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A three-day WCC consultation has featured diverse perspectives from Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe on the politicization of religion and how this phenomenon contributes to discrimination and persecution of religious minorities around the world.

Churches and ecumenical groups urge European Union to raise questions with Pakistan government concerning religious intolerance and persecution of religious minorities there.

Talk about peace on the Korean peninsula part of discussions at ecumenical consultation on peace and security issues in Asia.

In a recent solidarity visit to Bangladesh, an ecumenical delegation was updated about the on-going persecution and attacks against religious minorities occurring in the country since early March of this year.

In a letter to Pakistani churches, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit has condemned the attacks on Christians in Badami Bagh, Lahore, on Saturday, 9 March. More than a hundred houses were burned down following allegations of blasphemy.

Justice should not be secondary to peace, and both should go together, according to Dr Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She made her comments in an encounter with the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

«Aucun État ne devrait priver ses citoyens du droit de débattre d'une loi qui les touche profondément. C'est pourquoi il est plus que jamais nécessaire d'entamer un dialogue sur la loi sur le blasphème et ses répercussions négatives sur les minorités religieuses au Pakistan», a déclaré I.A. Rehman, militant de la première heure des droits de la personne et directeur de la Commission des droits de l'homme du Pakistan, à l'occasion d'une manifestation organisée en marge de la session du Conseil des droits de l'homme des Nations Unies à Genève (Suisse).

Les participants et participantes à un débat sur l'utilisation abusive de la loi sur le blasphème au Pakistan, organisé sous l'égide du Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE), ont exhorté le gouvernement pakistanais à «prendre des mesures réalistes et fermes pour mettre fin à l'utilisation abusive de la loi sur le blasphème, qui entraîne des violations en masse des droits de la personne.»

By Naveen Qayyum (*)

The participants of a World Council of Churches (WCC) sponsored hearing on the misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws have urged the Pakistani government to “take realistic and solid steps to stop abuse of the blasphemy law that are causing massive human rights violations.”

“No state should take away the right of its citizens to debate a law that affects them gravely. Therefore, there is a growing need of dialogue on the blasphemy law and its negative impacts on religious minorities in Pakistan,” said I.A. Rehman, veteran human rights activist and director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in a side event at the United Nation’s Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.

«L’utilisation abusive de la loi sur le blasphème est contraire à la vision du Pakistan comme un pays modéré et démocratique», a déclaré Mohammad Tahseen lors de la Réunion publique d’information-débat organisée par le Conseil œcuménique des Églises (COE) à Genève, Suisse, sur le thème «Utilisation abusive  de la loi sur le blasphème et minorités religieuses au Pakistan».

While accusations of blasphemy in Pakistan have once again captured the news headlines, Bishop Samuel Azariah, moderator of the Church of Pakistan, hopes for the Pakistani government to consider repealing the controversial clause in the Pakistan Penal Code which, he says, invokes misuse of the blasphemy law.