On Wednesday, February 23, a Shia Muslim was given the death penalty and a fine of almost $3000 (PKR 500,000) for blasphemy charges. Court officials stated that Wasim Abbas, a minority Shia Muslim in Pakistan, has allegedly insulted the Prophet Muhammad.
A Mexican Muslim woman who was employed to help organize the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was forced to leave the country after being sexually assaulted. Paola Schietekat worked in Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy when a colleague sexually assaulted her last June.
Kuwait's conservative right-wing politicians and clerics are crying foul over yoga. Lawmakers and Islamic scholars are bizarrely fixated on the lotus and downward dog, calling it a danger and depravity of women. Other conservatives label it as an attack on Islam. The uproar has prompted the Kuwaiti government to cancel a yoga instructor's desert wellness yoga retreat.
An Egyptian journalist's statement sparked outrage among Egypt's hardline Islamists, accusing the journalist of committing "contempt of Islam." Ibrahim Issa, an outspoken critic against Muslim groups, claimed on Friday, February 18, that the Prophet Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem never happened.
A recently opened Holocaust museum in Indonesia's North Sulawesi province is causing an outcry from conservative Muslims and Islamic scholar groups. The groups are demanding that the permanent exhibition and museum dedicated to the horrors of the Holocaust be closed.
Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, head of foreign relations and international cooperation of the country's Indonesian Ulema Council, said they demanded that the exhibition stop and cancel the museum.
A Hindu teacher was sentenced for blasphemy on Tuesday, February 8. Nautan Lal, a college teacher in Sindh province, southern Pakistan, received a life sentence.
The order was passed by Judge Murtaza Solangi of the Sindh Province court. The order also included a fine of 50,000 rupees or close to $300.
A man was killed by a mob in Tulamba in the Khanewal District of Pakistan on February 12. Muhammad Mushtaq, 41-years old, was killed by an angry crowd and his body was left tied to a tree. Reuters reported that Mushtaq “appeared to have had mental disabilities.”
Women's rights advocates and activists in Pakistan are distraught over the impending acquittal of a Pakistani man who murdered his sister in July 2016. Muhammed Waseem strangled his sister, Qandeel Baloch, and was sentenced to life imprisonment after confessing to the murder.
Outrage and scores of protests are erupting in India's Karnataka state after a group of Hindus heckled a young Muslim girl. In a video posted on Twitter on February 8, a Muslim girl wearing a burqa was bullied by a mob of militant far-right Hindus. Muskan Khan, a college student, can be seen fighting back the protesters in the video.
On Tuesday, February 1, Mubarak Bala appeared for the first time after his arrest at the High Court of the state of Kano in Nigeria, almost two years after his arrest. Kano is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria and was arrested on April 25, 2020.
