Tag: Southeast Asia

Widespread condemnation for prison sentence of Ahok

May 10, 2017 Indonesia Ahok, Blasphemy, Southeast Asia

The sentencing of Jakarta's Christian Governor to prison on blasphemy charges, focuses the spotlight again on Indonesia's controversial Blasphemy Law.

Tuesday’s verdict of an Indonesian court, sentencing Jakarta’s outgoing governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known as ‘Ahok’, to two years in prison for blasphemy, has received widespread condemnation globally as politicians, academics and rights groups express their concern about religious pluralism in Indonesia. Ahok, the capital’s first Christian and ethnic governor since the . . . Read More

Jakarta’s Christian governor reveals repeated sectarian attacks at trial testing Indonesia’s pluralism

April 5, 2017 Indonesia Ahok, Blasphemy, Indonesia, Jakarta, Nahdlatul Ulama, Southeast Asia

The Indonesian Christian governor on trial for blasphemy said yesterday (4 April) that he has been the target of racist and religious attacks since he was elected to public office in 2005. Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (better known as “Ahok”), the governor of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, also reiterated to the court . . . Read More

Islamic extremism causing fresh concerns in the Philippines

February 27, 2017 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, Islamic State, Manila, Mindanao, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Rodrigo Duterte, Seventh-day Adventists, Southeast Asia

Christians in the Philippines are concerned at a rise in Islamic extremism in the country. A local church leader, who wished to remain anonymous, told World Watch Monitor about a recent meeting of around 3,000 Islamists on one island – the name of which he wouldn’t say, for fear of . . . Read More

Vietnam’s Law on Belief and Religion ‘deeply flawed’

December 6, 2016 Vietnam Religion Law, Religious freedom, Southeast Asia

Pierre Nguyễn Văn Nhơn (centre), Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hanoi, takes part in a procession in January 2015. Vietnam’s National Assembly finally ratified (on 18 Nov.) its Law on Belief and Religion amid extensive criticism from parliamentarians, human rights and religious groups, who deem it to be . . . Read More

Malaysian bill amendment to tighten Sharia punishments alarms non-Muslims

June 3, 2016 Malaysia Brunei, Hudud, Indonesia, Islamic extremism, Kelantan, Najib Razak, PAS, Sharia, Southeast Asia, UMNO

On the last day of Malaysia’s latest session of Parliament, a member of the ruling coalition, UMNO (United Malays National Organisation), had a bill amendment approved which has provoked an outcry in the country. That’s because it aims to tighten the implementation of Sharia; and critics claim it intends to . . . Read More

Islamic extremism on rise in Philippines

April 18, 2016 Philippines Abu Sayyaf, Indonesia, Islamic State, Malaysia, Mindanao, Philippines, Southeast Asia

Islamic extremism is growing in the southern Philippines, with alarming implications for the rest of Asia, reports . For more than four decades, Islamist groups have been engaged in an insurgency for an independent province in the Mindanao island group of southern Philippines. Several have now , while one of . . . Read More

SE Asia rights groups sign religion charter

October 6, 2015 Human rights, Minorities, New York, Religious freedom, Southeast Asia

Almost 70 religious and human rights groups met with UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, last week for a conference committed to improving religious freedoms in Southeast Asia. The two-day event – the first of its kind – was co-organised by the Asian Forum for . . . Read More

Mass arrest of Thailand’s Christian asylum seekers

March 13, 2015 Asylum seekers, Bangkok, Children, Islamic extremism, Pakistan, Refugees, Southeast Asia, Thailand, UN

Thailand’s internal political pressures on its Bangkok UNHCR office has resulted in the arrest of at least 50 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers, a church leader there told World Watch Monitor. On March 7, the Chief of Pakistan’s Christian Congress wrote to the Thai Prime Minister, about arrests of those registered . . . Read More

VIDEO: Amidst hopes of Jokowi, Indonesian Christians remain concerned

January 12, 2015 Indonesia GKI Yasmin, Indonesia, Jakarta, Joko Widodo, Southeast Asia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

In Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, the number of cases of religious intolerance doubled during 2014 – to 67, according to a recent report from the Southeast Asian nation’s National Commission on Human Rights. About 30 of these cases were about the closure or vandalism of churches, . . . Read More

Laos Christians arrested for attending church

October 6, 2014 Laos Laos, Savannakhet, Southeast Asia

UPDATE: Six of the seven Christians arrested at the end of September have been released from the detention center in the village of Boukham, in the province of Savannakhet on October 3 . Pastor Sompong Supatto and six other Christians were arrested for ‘exercising religious freedom in gathering for religious worship’ . . . Read More

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