Tag: Anti-conversion law

India: Uttarakhand becomes 7th state to pass ‘anti-conversion law’

May 2, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Arunachal Pradesh, BJP, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, India, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand

The northern state of Uttarakhand has become the seventh state in India to adopt a so-called “anti-conversion law”. State Governor Krishna Kant Paul signed the ‘Freedom of Religion Bill’ into law on 18 April, just over a month after the bill was approved by the state assembly and allowed to . . . Read More

Nepal ‘should practise what it preaches’ as UN member

May 1, 2018 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Burial, Churches, Elections, Human rights, Minorities, Nepal, Proselytism, Religious freedom, UN

As a newly elected member state of the UN Human Rights Council, Nepal must address its own commitment to the protection of human rights, including freedom of religion and belief, says Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The advocacy organisation highlighted Nepal’s decision in October to criminalise religious conversion and the “hurting of . . . Read More

India: violence against Christians in Tamil Nadu continues

April 24, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Hindu nationalism, India, Pentecostals, Tamil Nadu

Thangaraj Ramasamy sustained severe head and neck injuries in an alleged attack by his neighbour. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu continues to see outbreaks of religiously motivated violence, with one recent case involving a Christian labourer who says he was attacked by a neighbour who accused him of trying to convert Hindus. In a report filed with the police, Thangaraj Ramasamy, who became a . . . Read More

Nepal to further tighten laws on religious conversion

April 6, 2018 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Kathmandu, Nepal, Religious freedom

Nepal is set to draft new laws and amend existing legal provisions to prevent religious conversions, reports local news site myrepublica.com. Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa said that, “through Christianity”, attempts were being made to “push the country into conflict”. “A new strategy should be devised to consolidate national unity,” . . . Read More

Another Indian state set to pass anti-conversion bill

March 21, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttarakhand

The northern Indian state of Uttarakhand is the latest to approve a so-called “anti-conversion bill”, reports India’s Hindustan Times. If the legislation passes into law at the state assembly later this month Uttarakhand will join Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand in having anti-conversion laws. Rajasthan, Arunachal . . . Read More

India: Videos show Hindu nationalists attacking Christians, burning Bibles

February 22, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, RSS, Telangana

Videos have emerged of Hindu extremists abusing Christians carrying religious literature. In one of the videos the extremists are seen setting alight a pile of Bibles. The two incidents, which were verified by Christians in the area, were filmed in southern India. They both show a mob of Hindu extremists . . . Read More

Indian Christian complained of threats before he was found dead

January 23, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, Beef, BJP, Hindu nationalism, India, Jammu and Kashmir, Minorities, Narendra Modi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu

The body of Rev. Gideon Periyaswamy, 43-year-old pastor of the church of Maknayeem in Adayachery village, in India’s southern Tamil Nadu state, was found hanging from the roof of his house on 20 January. Church congregation members who discovered his body described his knees bent to the floor and his . . . Read More

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

India: Catholic college attacked after refusing to perform Hindu rites

January 5, 2018 India Anti-conversion law, BJP, Catholics, Education, Hindu nationalism, India, Madhya Pradesh, Vishva Hindu Parishad

Indian school children are taking a 'selfie'. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A large group of Hindu nationalists clashed with police on 4 January outside a Catholic college in Vidisha, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, after they tried to force the school to carry out a Hindu religious ritual. More than 900 members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, . . . Read More

India’s top Catholic on Hindutva attacks: ‘country being divided on basis of religious belief’

December 22, 2017 India Anti-conversion law, Catholics, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, India, Madhya Pradesh, Minorities, Rajasthan, Religious freedom, Tripura, Vishva Hindu Parishad

The President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, has expressed a lack of trust in the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the leader of the ruling BJP – known for pursuing a Hindu nationalistic agenda. “The country is being divided on the . . . Read More

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