South Asia

Articles

• Bangladesh: The world mustn’t misinterpret a country’s fight for its syncretic soul
  16 March 2013, by siawi3

  What detractors fail to understand is that the country, after sending a powerful army back to the barracks through a popular uprising in 1989, is trying its best to get back to its founding principles—the syncretic secular values of the Bengali culture.

• Pakistan: Statement by Forum for Secular Pakistan re Attack on Christians in Badami Bagh, Lahore
  15 March 2013, by siawi3

  Believing that we are witnessing the bitter fruit of decades of State and external sponsorship and promotion of the Jihadi groups, as well as the more recent appeasement policy towards the Taliban groups, the Forum calls for an immediate separation of religion from politics.

• India: Citizens for Justice and Peace, Mumbai condemns the attack on Hindus in Bangladesh and Christians in Pakistan
  15 March 2013, by siawi3

  The Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), Mumbai condemns the attack on innocent Hindus in Bangladesh over the past week and Christians in Pakistan yesterday by a angry mob of 7,000 and more.
  It is long overdue that the demands of human rights activists from all countries in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal. Afganistan, Srilanka, Burma and Bhutan are met and a South Asian Commisison/Authority for Human Rights Protection is established that looks into all instances of cross border human rights violations, atrocities against women and children and traffking, caste atroctries and attacks on identities, ethnicities and religious minorities. CJP has been part of efforts to set up this kind of mechanism for over a decade.

• Pakistan: Joint Action Committee for People’s Rights Statement Against Christian Persecution in Lahore and Call for Protest Rally
  15 March 2013, by siawi3

  It further confirms the slide of society towards extremism on the one hand and the apathy and inaction of state institutions and law enforcement agencies on the other hand.

• Bangladesh: Playing ball with the Jamaat
  16 March 2013, by siawi3

  The Jamaat’s worldview is antithetical to the kind of nation Bangladeshis have repeatedly wanted to build Many members of the Jamaat opposed the creation of Bangladesh, and for some time, the party was banned in that country. At the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal, set up to try those accused of crimes committed during the nation’s liberation war in 1971, nine of the 12 men accused of crimes against humanity and genocide, belong to the Jamaat. Some have held ministerial appointments as alliance partners in the previous government of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia.

• Pakistan: Declaration of secularism: ‘The conscientious should not fall prey to forces of obscurantism’
  9 March 2013, by siawi3

  Members of civil society, including the literati, writers, lawyers, seasoned politicians and social activists, announced they will establish a platform where secular thoughts would be encouraged and be allowed to flourish.
  “It is the need of the hour to flourish secular thoughts in the country. The bloodshed in the country is outcome of their absence,” “In our society, the word is synonymous with ‘kufr’ but we need to realise that religious extremism and sectarianism can only be overcome through secularism.”

• Indian Bishop supported Chavez
  8 March 2013, by siawi3

  New Delhi Faridabad bishop Bharanikulangara was No. 2 at Vatican mission in Caracas during 2002 coup bid. He said he supported Chavez because he could see similarities between his policies and those in his home state Kerala. “I was impressed by his programmes. As a diplomat, I was representing the Holy See but I adored Chavez. The Communist government came to power in Kerala in 1957. So, what Venezuela was witnessing then was what we had already experienced in the 1960s.”

• Pakistan: No democracy without secularism
  9 March 2013, by siawi3

  The future of a stable, prosperous Pakistan depended on democracy. Pakistan, he said, direly needed democracy and for that in turn, it was imperative that Pakistan have secularism because secularism ensured equality regardless of religious affiliations and equality was the essence of prosperity. When there is no secularism and a religious group or sect gets precedence over another or when a group is relegated because it is not the favoured sect, inequality and hence a feeling of discontent arises which in turn breeds disruptive nationalism.

• Pakistan : La jeune fille et les talibans
  8 mars 2013, par siawi3

  « Alors que les pères, au Pakistan, sont traditionnellement respectés en raison de leurs fils, explique-t-il, moi je suis un père féministe ! »
  « Ils ont tiré, Malala est tombée mais le Pakistan s’est levé ! » martèle son père. Il cite une philosophe soufie, Rabbia, puis un poète pashtoun. Il cite ce Pakistan que personne ne sait ni ne veut plus connaître, la grande aile noire talibane ayant tout recouvert, autant dans les rues que dans les medias.

• Pakistan: D E C L A R A T I O N of The Forum for Secular Pakistan.
  9 March 2013, by siawi3

  We, the undersigned, firmly believe that Pakistan cannot come out of its present turmoil unless its society and polity are organized on genuine democratic and secular values.
  Quotes from Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan:
  “….. The new state (Pakistan) would be a modern democratic state with sovereignty resting in the people and the members of the new nation having equal rights of citizenship regardless of their religion, caste or creed”. founder of the state of pakistan: “….. The new state (Pakistan) would be a modern democratic state with sovereignty resting in the people and the members of the new nation having equal rights of citizenship regardless of their religion, caste or creed”. “…You may belong to any religion or caste or creed – that has nothing to do with the business of the state..We are starting in the days when there is no discrimination between one caste or creed or another. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state….Now I think that you should keep that in front of us as our ideal, and you will find that in course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus and Muslims would cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense, because that is the personal faith of each individual but in the political sense as citizens of the state”.

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