http://www.religionnewsblog.com Religion news about religious cults, sects, world religions, and related issues Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:13:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24081/muslim-mob-storms-pakistan-church-65-injured http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24081/muslim-mob-storms-pakistan-church-65-injured#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:07:33 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24081 Protestant Christians in Pakistan's Punjab province were searching for a place of worship Wednesday, February 3, after angry Muslims apparently attacked their partly constructed church, injuring scores of worshippers.

Christians are a minority in Islamic Pakistan and rights investigators say there has been an increase in anti-Christian violence, with at least 130 Christians killed last year.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24081/muslim-mob-storms-pakistan-church-65-injured/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24065/violent-death-of-girl-in-pakistan-spurs-push-for-justice http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24065/violent-death-of-girl-in-pakistan-spurs-push-for-justice#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:02:22 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24065 A daring protest and a high-profile funeral here on Monday (Jan. 25) for a 12-year-old Christian girl who died from torture and malnourishment has cast a rare spotlight on abuse of the Christian poor in Pakistan.

In an uncommon challenge in the predominantly Muslim nation, the Christian parents of Shazia Bashir Masih protested police unresponsiveness to the alleged violence against their daughter by Muslim attorney Chaudhary Muhammad Naeem and his family and his attempt to buy their silence after her death. The house servant died on Friday (Jan. 22) after working eight months in Naeem’s house.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24065/violent-death-of-girl-in-pakistan-spurs-push-for-justice/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24064/pakistan-court-hears-case-about-murdered-christian-servant http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24064/pakistan-court-hears-case-about-murdered-christian-servant#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:56:32 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24064 A court hearing was underway Friday, January 29, in Pakistan against the main suspect in the murder of a 12-year-old Christian domestic servant, her family's representatives said.

Shazia Masih was allegedly mentally and physically abused in the of Muslim lawyer Chaudhry Mohammad Naeem, in the city of Lahore, where she had worked for the last eight months to support her poor parents.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24064/pakistan-court-hears-case-about-murdered-christian-servant/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24054/pakistani-christian-sentenced-to-life-under-%e2%80%98blasphemy%e2%80%99-law http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24054/pakistani-christian-sentenced-to-life-under-%e2%80%98blasphemy%e2%80%99-law#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:11:26 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24054 A young Christian shopkeeper was sentenced to a life term in prison and fined more than $1,000 last week following a dubious conviction of desecrating the Quran, according to Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace.

A conviction for blaspheming Muhammad (Section 295-C) is punishable by death under Pakistani’s notorious blasphemy laws. Widely condemned by the international community as easily invoked to settle personal enmities, Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have come under review in recent months, but to no avail.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24054/pakistani-christian-sentenced-to-life-under-%e2%80%98blasphemy%e2%80%99-law/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24017/muslim-mob-in-pakistan-wounds-christian-family http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24017/muslim-mob-in-pakistan-wounds-christian-family#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:55:59 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=24017 Infuriated by an alleged anti-Islamic comment by a mentally ill man, more than a dozen Muslims attacked his Christian family here last week, beating his 20-year-old sister unconscious and breaking her leg.

The woman’s father, Aleem Mansoor, said his daughter Elishba Aleem went unconscious after being struck in the head with an iron rod in the Dec. 28 attack. Mansoor said a Muslim known as Mogal beat him and his daughter with the rod on the street in front of their apartment home after falsely accusing his 32-year old son, who suffers from schizophrenia, of blasphemy.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/24017/muslim-mob-in-pakistan-wounds-christian-family/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23825/pakistan-police-torture-christians-arrested-in-islamic-attack http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23825/pakistan-police-torture-christians-arrested-in-islamic-attack#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:19:07 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23825 Two Christians in Gojra, Pakistan who allegedly fired warning shots as an Islamist mob approached that burned seven Christians to death on Aug. 1 told Compass they were tortured after police arrested them.

From his jail cell, Naveed Masih told Compass that he and his brother were taken to the Police Training Centre in Choong, where they were kept in illegal detention for 18 days and were tortured “in so many ways ruthlessly and in inhumane ways.” ]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23825/pakistan-police-torture-christians-arrested-in-islamic-attack/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23451/muslim-lawyer-threatens-christian http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23451/muslim-lawyer-threatens-christian#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 06:54:07 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=23451 A Pakistani Christian charged with abetting blasphemy against Islam was denied bail for his own safety last week after an Islamist lawyer allegedly threatened his life in a court hearing.

Insulting Islam is a dangerous activity in the conservative nation of 170 million, but with the spread of the Taliban, non-Muslims fear their very existence will make them a target to fundamentalists.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/23451/muslim-lawyer-threatens-christian/feed 0 http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21817/pakistan-court-rules-conversion-of-kidnapped-christian-girls-is-legal http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21817/pakistan-court-rules-conversion-of-kidnapped-christian-girls-is-legal#comments Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:06:13 +0000 Religion News Blog http://www.religionnewsblog.com/?p=21817 On 12 July, a judge in Pakistan's Punjab province ignored pleas that Saba Younis, aged 12, and her 10 year old sister, Anila Younis, who went missing on 26 June from the small town of Chowk Munda, had been kidnapped while on their way to their uncle's residence and ruled that their conversion to Islam was legal.

The kidnappers, who had married the girls, had also filed for custody of the girls at a local police station on 28 June, asserting that the sisters had converted to Islam and their father no longer had jurisdiction over them.]]> http://www.religionnewsblog.com/21817/pakistan-court-rules-conversion-of-kidnapped-christian-girls-is-legal/feed 0