Buddhists and Christians pray together for religious freedom in places where Buddha lived

Kalpit Parajuli ("AsiaNews," February 28, 2011)

http://religionandpolicy.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6771&Itemid=537

Kathmandu, Nepal – Hundreds of Buddhist religious leaders from around the world met in Nepal last Thursday and Friday. They were joined by Christian and Hindu religious leaders. The purpose of the event was to pray together for peace and greater religious freedom for minorities.

The two-day meeting began at the Buddhist temple in Bauddhanath (Kathmandu) and ended in Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautama Buddha. Organised by the Buddhist World Peace Association, the initiative will go on the road to Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, South Korea and other predominantly Buddhist nations. It will also travel to an additional 50 nations.

According to Kenseng Lama, one of the organiser of the Nepali event, the prayer meeting is meant to counter rising conflicts and the repression of religious minorities.

 

The initiative will be taken to countries where religious freedom is violated, like Myanmar. Slogans will change in such locations to avoid friction with the authorities.

“We Nepalis prayed to see the right to freedom of religion enshrined in a new constitution,” Lama said.

A number of Christian religious leaders, both Catholic and Protestant, joined Buddhist religious leaders in prayer vigils.

“We support the event,” said Binod Thapa, a Protestant leader, “because like Buddhists we want more religious freedom.”

 

“Under the new government, minority rights and the separation between state and religion are among the new founding principles of the new constitution,” he noted. Yet, Christians in Kathmandu and other Nepali cities still do not have a place to bury their dead, and are still threatened by Hindu extremists.

Nepal became a secular state in 2006 after centuries of rule by an absolute Hindu monarchy. Religious minorities, especially Christians and Muslims, have only recently gained the right to build their own places of worship and conduct religious functions in public.

Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi 'has price on her head'

Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi '
has price on her head'

By Orla Guerin BBC News, Punjab province
Asia Bibi is said to be one of dozens of innocent people accused of blasphemy every year

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11930849
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Ashiq Masih has the look of a hunted man - gaunt, anxious and exhausted. Though he is guilty of nothing, this Pakistani labourer is on the run - with his five children. His wife, Asia Bibi, has been sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam. That is enough to make the entire family a target. They stay hidden by day, so we met them after dark. Mr Masih told us they move constantly, trying to stay one step ahead of the anonymous callers who have been menacing them.

"I ask who they are, but they refuse to tell me," he said. "They say 'we'll deal with you if we get our hands on you'. Now everyone knows about us, so I am hiding my kids here and there. I don't allow them to go out. Anyone can harm them," he added.
Ashiq Masih says his daughters still cry for their mother and ask if she will be home in time for Christmas.

He insists that Asia Bibi is innocent and will be freed, but he worries about what will happen next.
"When she comes out, how she can live safely?" he asks.
"No one will let her live. The mullahs are saying they will kill her when she comes out."
Asia Bibi, an illiterate farm worker from rural Punjab, is the first woman sentenced to hang under Pakistan's controversial blasphemy law.

'Old score' As well as the death penalty hanging over her, Asia Bibi now has a price on her head.
A radical cleric has promised 500,000 Pakistani rupees (£3,700; $5,800) to anyone prepared to "finish her". He suggested that the Taliban might be happy to do it. Asia Bibi's troubles began in June 2009 in her village, Ittan Wali, a patchwork of lush fields and dusty streets. Hers was the only Christian household. She was picking berries alongside local Muslim women, when a row developed over sharing water. Days later, the women claimed she had insulted the Prophet Muhammad. Soon, Asia Bibi was being pursued by a mob.

"In the village they tried to put a noose around my neck, so that they could kill me," she said in a brief appearance outside her jail cell.

Anarchy threat
Asia Bibi says she was falsely accused to settle an old score. That is often the case with the blasphemy law, critics say.

"If the law punishes someone for blasphemy, and that person is pardoned, then we will also take the law in our hands”
(Qari Mohammed Salim Imam)