumenical organisation.
Moderating the webinar, Reverend Gaikward said, “Listening to victims’ voices will lead the way to helping the region out of this sad reality.”
Among those present were representatives of Presbyterians, Baptists, Evangelicals, Church of North India and Catholics.
Reverend Gaikward points out that northeastern India’s proximity with international borders makes it easy for the human traffickers.
Many trafficked victims never see their homes again. More than 80 percent of them are pushed to flesh trade. Lack of education and awareness on the issue and poverty make the northeastern Indian youth soft targets, Reverend Gaikward added.
Movie titles referring to Jesus spark anger in India
A Muslim filmmaker’s two new movies with references to Jesus in their titles have taken a communal turn in southern India’s Kerala state, with a section of Christians viewing them as part of a larger plan to belittle Christ and Christians. Director Nadirsha began to face opposition after he announced his movie Eesho (Not from the Bible). Eesho and Yeshu stand for Jesus in the state’s Malayalam language. “We will not let this movie be screened anywhere in Kerala,” said politician P.C. George in a video post on Aug. 5, projecting it as part of a “well-orchestrated and deep-rooted conspiracy to malign Christianity.”