Indian archbishop demands investigation into rotten rice

Rome Newsroom, Mar 10, 2021 / 08:06 am (CNA).- A religious sister in northern Burma knelt before police on Monday, begging them not to use violence against protesters.

In a video, Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis Xavi… […]

Colombo, Sri Lanka, Apr 21, 2019 / 01:45 am (CNA).- At least 100 people were killed in explosions Easter morning, detonated in churches and hotels across Sri Lanka. Hundreds more are reportedly injured.

At 8:45 a.m., explosions were detonated during Easter Mass at churches in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, and in Negombo, a city 20 miles to its north. At the same time, a bomb exploded at a service at the evangelical Zion Church in Batticaolo, on Sri Lanka’s east coast.

 St. Anthony’s Shrine was the Catholic church targeted in Colombo, and St. Sebastian’s is the Catholic parish in Negombo.

Pews were shattered by the blast at St. Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo, and floors and ceilings were covered in blood. The shrine is the most well-known Church in Sri Lanka, and is designated the country’s national shrine. The first chapel on the Church property was built during Sri Lanka’s Dutch colonial period, when Catholicism was mostly forbidden on the island.

There were also explosions Sunday morning at three luxury hotels in Colombo.

Sri Lanka’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, called on Sri Lankans to remain “united and strong” in the face of “cowardly attacks on our people today.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In recent weeks, there has been concern that Sri Lankans who had been part of the Islamic State could become a threat, as they have begun returning to the country from the Middle East, according to the BBC.

The country has been plagued with periodic violence since its 26-year civil war concluded in 2009.  

Sri Lanka is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal; its population is more than 21 million. More than 70% of Sri Lankans are Buddhists, roughly 13% are Hindus, almost 10% are Muslims, and fewer than 8% are Christians. There are 1.5 million Catholics in the country, constituting the overwhelming majority of the Sri Lanka’s Christians.

In a January 2015 visit to the country, Pope Francis urged peace and reconciliation among the country’s rival factions.

“In this difficult effort to forgive and find peace, Mary is always here to encourage us, to guide us, to lead us,” the pope said Jan. 14, 2015, at the Our Lady of Madhu shrine in Sri Lanka’s Mannar district.

“Just as she forgave her son’s killers at the foot of his cross, then held his lifeless body in her hands, so now she wants to guide Sri Lankans to greater reconciliation, so that the balm of God’s pardon and mercy may bring true healing to all.”

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Jakarta, Indonesia, Jan 25, 2019 / 12:00 am (CNA).- An Indonesian Christian, the former governor of Jakarta was released from jail on Thursday completing a two-year long sentence for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, a Chinese Christian, was Jakarta’s governor from 2014 to 2017. He was sentenced to prison that year, after being convicted of blasphemy after he charged that his opponents in his reelection race misused a Quranic verse about Muslims being ruled by non-Muslims.  

A video of his comments with inaccurate subtitles was later released. Hundreds of Muslim protestors gathered outside the court and called for his imprisonment.

Similar demonstrations of 150,000 people had twice occurred against the governor. The protests were largely supported by the Islamic Defenders Front, a group that has previously been involved with violence against Christians and Shia Muslim groups.

“He’s back. My dad’s a free man! Thank you everyone for the support,” his son, Nicholas Sean wrote on Instagram, after Purnama’s release.

Human Rights Watch reported on Jan. 23 that Purnama’s case has highlighted the decline of the country’s freedom of speech and religious tolerance. Violation of a 1965 blasphemy law, which can lead to a jail sentence of up to five years, has been used to punish religious minorities in the predominantly Muslim country, the NGO said.

“[Purnama’s] unjust conviction is a reminder that minorities in Indonesia are at risk so long as the abusive blasphemy law remains in place,” said Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch.

Before his release, Purnama issued a letter on Instagram apologizing for any distress his comments may have caused. According to Bloomberg, in the letter, he thanked God for his prison sentence as a time to reflect on his future in politics.

“I am very grateful to God, the creator of heaven and earth, for being imprisoned. If I were re-elected in the gubernatorial election, I would have been a man who controlled the City Hall, but in here I learned to control myself forever,” he said.

Reuters reported that the former governor said he will not pursue politics at this time. Rather, Purnama said he is thinking about running a talk show and his family oil business.

Blasphemy laws can carry serious penalties in countries around the world. In Sudan and Saudi Arabia, corporal punishment, such as whipping, can be the punishment for violating blasphemy laws. In Russia and Kazakhstan, correctional labor has been prescribed as punishment for blasphemy.

A USCIRF study found in 2017 that Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Qatar, and Egypt have some of the world’s most severe blasphemy laws.

Asia Bibi, a Catholic mother-of-five, was acquitted in 2018 of a blasphemy conviction eight years after she was initially sentenced to death in Pakistan. The country has never officially carried out an execution under the blasphemy law, but accusations alone have inspired mob and vigilante violence.

“Blasphemy laws are a way for governments to deny their citizens – and particularly those of minority religions – the basic human rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression,” Dr. Tenzin Dorjee, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, said in a statement last October.

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