Islam – United Yam

Why Pakistan’s bishops doubt government will act on minor’s forced marriage #Catholic LAHORE, Pakistan — The head of the Catholic Church in Pakistan has expressed a guarded response to government committees formed to review a recent ruling by the country’s top constitutional court that upheld the marriage and conversion of a Christian minor.Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar announced on Easter Sunday, April 5, that the government had constituted a committee to examine the March 25 judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court validating the marriage of 13-year-old Maria Shahbaz to 30-year-old Shaheryar Ahmad.

A protest for Maria Shahbaz outside Hyderabad Press Club, organized by the Catholic Bishops’ National Commission for Justice and Peace, on April 4, 2026, in Pakistan. | Credit: Bishop Samson Shukardin

Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (PCBC), voiced skepticism about the initiative.“These issues often subside by the time such committees make their reports public. The process is deliberately delayed so that people forget,” he told EWTN News.“This is fundamentally a religious freedom issue. Consent is often coerced from minors. We await a genuine response from the government. Many Muslim clerics support us but have avoided joining public protests,” he added.A father’s accountAccording to Maria’s father, Shehbaz Masih, his daughter was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam, and married without consent.A certificate issued by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) submitted by the family states that Maria was 13 at the time of the marriage — below the legal minimum age of 18. The family has since taken refuge in a shelter and was unavailable for comment.The case dates back to July 2025, when Masih, a resident of Lahore, reported that his daughter had been abducted by a Muslim man after stepping out to a nearby shop.Dismissing a petition filed by the father seeking custody, the court ruled that the marriage was valid under “Muhammadan law” and that the husband held lawful guardianship.Protests and backlashThe judgment triggered widespread reaction on social media, along with protests, press conferences, and conventions across the country. At least three Catholic bishops, along with the PCBC, issued statements urging authorities to review the ruling.The backlash prompted government engagement with the concerns of the country’s Christian minority, estimated at 1.37% (3.28 million people).Addressing an interfaith Easter gathering in Lahore, Tarar assured Christian leaders of his support, saying the committee’s recommendations would be submitted to the Ministry of Law and Justice within a week.

Archbishop Azad Marshall, moderator/president bishop of the Church of Pakistan, a united Protestant denomination, meets with ecumenical leaders and Christian politicians following an April 6, 2026, consultation on the Maria Shahbaz case at Waris Road, Lahore. | Credit: Church of Pakistan

Legal dimensionsMeanwhile, Punjab Minister for Minorities Affairs Ramesh Singh Arora said his department was forming a parallel committee to examine the legal dimensions of the case.Mary James Gill, a Christian lawyer, former lawmaker, and executive director of the Center for Law and Justice who serves on the committee, welcomed the move as a “genuine concern to find a way forward.”“It is highly encouraging that a state representative personally took up the issue. However, we are still in a consultative process,” she told EWTN News, noting shortcomings in both the lower courts and within the affected community.“The petition was filed under Section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which pertains to habeas corpus, and not to determining the exact age of the girl — a question that remains disputed,” Gill said.“Regrettably, no such verification was carried out in the lower courts. In cases where documentation is ambiguous, magistrates and sessions judges tend to rely on in-person statements, consent, and their own observations.”She noted that the Christian Marriage Act of 1872 governs the solemnization of marriages involving one or more Christians.“Similarly, the personal laws of both Christianity and Islam in Pakistan remain silent on the age of conversion. Church leaders need to revisit and update these frameworks. At the same time, parents must place greater emphasis on the ideological and moral formation of their children,” she added.In an April 6 letter to the law ministry, Anthony Naveed, deputy speaker of the Sindh Assembly, urged the federal government to address “serious legal gaps” exposed by the ruling and called for uniform amendments aligning provincial laws with Balochistan’s legislation, which explicitly invalidates child marriages.A pattern of abuseFor decades, rights advocates have called for stronger legal and administrative measures to prevent the abduction and forced religious conversion of girls from minority communities.At least 515 cases of abduction and forced conversion of minority girls and women were reported between 2021 and 2025, according to the Center for Social Justice. Hindu girls accounted for 69% (353 cases), followed by Christian girls at 31% (160 cases). Most victims were under 18, with cases concentrated in Sindh and Punjab.Shukardin said courts in the Muslim-majority country are not consistently applying laws prohibiting marriage under 18.“The Church is not in favor of marriages involving conversion under such circumstances. We demand safety for our daughters and will continue to raise our voice for underage brides of any religion,” he said.

unitedyam April 8, 2026

Bishop Samson Shukardin said government committees are often delayed so people forget, as protests continue over the marriage of 13-year-old Maria Shahbaz.

Vatican official warns of ‘Christianophobia’ in Muslim world and secular West #Catholic Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu is alarmed about rising hostility toward Christians, both in parts of the Islamic world and in Europe’s increasingly post‑Christian culture.Nwachukwu, who serves as secretary of the Section of First Evangelization at the Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization, told EWTN News that any serious conversation about peace and coexistence must begin with clear condemnation of anti‑Christian violence, particularly from Muslim leaders in places where Christians lack full religious freedom.The Nigerian prelate also warned of a growing cultural aversion to Christianity in the West, where Christian expression is often treated with suspicion even as societies insist on defending the religious symbols of others.Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit four countries in Africa, including the Muslim-majority Algeria, on his first apostolic journey to the continent April 13–23.A diplomat urges Muslims to confront anti‑Christian violenceDrawing on decades of diplomatic service in Ghana, Paraguay, Algeria, and Switzerland, Nwachukwu described the anti‑Christian discrimination he witnessed firsthand — experiences he believes continue to be overlooked.“I do not criticize Islam; I criticize the way some people practice their Islam,” he said. “People just shout about Islamophobia, but its main cause is not to be sought in the West. It is to be sought in the way some Muslims practice their religion. We are calling our Muslim friends to condemn the wrong use of their religion as a religion of violence.”He recalled that during his service in Algeria, Christians were openly labeled “enemies of Islam.” In one incident, a shopkeeper refused to serve him because he was wearing a Roman collar.“Christians still do not have full liberty to practice their religion,” he said.A West increasingly uncomfortable with its Christian rootsBut Nwachukwu also directed sharp criticism toward Europe, where he sees a growing reluctance to defend Christianity even as Western societies emphasize religious tolerance.“Everybody denounces Islamophobia, but nobody denounces Christianophobia,” he said. “We are in a post‑Christian Europe and a post‑Christian West.”He noted that Christian symbols face discrimination not applied to other religions: “You enter a hall and see a symbol of Buddhism — nobody touches it. You see a Muslim in a hijab — nobody says to remove it. But you see a cross, and they say, ‘Remove it.’ Why?”This, he argued, reflects a cultural embarrassment about Europe’s Christian heritage:“It is like feeling guilty for having a mother who is ugly and then forgetting that she also has rights. The Christianity that gave them their education, culture, and society — they now feel uncomfortable with it.”Reverse missionaries and a hopeful response to Europe’s secular driftNwachukwu said this situation makes the growing presence of African and Asian missionaries in Europe all the more significant, as a hopeful sign that the global Church can help rekindle the continent’s Christian identity.“The West often forgets that we are the result of sacrifices made by their own brothers and sisters who became missionaries,” he said. “But the sheaves — the children of those missionaries — are now returning.”Nwachukwu described this movement as a gift that can strengthen Western Christianity in places where secularism has taken deep root.“We want to see the mother Churches in Europe accept and be proud of their missionary children from the global south.”Encouragement for persecuted ChristiansTo Christians facing persecution — whether under hostile regimes, extremist movements, or secular cultural pressures — Nwachukwu offered a message of strength: “If you are encountering persecution, it means that the message you have is important. If your message were not important, people wouldn’t even think of you. So, the message is: Do not feel you are alone. Know what you are worth.”

Rohingya refugees learn about Lent as Caritas Bangladesh bridges faiths in camps #Catholic COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh — As more than 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh observe the final days of Ramadan, the Catholic charity Caritas Bangladesh is building bridges between the two faiths by sharing the meaning of Lent with refugees and host communities in the sprawling camps of Cox’s Bazar.“We at Caritas Bangladesh are building a bridge between the two religions by highlighting the significance of Lent for our Christians with the Rohingya refugees and the host community so that they can understand the meaning of Lent,” said Liton Luis Gomes, project director of Caritas Bangladesh’s Emergency Response Program.“We have been sharing with the Rohingya refugees the significance of our fasting, which is to eat less and distribute it to the poor, to listen to people, or to serve those who really deserve it,” Gomes told EWTN News.Caritas is sharing the theme of its 2026 Lenten campaign — “Prayer, Listening, and Fasting: A Holy Call of Inner Transformation” — with the Rohingya and host communities, Gomes said.The pope and the RohingyaPope Francis met a group of Rohingya refugees during his apostolic visit to Bangladesh on Dec. 1, 2017. The refugees traveled to Dhaka from Cox’s Bazar to meet the pope during an interreligious gathering at the archbishop’s residence.“The presence of God today is also called Rohingya,” Francis told the gathering in remarks that marked the first time during his visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh that he publicly used the word “Rohingya” to describe the persecuted Muslim minority. Pope urges ‘full rights’ be given to persecuted Rohingya minority Most of the Rohingya in the Cox’s Bazar camps arrived from Myanmar since August 2017, when the military began conducting clearance operations after a series of rebel attacks in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. The Rohingya are Muslims who have long faced discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, including being denied citizenship since 1982. The military coup in Myanmar, formerly Burma, in February 2021 further heightened their vulnerability.The population density of the camps is staggering — roughly 103,600 people per square mile, more than 40 times the average population density of Bangladesh as a whole. Refugees live in side-by-side plastic and bamboo shelters, each just a little larger than 100 square feet, some holding a dozen residents.‘We are not in a festive mood’Eid al-Fitr, one of Islam’s most important religious celebrations, is expected to begin later this week, but refugees say they are not able to celebrate.Abdur Rahim, 55, a Rohingya father of five, told EWTN News that food in the camps is not sufficient but that refugees are “still surviving, thanks to the Bangladesh government and the Almighty.”“We have no money to buy new clothes for my child and grandchild for this festival. Eid is joyful to Muslims, but we are not in a festive mood, because if we can go to our motherland Myanmar, we will be happy,” Rahim said.Rahim said the Caritas initiative had given him a new understanding of the season of fasting.“I didn’t know that Ramadan is not just about not eating. Now, through Caritas, I’ve learned that Ramadan is about helping people and reducing your expenses,” Rahim said.Between 2017 and 2023, Caritas provided $45 million in emergency efforts for Rohingya and host community members in Cox’s Bazar, according to Caritas Internationalis. During that period the charity assisted nearly 1.7 million individuals with shelter support, protection, disaster risk reduction, education, and water, sanitation, and hygiene services.Caritas Bangladesh is the social action arm of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh.