Niroshan Nawarajan, 27, and Imran Patel, 26, have been in custody since being arrested - Patel in November last year and Nawarajan in January.

Nawarajan pleaded guilty in the Auckland District Court on Friday for possessing objectionable material that was said to have involved graphic violent images described as "extreme cruelty and violence" by prosecutors. Continue reading

On Sept. 28, the local Shariah police known as Wilayatul Hisbah arrested the girls identified by age and initials as 18-year-old "AS" and 19-year-old "N" after police saw the girls embracing in a public place.

This arrest was in accordance with bylaws on the implementation of Shariah law in the fields of faith, worship and Islamic dissemination.

"In terms of human rights, the arrest is a violation," Father Paulus Christian Siswantoko, secretary of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant-Itinerant People, told ucanews.com.

"Everyone has the same dignity, whether they are gay or not. They are God's creation that must be protected," he said.

All religions, he added, "aim at protecting human dignity."

Siswantoko said that whether you accepted same-sex relations or not, attempts at intimidation violate the women's dignity.

"A right perspective on them being people with dignity and respect is needed. Never use intimidation in this kind of formation because it will disgrace human dignity," he said.

Sister Maria Resa of the Indonesian bishops' Secretariat of Gender and Women Empowerment said local customs in a conservative, autonomous area like Aceh often become a barrier.

"This is the difficulty. Thus, the local government has the authority to say no to anything violating human rights," she added.

Source

• ucanews.com
• Image: hrw.org

Father James Mulford, publisher of Zenit News Agency, told NewsMax that the violence in the Middle East has become "a major concern" for the Church.

"It's a major concern and Pope Francis and the Catholic Church always has been in favor of religious freedom," said Mulford.

He made a point of highlighting recent comments by Catholic Coptic Patriarch Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, who said there were no real divisions between Christians and Muslims in Egypt, and summarized the position that the violence and destruction of churches is being carried out by "fanatical groups" based on a perception that they represent the West.

At the same time, he said, the Church does not seek to support any particular political regime or crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the group widely seen as instigating the violence against Egyptian Christians.

Mulford also reflected on the style of Pope Francis' leadership so far, and his approach to a number of social issues.

"The people in the Vatican that I know, my friends that work there, they're saying that he has an open ear.... That's one of the reasons he doesn't live in the Apostolic Palace like many of the popes before him," he said.

He added that Francis had also been quite clear during his speeches at World Youth Day about encouraging young people to "shake things up" in the Church.

Sources

NewsMax

Image: 2.bp.blogspot.com/