Those who argue that the G-word is not appropriate and the hired guns for Beijing play different games. But in both cases, the CCP wins.
by Marco Respinti
On April 29, 2021, the US Embassy to Italy in Rome hosted a webinar of its “Transatlantic Thursdays” series, entitled Human Rights in China: the Uyghur Community. Introduced by Kimberly Krhounek, Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the US Embassy in Rome, and moderated by Giulia Pompili, Asia-Pacific desk journalist at Il Foglio, two Uyghur panelists took the floor: Rushan Abbas, founder of the Washington-based “Campaign for Uyghurs”, and singer Rahima Mahmut, director of the London, UK, branch of the World Uyghur Congress.
The two keynote speakers effectively illustrated the situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), that its non-Han inhabitants call East Turkistan, where, out of its hatred of religion, the CCP harshly persecutes Uyghurs and other Turkic people of Muslim faith, along with other religious groups. They told personal stories and important anecdotes, adding details and substantiating their charges against the Chinese regime with strong evidence.
A motion asks the Commission to reconsider the privileged GSP+ status accorded to the country, because of its gross violations of religious liberty.
by Massimo Introvigne
On April 30, 681 members of the European Parliament voted in favor of a motion censoring Pakistan for its human rights and religious liberty violations. Only three MEPs opposed it.
The motion focuses on Pakistan’s law on blasphemy, and on the case of the Christian couple Shagufta Kausar and Shafqat Emmanuel. They were arrested in 2013 and sentenced to death in 2014 for blasphemy. The case originated from messages insulting Prophet Muhammad sent to a Muslim cleric using a SIM card registered in Shagufta’s name. However, the couple denies any knowledge of the messages, and claims that the SIM card was purchased and used by an unknown person who impersonated Shagufta when registering it.
