On March 24, after a successful petition campaign, Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship confirmed that atheists and other non-religious are eligible for Less Complex Claims (LCC).
The LCC is an expedited refugee application process run by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. The process is handled by the Refugee Protection Division and allows for "short-hearing and file-review processes."
Atheist Republic’s Twitter account, the largest atheist account on the platform, has been suspended yet again. Susanna McIntyre, the CEO of Atheist Republic, reports that she was met with an “Account Suspended” notification when she tried logging in to Atheist Republic’s Twitter on Friday, April 1st, 2022.
On April 2, Mubarak Bala pleaded guilty to blasphemy charges for posting social media posts that caused a public disturbance “due to their blasphemous content.” He was sentenced to 24 years in prison for his alleged crime.
On March 30, a Bangladesh court sentenced four men to death for the brutal killing of a secular blogger in 2015. Judge Nurul Amin Biplob of the Sylhet Anti-Terrorism Tribunal gave the death penalty to four out of the five suspects in the murder of Ananta Bijoy Das.
Another victim of Pakistan's dangerous blasphemy allegations has died. A teacher at a religious seminary school in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, was stabbed to death.
Safoora Bibi was killed on Tuesday, March 29, by two students and one of her colleagues. They claimed that a 13-year old child dreamt of Bibi committing blasphemy and wanted Bibi dead.
Allegations of blasphemy in dominantly Muslim countries like Pakistan are a dreadful experience. Despite being unproven, many of the allegations result in injury or, worse, death.
On March 28th, the Delhi High Court asked Twitter why it had not banned accounts that posted objectionable content against a Hindu goddess. Vipin Sanghi, acting Chief Justice, and Justice Navin Chawla made the statement during Aditya Singh Deshwal’s hearing on Monday.
In July last year, Deshwal filed a complaint against Twitter to target Atheist Republic’s Twitter account for posting hurtful images of the Goddess Kali.
A South African was threatened with termination of their employment after revealing being an atheist. A post on Reddit, a social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website, revealed the realities suffered by atheists.
On March 18, a U.S. District Court ruled against a county clerk charged with violating the rights of same-sex couples. The ruling will pave the way for a jury trial against Kim Davis from Rowan, Kentucky.
Iran's current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, issued a fatwa against "fake" likes and followers on social media. Khamenei's declaration comes as his followers posed questions at him through his website.
Fatwas are legal opinions or rulings issued by an Islamic scholar. These fatwas are based on Quranic teachings and are socially and sometimes legally carried out as laws.
On Thursday, March 17, jubilant passengers landed in RAF Brize Norton, the United Kingdom, after years of detention in Iran. British-Iranian nationals Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were finally reunited with their families. Both were released on March 16, 2022.
