Tag: Nepal

Nepali Christians freed 9 months after conviction for ‘witchcraft’ of praying for mentally ill woman

September 26, 2017 Nepal Charikot, Converts, Minorities, Nepal, Proselytism, Salyan

Four Nepali Christians sentenced last year to five years in prison for “violence and witchcraft”, after praying for a mentally ill woman, have been released after their sentences were overturned. In a statement, the Federation of National Christian, Nepal (FNCN) thanked the court for “setting free our innocent people”, and . . . Read More

Nepal criminalises conversions and ‘hurting religious sentiment’

August 22, 2017 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Blasphemy, Charikot, Converts, Hindu nationalism, India, Nepal, Proselytism

As Nepal prepares for its first election following the introduction of a new Constitution two years ago, its parliament has passed a Bill criminalising religious conversion and the “hurting of religious sentiment”, as Christian Solidary Worldwide (CSW) reports. Nepal’s Christian minority fears that, once presidential approval is given, the new . . . Read More

Nepal: Christian worker shot at Easter says he’s still fearful

July 14, 2017 Nepal Catholics, Hindu Morcha Nepal, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

Three months ago, on 16 April, Christian worker Santosh Khadka was shot in Kathmandu while he was returning home from an Easter service. Police have not been able to identify the attackers, but local Christians say Khadka was targeted because of his religious-freedom work, as some groups in this young democracy . . . Read More

Nepal’s Christians have to trek into mountains to bury their dead

March 23, 2017 Nepal Burial, Hindu nationalism, Kathmandu, Nepal

One way in which the freedom of religion or belief in a country can be measured is whether minorities are permitted to carry out their own rituals during key ‘rites of passage’ such as birth, marriage and death. One of the world’s fastest-growing Christian communities is that in Nepal. Between the censuses . . . Read More

Isolated, female and vulnerable to abuse: Christian nannies in the Gulf

March 8, 2017 India, Nepal, Philippines, Trauma, Women

Locked up in the palaces of rich families, abused and treated as slaves by their “owners”, sexually exploited, or almost starved to death. Such is the plight of many foreign Christian nannies and housemaids from Asian countries working for families in the Arabian Peninsula – and almost nobody knows about . . . 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

Nepali church leaders found guilty of ‘witchcraft’ and ‘violence’ for helping mentally ill woman

December 22, 2016 Nepal Charikot, Hindu nationalism, Minorities, Nepal, Proselytism, Salyan, Trauma

A Nepali court has found four Christians guilty of ‘violence’ and ‘witchcraft’ against a severely mentally ill woman whom they sought to heal, even though she testified in court in their favour, saying she was now better. The four are sentenced to five years in prison. A fifth Christian, Rupa . . . Read More

Nepal: amending conversion law ‘not enough’

May 17, 2016 Nepal Anti-conversion law, Converts, Hindu nationalism, Nepal

In Nepal, a campaign to reduce official penalties for religious conversion doesn’t go far enough, . Father Silas Bogati, vicar general of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal, criticised a campaign that last week delivered 40,000 letters from the public asking Parliament to reduce penalties for converting someone from another religion. . . . Read More

Churches bombed as Nepal stays secular

September 15, 2015 Nepal Converts, Hindu Morcha Nepal, Hindu nationalism, Jhapa, Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal

Nepal’s Constituent Assembly rejected calls to revert the country to a Hindu state on Monday (14 Sep.), sparking violent protests, reports AP. Bombs went off at two churches in Nepal’s easternmost Jhapa district late on 14 Sep. The churches suffered structural damage, but nobody was hurt, according to The Kathmandu . . . Read More

Nepal on verge of curbing religious freedom

August 26, 2015 Nepal Converts, Hindu nationalism, Hindutva, Kathmandu, Maoists, Nepal, Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal, Religious freedom

The final draft of a new constitution was tabled in Nepal’s Constituent Assembly on 22 August amid protests by Hindu nationalists on the streets. They oppose the idea of secularism, which in the South Asian context simply means pluralism and equal treatment of all religions. It now needs approval by . . . Read More

Catching Our Eye