Villagers Beat Christians, Burn Down Prayer Hall - Pastor (FReeper) & assistant attacked

CompassDirect.org ^ | April 15, 2005 | Compass

[underlying]

Mod note: E-mail from pastor's wife via Revelation911:

Praise God

Mrs. Mercy Ciniraj write. I thank your prayer for my husband. Your prayer our fort. Prayer our great help. How you are? We pray you all. My husband get big head pain. He forget things. His inside head injury. I ask prayers. Please pray. We like go 27th for Ayurveda treatment. Two week treatment. Ayurveda a Indian treatment. it a good treatment. It is oil and medicines...

Our Panamvilla mission field's prayer hall burned. Believers attacked. They burn and injury. My husband beaten and injury there. Believers poor. They need help. Our hinduppara mission field also get trouble.

View this link: http://www.geocities.com/salemvoiceministries/hinduppara.html .

See Panamvilla Prayer Hall view home page: http://www.geocities.com/salemvoiceministries). Now it burned... I know my English very poor. I sorry. I know my English not English. It not Indian English. It not world English. It my own English. I thank God you try understand my English. If I write wrong forgive please. If you think I ask money please forgive. I not ask money. I like my husband see no pain. I like my husband work for Jesus again and again. I know he win souls. Satan not like it. So he get trouble. God help. God teach. Prayer great help. I say help means mainly prayer. Money secondary. So I not like hear, you not able help. You help me with prayers. So please pray again. Your sister of Messiah Yeshua's love

email: mercyciniraj@sancharnet.in

India - Friday April 15, 2005

VILLAGERS BEAT CHRISTIANS, BURN DOWN PRAYER HALL

Pastor and assistant attacked following baptism ceremony.

April 15 (Compass) -- Hindu and Muslim villagers burned down a prayer hall and physically attacked three church members following a baptism ceremony in Kerala, India, on April 1. Two days later, villagers assaulted Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohammed and his 54-year-old assistant.

Ciniraj, as he prefers to be known, is a Christian from a Muslim background. He pastors the church in Thiruvananthapuram district -- popularly known as Trivandrum.

He is also the head of Salem Voice Ministries (SVM), which runs orphanages, village schools and adult literacy centers in Kerala. The SVM is registered under the Charitable Societies Act.

“The incident took place in the slum area of Panamvilla village in Trivandrum, where we have a thatched prayer hall,” Ciniraj told Compass.

“Four villagers from Panamvilla were baptized in a ceremony in the prayer hall early in the morning on April 1, which perhaps made some villagers unhappy,” he said. A total of 26 adults from different villages were baptized during the ceremony.

“After the baptism, I went back to my place in Kottayam district. Later I heard that a group of local villagers, comprised of both Hindus and Muslims, attacked three of our church members while they were praying in the prayer hall,” Ciniraj said. “After beating them up, the miscreants set the prayer hall on fire.”

He continued, “Ours is the only Christian group in Panamvilla. Except for the 12 people who come to our meetings, the other villagers are either Hindus or Muslims. Sections of the villagers from both communities are against Christians, and a kind of anti-Christian movement is evolving in the village.”

Pastor Attacked on Return Visit

When he heard about the attack on the prayer hall, Ciniraj returned to visit the church members in Panamvilla on April 3. However, he too was attacked as he questioned villagers about the earlier incident on April 1.

“While I was still talking to a leader of the attackers, one old man hit me on the head,” said Ciniraj. “Shivanandan, a 54-year-old church member who was with me, immediately intervened and tried to save me. He was also beaten until he started bleeding profusely. By God’s grace, he is all right now.”

Ciniraj said he did not report the matter to the police because the attackers apologized immediately after the beating.

“When they were beating Shivanandan, I knelt down and prayed to God to save him and also to forgive the attackers.” Village women who witnessed the beating saw Ciniraj praying and were moved by his humility. They immediately asked the attackers to stop the beating and apologize.

The prayer hall was completely demolished, but Christians in the village said they would continue to meet for prayer and Bible study in their homes.

RSS Believed Behind Attack

The hall was built three years ago. Neighbors had made some negative comments about the Christians, but until the baptism ceremony on April 1, there were no verbal threats or physical assaults.

Some church members said the local unit of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu activist group, was behind the attack.

“One of them told me that the local RSS unit was planning to create some trouble during the baptism ceremony,” said Ciniraj. “That is why we held the ceremony early in the morning -- at first it was scheduled for later in the day.”

Ciniraj added that, contrary to popular opinion, the RSS have a strong presence in Kerala. “They hold their conventions in several parts of the state,” he claimed.

According to 2001 census figures, 19 percent of the total population of Kerala is Christian. Muslims account for 23 percent and Hindus for 57 percent.

Violence Increasing in Kerala

Incidents of violence against Christians are increasingly common in Kerala. As recently as February 22, five pastors from the Church of God were beaten in Karunagapally, near Kerala’s Kollam district, while they were holding a convention.

Dr. John Dayal, a respected Christian leader and member of the National Integration Council, confirmed this trend.

“I have been watching the communal situation in Kerala with alarm for some years. The growth of the RSS, beginning in the north of Kerala, has gone unchecked. ... In recent times, the Sangh Parivar [family of Hindu activist groups] has become very aggressive in most districts of the state,” he said.

“This intolerance is alien to the culture of Kerala where different faiths and people have lived in harmony. ... If the people do not summarily reject this culture of hatred and violence which the Sangh propagates and practices, it will do irreparable damage.”

[maestro]

All Anti-Christian and Evolutionist-worldview...'caste' systems...are sin's slavery clubs.

/ACLU caste

John 3:16

[Revelation 911]

Considering this guy is a freeper, what are the chances of placing this in "breaking" ?

I know its a week or two old - but Im sure the additional hits and prayer would be appreciated & welcomed

[keats5]

bump

[Theo]

Ciniraj said he did not report the matter to the police because the attackers apologized immediately after the beating.

Odd practice of "forgiveness." But these Christians are there on the ground, so perhaps it is God's will to not seek earthly justice in this case. Sometimes the best way to practice Christian "love" is not always the obvious way.

[Revelation 911]

prayerful ping

[P-Marlowe]

Why was post #3 removed?

[Uncle Jaque]

We might hope, as well as pray, that as in other seasons of persecution, the blood of Martyers only strengthens and increases the work and Church of God instead of repressing it.

As to those RSS hoodlums; I have to wonder - where are the Knights Templar when you really need them?

A couple of my Great-Uncles were Missionaries in India before WW-II, and I often wonder how the Church over there is doing.

Sister Ciniraj's English is a whole lot better than my Indian, and the message comes across just fine.

Prayers away!

[underlying]

Our Pappa attacked

Our Pappa came home

Our pappa's head big pain

Our mummy's prayer request for our Pappa

[Revelation 911]

I posted a lengthly frmail in which his wife detailed his plight and requested prayer - and someone determined that such an action was inappropriate and either flagged the mod, or the mod himself determined it was a violation of his privacy, hence it was removed.

a freakin prayer request

Youd think exceptions could be made

[prairiebreeze]

ping

[Revelation 911]

I now see the thread has been modified to include the email - thank you very much and God Bless you for facilitating Pauls witness through this board

Kindly delete my criticism in post 11

[Diamond]

"If I write wrong forgive please. If you think I ask money please forgive. I not ask money. I like my husband see no pain. I like my husband work for Jesus again and again. I know he win souls. Satan not like it. So he get trouble. God help. God teach. Prayer great help."

Words to live by.

Cordially,

[Revelation 911]

bump