- Thursday, April 25, 2024
While Hindu devotees inaugurated a grand temple in Ayodhya dedicated to one of their holiest deities on Monday (22), India's minority Muslims are planning to start the construction of a new mosque in the same city later this year. This initiative is seen as an attempt to create a new…
SUICIDE bombings ripped through two mosques in Pakistan on Friday (29), killing at least 57 people, including seven children, as believers marked the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, police and health officials said. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, from which the death toll could climb, with many…
A DUTCH court sentenced a Pakistani former cricketer to 12 years in prison on Monday (11) after he was tried in absentia for urging people to murder Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders. The court ruled that statements by 37-year-old Khalid Latif should be regarded as incitement to murder, sedition and…
PAKISTAN'S blasphemy law has come under a spotlight after a Muslim mob burnt churches and houses in a Christian settlement in the east of the country, accusing two of its members of desecrating the Quran. Authorities have arrested more than 100 people in connection with the attacks in Jaranwala of…
Anti-Islam activists in Denmark and Sweden have recently engaged in the burning and damaging of multiple copies of the Qu’ran, sparking outrage within the Muslim world and prompting calls for these Nordic nations to prohibit such actions. Both governments have expressed condemnation for these burnings and are contemplating the enactment…
Pakistan police reported on Tuesday (18) that a Chinese national working on a hydropower project in the Kohistan district has denied allegations of blasphemy made by his colleagues, who claimed he had insulted the Prophet Mohammad on Sunday (16). Blasphemy is a capital offense in Pakistan, and while no one…
Taliban on Sunday said that it is ready for engagement with the international community, but if "they are against Islam, are not acceptable." "We just follow Allah, Prophet Mohammad, the Caliph of Rashidun and Companions in implementation of our law. We don't accept anything from anyone which is against Islam,"…
THE Supreme Court on Tuesday (19) granted protection to suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma from arrest in multiple FIRs. The SC was hearing a plea moved by her seeking a stay on her possible arrest and clubbing nine cases filed against her across India in alleged hate…
After his derogatory remarks on Hindu gods and beliefs, the son of Ajmer Sharif Dargah Khadim Sayed Sarwar Chishti's son, Syed Aadil Chishti, issued an apology stating that he didn't intend to hurt anyone's religious belief or sentiments. In a video, Syed Aadil Chishti is seen apologising for his remarks…
The gruesome murder of a Hindu shopkeeper, Kanhaiya Lal, by two men in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district on Tuesday sent a shockwave across India. If reports are to be believed, the shopkeeper was beheaded over a social media post that he had shared in support of BJP leader Nupur Sharma, who…
China on Monday waded into the furore over the controversial remarks by two now-suspended BJP functionaries against Prophet Mohammad, expressing the hope that the incident can be properly managed. China, which faces serious allegations of a mass crackdown on Uygur Muslims in the volatile Xinjiang province, said it believes that…
INDIA has always set an example of truth, non-violence and brotherhood before the world and hate and unrest "is not our way", former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi said amid reports of violence during protests at various places against controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad. Protests erupted in several parts of the…
Protests broke out in some states on Friday including outside Delhi's Jama Masjid over the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad by two now-suspended BJP functionaries with demonstrators in Jharkhand injuring a few policemen while authorities in Jammu imposed a curfew in a few areas and parts of Kashmir observed a…
Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad made by ousted BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma, has not made any impact on the ruling NDA at the Centre as she was not a government functionary and asserted good relations will continue with the Gulf countries that…
"Divided internally, India becomes weak externally. BJP's shameful bigotry has not only isolated us, but also damaged India's standing globally," Gandhi wrote on Twitter. His remarks came in the wake of international outrage over controversial remarks made by two BJP functionaries against Prophet Mohammad, after which they were suspended and…
PAKISTAN is to free more than 2,000 jailed activists of a banned Islamist militant group and allow the movement to contest elections, under a deal with the government struck to end weeks of violent clashes, negotiators on both sides said. In return, the Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan has agreed to shun the…
A HARDLINE Islamist group of Pakistan has called off a protest march to Islamabad after reaching a deal with the government, ending two weeks of clashes that left at least seven policemen dead and scores injured on both sides. The Tehrik-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) began the march calling for the release…
DOZENS of people attacked a Hindu temple in central Pakistan over blasphemy allegations, police said Thursday (5), in the latest incident of religious-fueled violence targeting a minority group in the Islamic republic.Police said the mob attacked the temple in Rahim Yar Khan in Punjab province Wednesday (4) afternoon following the…
PAKISTANI police have arrested 36 men on charges of attacking a police station in a bid to lynch two brothers held in custody for allegedly desecrating a mosque, officials said. A mob broke into the police station on the outskirts of capital Islamabad on Monday (17), resulting in hours of…
THOUSANDS of Shiite Muslim devotees –- many not wearing masks -- gathered in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore for a religious procession on Tuesday (4), fanning fears about the spread of the coronavirus after similar crowds were blamed in neighbouring India for its own surge. The federal government had issued…
PAKISTAN restored Facebook, Twitter and several other social media apps on Friday (16) after blocking them for about five hours on security grounds amid a crackdown against a violent Islamist group, officials said. "In order to maintain public order and safety, access to certain social media applications has been restricted…
FRANCE has advised French citizens to temporarily leave Pakistan and warned of serious threats to French interests in the country, two diplomatic sources said on Thursday (15), after violent clashes there this week. Thousands of Pakistani Islamists had clashed with police earlier this week in protest against the arrest of…
Tens of thousands of Muslims protested in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Palestinian territories on Friday (30) after killings in a French church prompted a vow from president Emmanuel Macron to stand firm against attacks on French values and freedom of belief. French interior minister Gerald Damarnin said France - home to…
A mandatory mask order came into force in Pakistani cities on Thursday (29) in a bid to prevent a second wave of coronavirus cases in the impoverished country as winter approaches. For months Pakistan appeared to have dodged the worst of the pandemic, baffling health experts after fears its crowded…
FRENCH satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, the target of a jihadist attack in 2015, has said that its latest edition reprinting controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed had sold out in just one day. Wednesday's (2) issue featured a dozen cartoons mocking the prophet of Islam, including images that sparked huge…
United Nations human rights experts called on Pakistan's high court on Friday (27) to clear liberal academic Junaid Hafeez of blasphemy charges and overturn his death sentence. In a joint statement, they described Hafeez's condemnation by a lower court last week as a "travesty of justice" and said senior judges…
A CROWD in Pakistan ransacked a school and Hindu temple after a Hindu principal was accused of blasphemy, police said on Monday (16), the latest case to raise concern about the fate of religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim country. The violence erupted in the southern province of Sindh after…
INDIA'S Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday (16) to consider a petition from a Muslim couple to allow women into mosques, seeking to overturn a centuries-old practice that largely bars women from the places of worship. Women are not allowed inside most mosques in India although a few have separate entrances for women to…
A Pakistani Christian woman has been freed from prison a week after the Supreme Court overturned her conviction and death sentence for blasphemy against Islam, and she is now at a secure location for fear of attacks on her, officials said on Thursday. The release of Asia Bibi, a mother of…
From cutting power subsidies to forcing currency devaluations that stoke inflation, the hard choices facing Pakistan as it seeks a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pose a major headache for populist new prime minister Imran Khan. Pakistani officials met IMF representatives this week in Bali and formally requested…
Pakistan's new government cancelled the appointment of a renowned Princeton economist to its Economic Advisory Council, an official said on Friday (7), after a strong backlash against the choice of a member of the Ahmadi religious minority. The failure of prime minister Imran Khan's government to resist pressure to drop…
Controversial anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders on late Thursday (30) said he was cancelling plans to stage a Prophet Mohammad cartoon competition, a scheme that had angered many Muslims, particularly in Pakistan. The Dutch politician's announcement came after he said he had received several death threats. A man was arrested by police two days earlier on suspicion of…
MORE than 35,000 people from 100 countries gathered in the town of Alton, Hampshire to take part in the largest Islamic convention in the UK. The Ahmadiyya Muslim community hosted its three-day Jalsa Salana (annual gathering) at their UK base, the Hadeeqatul Mahdi,,a 200-acre farm in Alton, last weekend (Friday-Sunday,…
Pakistan’s television regulator on Thursday (26) banned a well-known talk show host for hate speech, after he hosted shows accusing liberal activists and others of blasphemy, an inflammatory allegation that could put their lives at risk. Blasphemy is a criminal offence in Muslim-majority Pakistan that can result in the death…
Families and supporters of five missing Pakistani activists on Wednesday (18) denounced what they called a campaign to accuse the men of blasphemy, a highly charged allegation that could endanger their lives were they to reappear. The accusations, made online and in a complaint to police, have unsettled Pakistan’s small…