Tag: Elections

An old story under India’s new government

September 7, 2014 India BJP, Converts, Elections, Hindu nationalism, Narendra Modi, Seventh-day Adventists, Uttar Pradesh

The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is the political home to India’s Hindu nationalist movement. Following rallies such as this one in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, in May, the BJP rolled to landslide victories in national parliamentary elections.Narendra Modi / Flickr / Creative Commons More than 600 attacks on minority . . . Read More

Two Finnish Christian aid workers killed in Afghanistan

July 25, 2014 Afghanistan Afghanistan, Badakhshan, Elections, Hamid Karzai, Herat, Kabul, Ramadan, Takhar, Taliban

Two Finnish women working for a Christian aid charity have been killed by gunmen in Herat, Afghanistan; both had worked in Afghanistan for 16 years, having arrived there together in March 1997. Two men, travelling by motorcycle, shot two women, who worked for the International Assistance Mission, IAM – while . . . Read More

Vigilante group formed in Bangladesh to stop Christian activities

November 29, 2013 Bangladesh Awami League, Bangladesh, Churches, Converts, Elections, Islamic extremism, Minorities, Sunni, Tangail

A vigilante committee has been formed in central Bangladesh to stop Christian activities in the local community, two months after the construction of a local church was halted. The committee is made up of political leaders, Muslim elders and an elected local government official. In September, the government official ordered . . . Read More

Maldives elections unlikely to improve religious freedom

September 6, 2013 Maldives Abdulla Yameen, Elections, Islamic extremism, Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, Quran, Religious freedom

Known for its golden sands and crystal waters, the Maldives is perhaps not the first country that springs to mind when one considers locations lacking in religious freedom. However, for more than 10 years the island chain in the Indian Ocean, south-west of Sri Lanka, has been in the top . . . Read More

Rouhani victory ‘not free nor fair’

June 19, 2013 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Elections, Hassan Rouhani, Iran, Tehran

Iran’s elections were neither free nor fair, according to Mansour Osanloo, former President of the Tehran Bus Driver’s Union, writing for the New York Times. Hassan Rouhani won the June 15 election, but the real power, Osanloo said, still lies with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran convicts six Christian converts

June 19, 2013 Iran Elections, Hassan Rouhani, Shiraz

Six Iranian converts to Christianity were convicted of crimes related to their membership in a house church, a news service has reported. Mohabat News, which reports on news of Christians inside Iran, published a report on Sunday (June 16) claiming that four men, a woman and her teen-aged son were convicted . . . Read More

Iranians vote for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s successor

June 14, 2013 Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, Elections, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second term as President of Iran is coming to an end. The Iranian constitution doesn’t allow him to run again for President, so one thing is certain: on August 3, another man will be inaugurated as the new President. Four years on from the contentious elections of . . . Read More

Christians watchful as Sharif returns to power

June 6, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Elections, Gojra, Jamaat-e-Islami, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League, PTI, Taliban

Pakistan’s Christians appear to have thrown some of their political support to Nawaz Sharif in the May 11 national election, even as they have reason to be wary of his return to power. Sharif’s party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PMLN, won 124 of the 272 directly elected seats in the . . . Read More

Pakistani Christians find unlikely ally

May 10, 2013 Pakistan Blasphemy, Elections, Joseph Colony, Lahore

Ahead of Saturday’s elections, the BBC reports on an unlikely development in Pakistan.

Malaysians dispute election result

May 9, 2013 Malaysia Elections, Malaysia, Najib Razak

Protestors lined the streets in Malaysia yesterday to rally against perceived vote rigging in Sunday’s election, through which Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition retained power. BN won 133 of the 222 parliamentary seats on Sunday, which represented the coalition’s worst result in its 56-year tenure since independence.

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