Iraqis hope papal visit can help unify country's diverse communities
- Mar 2, 2021
Religious minorities are highly vulnerable during conflicts, often exposed to grave violence, and require active protection and assistance, religious freedom advocates said during the 2020 Ministerial to Advance Freedom of Religion or Belief, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and hosted by Poland.
An annual human rights report released this week gives Pakistan a failing grade, charging that too little is being done to protect the country’s most vulnerable, including women and children.
Dozens of Indian celebrities have asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and stop rising incidents of attacks on minorities, misuse of religion by Hindu hard-liners and intolerance against dissent in the country.
A series of violent incidents against religious minorities in Pakistan has been condemned by the social justice arm of the nation’s bishops’ conference.
Following Tuesday’s “definitive” acquittal of Asia Bibi, an illiterate Catholic mother of four who spent almost a decade on death row on blasphemy charges, one Asia expert says the next frontier for minorities in Pakistan is the press for full equality as citizens under the law.
Pope Francis met Thursday with the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a survivor of ISIS enslavement and an advocate for human rights and persecuted Iraqi minorities.