Tag: Asia

Religious freedom violations in Asia increasing – UN rapporteur

August 24, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Ahmed Shaheed, Asia, Hindu nationalism, Human rights, India, Islamic State, Maldives, Minorities, Religious freedom, Southeast Asia

Pakistani Christians experience an increase in violence such as a suicide attack on the Bethel Methodist Church in Quetta in December last year that killed more than ten and injured dozens of people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Religious freedom in Asia is “eroding”, with an increase in religious fundamentalism across much of the continent, according to the UN’s religious freedom rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed. Shaheed spoke during an event, hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Club in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, on the back of the 4th Southeast Asia Freedom of Religion or Belief Conference. “Freedom . . . Read More

New book rejects Western view that Christians ‘cannot be victims’

April 16, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Asia, Censorship, Human rights, Middle East

The author of a new book about the persecution of Christians says she wants to “shed light” on the issue because it has become ingrained in Western thinking that “the Christian is not a victim because, historically, he has been an executioner”. Spanish journalist and politician Pilar Rahola told Christian . . . Read More

Nationalism in Asia, Islamic extremism in Africa – the 2017 World Watch List

January 11, 2017 Global News -- No Particular Country Afghanistan, Africa, Asia, Bhutan, BJP, Ethiopia, Hindu nationalism, India, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Kenya, Libya, Narendra Modi, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Yemen

One of the greatest increases in animosity towards Christians last year took place in India as a result of religiously motivated nationalism, according to the latest annual survey of the 50 countries in which it is most difficult to live as a Christian. Since the rise to power of Narendra . . . Read More

2014: A year of rising hostility toward Christians

January 7, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Al-Qaeda, Al-Shabaab, Asia, Boko Haram, Buddhist nationalism, Central African Republic, China, Communism, Converts, East Africa, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Latin America, Malaysia, Mexico, Middle Belt, Middle East, Narendra Modi, Nigeria, North Korea, Religious freedom, Sri Lanka, Sub-Saharan Africa, Syria

While the world’s eyes were riveted to Syria and Iraq in 2014, life for Christians worsened even more profoundly in Africa, according to an annual report on religious freedom. The situation deteriorated most rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa, in countries where Islamic extremism is the main source of pressure upon Christians, . . . Read More

Book review: ‘The Global War on Christians’

November 19, 2013 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Asia, Buddhist nationalism, Burundi, Colombia, Eastern Europe, Eritrea, Hindu nationalism, Islamic extremism, Kenya, Latin America, Middle East, Organised crime, Philippines

It has been an astonishing last 12 months for books on the persecution of Christians when there has been such silence on the issue for so long. First came ‘Christianophobia: A Faith Under Attack’ in late 2012; then the more simply titled, ‘Persecuted: the Global Assault on Christians’ in March . . . Read More

From Africa to Asia, offended Muslims vent anger on Christian churches

September 26, 2012 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Algeria, Asia, Bauchi, Benghazi, Boko Haram, Cairo, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Mardan, Mosul, Nigeria, Pakistan, Prophet Muhammad, Zinder

Across much of the Muslim world, more than two weeks of backlash to the internet video “Innocence of the Muslims” has occasionally been directed at Christians, from computer hacks to church burnings. It can be difficult to sort deliberate acts of persecution from simple undirected anger sparked by the video, . . . Read More

Pope Benedict urges peace as radical Islamists target Western interests

September 14, 2012 Andrea Zaki, Asia, Benghazi, Copts, Egypt, Libya, Middle East, USA

Pope Benedict started a visit to Lebanon in the Middle East on Friday, as angry demonstrations and attacks on Western interests continued to spread across the region and into Asia. They came in the wake of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya’s second city, which killed American . . . Read More

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