António Vieira da Cruz

(também publicado no Substack ) Meeting lawmakers at the Portuguese Parliament These last days of Advent I have been following a delegation of Christians from Pakistan visiting Lisbon, Portugal. They represent the Peter John Sahotra Foundation, an  institution  of good courageous people that provides the Christian community with relief from the heavy burdens of poverty and religious persecution. The couple Sadaf and Joel Amir Sahotra have been meeting members of the Portuguese Parliament, civil society organisations, media, schools and universities. The purpose of this visit is to update the Portuguese society about the situation of Christians in Pakistan with key facts and to find new opportunities of cooperation on the issues of human rights and education. Pakistan is a 240 million country with about 1% Christians living mainly in Punjab, but also in smaller communities in Sindh and Karachi. The majority of these 2.5 to 3 million people face poverty and all of them live unde...

(Originalmente publicado no " Jacaré parado vira mala " no dia 10 de Setembro de 2017) Sou católico. Apenas isso não me define por completo, mas é parte importante daquilo que sou, apesar das regras da sociedade quererem esconder essa parte de mim. Pelo contrário, defendo que a religião merece estar mais presente no espaço público, seja através de procissões, da comunicação social, de debates, de manifestações livres de religiosidade (quer individuais, quer de grupo) e até no discurso político. Há quem queira (seja por ideologia, convicção, medo ou vergonha) acantonar a religião aos espaços que existem para o efeito, como as igrejas e suas sacristias, expulsando os religiosos das escolas, hospitais e outras instituições que fundaram ao longo do tempo, substituindo-os sucessivamente e eliminando qualquer rasto que da sua passagem tivesse porventura ficado. Eu quero mostrar que uma presença maior da religião no espaço público é não só boa como necessária para a liberdade ...

International Crimes Tribunal of Dhaka Yesterday, one of the worse criminals of the XXI century was condemned to life imprisonment. His name is Delwar Hossain Sayedee , he is 74 years old and he was one of the leaders of the extremist party Jamaat-e-Islami in Bangladesh. During the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, he committed brutal crimes against humanity. Being now accused of at least 20 crimes, the case went to Supreme Court and there he was proven guilty of:     torture a leader of the Awami League, Mr Nurul Islam, and arson attack on his house;     killing one and torching house in the village of Chitholia;     killing one and torching 25 houses in the village of Umedpur;     abduction and rape of 3 sisters of Parerhat Bazar;      forcing 100 to 150 Hindus to convert to Islam in Parerhat and other villages. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a Razakar Besides that, he was accused of many other crimes, as killing m...

Hizb ut-Tahrir poster inciting to violence in Dhaka, Bangladesh The streets of Dhaka are filled with orange and black posters from Hizb ut-Tahrir . The main purpose of this poster is to call Military to take the power in Bangladesh and establish "Khilafat" (the caliphate). This pan-Islamic political organisation is legally banned in Bangladesh since 2009, yet they continue to spend fortunes in promoting extremism throughout propaganda and schemes to take over the elected powers, as it occurred for example in 2011 . In their most recent press release, Hizb ut-Tahrir states that during current strike 25 people were killed and then they conclude that "Democracy = Death to People". Of course what they do not understand is that democracy is not causing these deaths: extremism is. With their hate speeches and incite to violence, Hizb ut-Tharir and other powerful extremist organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami are contributing to the confrontational climate in Bangl...

Artigo sobre a Índia publicado com o apoio do South Asia Democratic Forum no último número do Think South Asia, aqui . --- The Republic of India is a country with 3.287.590 square kilometres of area and an estimated population of 1,24 billion people. Its borders are with Pakistan to the northwest, Tibet (under the Chinese administration), Nepal and Bhutan to the north, and Bangladesh and Burma to the northeast. On the Indian Ocean, India’s neighbours are the Maldives to the southwest and Sri Lanka to the southeast. These numbers mean that India has a larger population than Europe (all countries together), or the Americas (North and South), or Africa. We can find an Indian identity, or at least a harmonic set of similar identities within India, making of it the most populous liberal democracy in the world. And, with a birth rate bigger than China, India is set to overtake its neighbour country as the world’s most populous nation by 2030, according to the latest United Na...

Asia Bibi é o nome de uma jovem cristã paquistanesa que está condenada à morte por ter bebido água de um poço. Será possível? É possível e foi isso mesmo que aconteceu, Asia bebeu água de um poço e não podia porque era cristã. Numa manhã de trabalho na província do Punjabe, Paquistão, várias mulheres apanham bagas no campo. Uma delas é cristã e chama-se Asia Bibi, e as outras mulheres são muçulmanas. Asia recebe um salário menor do que as muçulmanas, mas não estranha isso nem protesta, é uma prática normal naquela zona do mundo e ela está habituada. Ao meio-dia está um calor que chega aos 45º. Asia Bibi aproxima-se do poço e bebe umas canecas de água para recuperar forças. Uma das mulheres repara e diz alto para as outras: - Oiçam todas, esta cristã conspurcou a água do poço ao beber pelo nosso copo, e ao mergulhá-lo na água por diversas vezes. Agora a água está impura! Já não a podemos beber, por causa dela! Asia, sentindo-se injustiçada, respondeu: - Penso que Jesus teria um ponto de...