Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

The Asian Human Rights Commission reports that Pakistan’s blasphemy law continues to claim victims, while outrages against human rights tolerated by the government and court system include the forced conversion of almost 2,000 Hindu and Christian girls, many of whom were kidnapped and raped. At least 161 people were indicted and nine were killed in extrajudicial executions in 2011 because of accusations of blasphemy that “are false in 95 percent of cases.” The commission documented the killing of 18 human rights activists and 16 journalists last year. Among the 2011 victims were Punjab’s Governor Salman Taseer and the federal minister for minorities, Shabhaz Bhatti. These “murders [were] committed by religious extremist groups infiltrated in the police force,” according to the commission.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

At the funeral of Roger D. Haight, S.J., at St. Ignatius Loyola Church in New York on June 25, 2025, Leo O'Donovan, S.J., presided and preached, The following text is his homily from the funeral Mass.
Parish priest of the Holy Family Parish, Father Gabriel Romanelli, receives medical attention, after he suffered light leg injuries following what initial reports said was an Israeli tank attack on the church, according to initial reports, at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, in this still image taken from a video July 17, 2025. (OSV News/Dawoud Abu Alkas, Reuters)
In a July 17 telegram, Pope Leo XIV said he was “deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injury caused by the military attack on the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza.”
Despair is easy for anyone who takes seriously the call to love your neighbor as yourself. But hope can come in two ways.
Thomas J. ReeseJuly 16, 2025
A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 16, 2025