Posted on 12/09/2008 11:35:49 AM PST by GonzoII
What I am trying to emphasize is that Christianity is anything but a new belief system in their midst, and does not account for the current persecution there, which has come up only within the last 30 years or so. Christianity has been there since the first century persecution of Rome, and has grown organically from within. I’m not mad at anyone but I often find that peoples perception of Christianity in India is inaccurate, to say the least.
I certainly have no quibble with you about Islam, or our governments wrong headed accomodations to them. They’re dangerous to anyone who is not Islam.
“but I often find that peoples perception of Christianity in India is inaccurate, to say the least.”
I think St. Thomas went there.
Now Indian Christians need to unite with Hindus and right thinking Islamic peoples to defend Mother India from the evils of Fanatic jihad and Pakistan. This should be a time of Unity. Christians, Hindus, and Jews were victims at Mumbai. It is time to march together to face the coming storm of war.
According to Archbishop Pedro Lopez Quintana,Papal Nuncio to India,Christians in the eastern India state of Orissa were terrorized by Hindu radicals in a violent attempt to eliminate the Christian presence there. 60,000 Christians fled to the forests,hiding in fear. Priests were assaulted,nuns raped. Some Christians had their throats cut or were buried alive. 4,000 homes,300 villages and 400 churches have been torched or destroyed,orphanages,schools and other church-run institutions attacked.
He went on to say that Hindu radicals are "trying to impose a Hindu state on the entire population using and ideology with a Nazi totalitarian foundation".
I had attended a party Saturday after the Mumbai terrorism and spent some time with a physician who was born in India. He spent time in Mumbai every two years on his way to visit his mother,stayed at both the Taj and the other place. He said,at that point it was far too early to claim with any degree of certainty that any one group was responsible for the event. I think there is much more intrigue in India than we can imagine,ranging from rivalry between groups that predated Christianity through current power struggles between Indians to organized crime imported from outside. And all that before we even introduce religion into the equation.
I don't mean to trivialize what is obviously a serious and horrific situation, but I wonder if this behavior by Hindus there is in some way a social accretion acquired from interactions with Muslims. Eastern India is close to Bengla Desh which is Islamic and was once part of Pakistan.
Hostilities against Hindus in India by Muslims have been the norm there since Islam appeared in the Subcontinent, which is the pattern Muslims follow everywhere with non-Muslims. It has been particularly acute in Kashmir. Recent attacks and bombings by Muslims against Hindus fill the news.
If you look at the situation from a world-wide perspective, Christians are under attack in Nigeria, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Iraq, among other places and in all case these attacks are due to Muslims. Christians are under attack in their home countries in western and parts of Eastern Europe by Islamic immigrants. I am not aware of any similar behavior by Hindu immigrants there.
Islam, unlike Hinduism, is not a traditionally non-violent belief system. On the contrary, there are many passages in the Koran and in the Haddiths which express violent and intolerant sentiments towards non-Muslims in general and Jews and Christians in particular and these attitudes are institutionalized in the Sharia Law which is enforced in many Islamic states. I am not aware of any institutionalized discrimination against non-Hindus in India.
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