NEW DELHI, January 20
Christian workers are fleeing India’s Kashmir Valley after a sharia (Islamic law) court issued a “guilty” verdict against three Christian leaders, issued a fatwa against Christian schools and allegedly launched a door-to-door campaign to bring converts “back” to Islam. The court, which has no legal authority, found the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar, Dutch Catholic missionary Jim Borst and Christian worker Gayoor Messah guilty of “luring the valley Muslims to Christianity,” The Times of India daily reported on Dec. 19. The three had already left the region apparently due to rising tensions. Headed by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, the sharia court also “directed” the state government to take over the management of all Christian schools in the region, the daily added. “I fled with my wife and children, as I was not feeling safe in Srinagar,” a Christian worker from Kashmir told Compass on condition of anonymity. “A group of Muslims visited my house twice, threatening my parents with a social boycott if they failed to produce me.” Another source told Compass that some men had visited his family and those of his friends in Srinagar, warning that if they did not “reconvert” to Islam they would be ostracized. The source added that those who have fled may not be able to return to their homes for at least a year. Besides the “guilty verdict” against Pastor Khanna, Borst and Messa, mufti deputy Nasir-ul-Islam reportedly said an investigation against Parvez Samuel Kaul, principal of a local Christian missionary school, was underway. The court also ordered all Christian schools to teach Islam and other faiths.
NEW DELHI, January 13
Attacks on Christians accelerated over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays in the south Indian state of Karnataka, which was identified as the most unsafe place for the religious minority for the third consecutive year in 2011. With 49 cases of violence and hostility against Christians in 2011, Karnataka remained the state with the highest incidence of persecution, according to the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s annual report, “Battered and Bruised…” The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), which is based in Karnataka, documented at least six anti-Christian attacks between Christmas Eve 2011 and New Year’s Day. On the evening of Dec. 25, about 20 people beat Christians with stones and wooden clubs as they celebrated Christmas at a house in the Maindguri area, near Surathkal, a few miles from the city of Mangalore, in Dakshina Kannada district, according to the GCIC. The attackers, allegedly from a local extremist Hindu Jagran Vedike (Hindu Revival Forum), attacked the Christians, including women and children, indiscriminately. A 27-year-old man identified only as Joyson fractured his leg; a pastor’s wife identified as Lata, sustained chest injuries; a 29-year-old woman identified as Roshini and another woman identified as Annamma received head injuries; and a 23-year-old man identified only as Deepak broke his nasal bridge in the attack. A local Christian told Compass by phone that police arrested five of the attackers, but that they had been released on bail. The attacks on Christians in Karnataka are “shameful” and “a blot on the secular and democratic India,” GCIC President Sajan K. George said. The local government and authorities were “complicit in the persecution against Christians,” he added.
Tamil Nadu, India, December 30
Police arrested a Christian after Hindu extremists on Dec. 22 accused him of forceful conversion in Nagarcoil. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that Hindu extremists accused Sagaya Dass of forceful conversion after he and students from SP Hindu College organized a Christmas program. The extremists filed a police complaint at the Kottar police station. Dass was released on bail the same day after the intervention of area Christian leaders.
Tamil Nadu – Hindu extremists on the evening of Dec. 22 burned down a church building in Kurinjipadi, Vallalar Nagar, and Kadaloor district. The Global Council of Indian Christian reported Hindu extremists had threatened Pastor K Solomon and other church members, and that they destroyed the building to stop Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.
