Earlier last Friday, thousands of people marched on the streets after a top judge ordered the release of a man accused of blasphemy. A campaign targeting Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa began after he ordered the release of a man from the Ahmadi religious sect, considered heretical by hardline Muslim scholars.
Syeda Shehrbano Naqvi, an assistant superintendent with Punjab police speaks during an interview with AFP at her office in Lahore on Feb. 27. (Photo: AFP)
The man had been accused of committing blasphemy by disseminating a forbidden Ahmadi text. About 3,000 people gathered at rallies across the northwestern city of Peshawar after Friday prayers.
Blasphemy is a serious criminal offense that warrants death and life sentence in Pakistan. In the past years, mobs have lynched people they deem to have insulted Islam or Prophet Muhammad.
Church-run hospitals in South Korea have expressed concern over mass walkouts by doctors protesting against a government plan for reforms in the medical sector.
Government officials said more than 8,800 junior doctors or about 71 percent of the trainee workforce have walked out to oppose the plan to sharply increase medical school admissions. The government defended the move by citing the ratio of low doctor numbers — only 2.5 per 1,000 people and a rapidly aging population.
Doctors shout slogans during a rally to protest against a government plan to raise the annual enrolment quota in medical schools, near the Presidential Office in Seoul on Feb. 25, 2024. (Photo: AFP)
Protesters say the current infrastructure is insufficient to train more medical students and could lead to a decline in the quality of medical professionals. Officials at Church-run hospitals in Seoul, Eunpyeong, Uijeongbu, and Bucheon have warned of service disruption should the strike continue.
The government aims to increase the number of medical students from just over 3,000 to more than 5,000 in 2025. The country expects to add up to 10,000 doctors by 2035 to cope with the country’s rapidly aging population amid a constantly falling birth rate.
A Protestant seminary in China has signed an agreement with two state-sanctioned bodies to promote the controversial policy of the sinicization of Christianity and the thoughts of President Xi Jinping.
Shanghai-based East China Theological Seminary signed the agreement with the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China and the China Christian Council, in line with the “Patriotic Education Law” of the communist government.
Members of a Hong Kong Chinese Christian Churches Union delegation pose for a photo with officials of the East China Theological Seminary in Shanghai during a visit on March 15, 2023. The seminary has signed an agreement to promote the communist government’s sinicization policy. (Photo: China Christian Daily)
US-based rights group, China-Aid slammed the move, saying this politically motivated agreement between the state-run organizations and the theological seminary is quite unusual, deviating completely from the usual path of faith and the church. China has asserted more control and launched a renewed crackdown on religious groups and religious activities since Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
Chinese Communist Party has firmed up and implemented a series of policies and regulations including the sinicization of religions, a political ideology that aims to impose socialist principles on individuals and society to ensure loyalty to the party.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association, the city’s largest and oldest press group, said it fears a new domestic security law may affect news reporting and urged the government to protect reporters.
The new security law, also known as Article 23 referring to the provision in the city’s mini constitution, could have “far-reaching implications” for the press, the group said in a submission last Friday.
Protesters hold up copies of Apple Daily as they demonstrate for press freedom in a Hong Kong shopping center in August 2020. The front-page photograph shows the newspaper’s founder, Jimmy Lai, being arrested in the newsroom. The Hong Kong Journalists Association fears a new security law may affect news reporting in the city. (Photo: Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images)
The association has also proposed the authorities provide clearer definitions for provisions relating to offenses, including external interference and theft of state secrets.
Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing regime aims to enact a new domestic security law seeking to criminalize five types of crime: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee has claimed most people support the law. In a joint statement signed by UK-based advocacy group Hong Kong Watch and activist groups based in the US, UK, and Canada that said the new law would bring “further devastating consequences” for human rights in the city.
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