People need to read the whole article. Until both India and Pakistan adopt complete religious freedom, there is no hope for either of them. They refuse to do so because they know that in an atmosphere of freedom, nothing can resist the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Islam and Hinduism will fall before the truth.
Christianity has failed in much of Europe.
A more or less ridiculous charge w.r.t India. The most powerful woman in India is a Roman Catholic, along with several states having Christian majorities now. How do you explain Israel not converting wholesale to Christianity, then? Lack of religious freedom there too? Conversions and re-conversions go on back and forth in India so often, it’s almost comical.
Those from India who post on this board have explained the limits of freedom in India, before. I have pinged them.
As someone who has been to India multiple times, India does have freedom of religion, a great deal in fact, and arguably more so then most nations.
The entire population is not Hindu, its overwhelmingly hindu, but its also got muslims (unfortunatly they make up 10% of the population, which ironically makes India the nation with the most muslims in the world) along with several other religions (sikh, Buddhist, zoroastrian, etc).
Saying India has no freedom of religion, is akin to saying Texas has no vegetables.
Please. Give it a rest. You simply sound silly.
“People need to read the whole article. Until both India and Pakistan adopt complete religious freedom, there is no hope for either of them.”
From what I’ve read of Islam the act of allowing religious freedom is itself blasphemous. Anyone who suggested it would be automatically subject to death from the “true believer” closest to him. Notice the author’s father was killed by his own bodyguard for defending a Christian accused of blasphemy. Just the un-Islamic act of defending someone of another faith is an automatic death sentence. Not a death sentence carried out by a government, mind you. Islam is the most “empowering” religion. If you consider yourself a true believer, you can enforce the death sentence, or caning or throwing acid, whenever you like. Imagine you’re a poor peasant. As long as you claim to be a true believer, you have all the power of a king. That’s one of Islam’s appeals to the masses; much more enticing than Communism.
Posts like your have given the Christians the reputation of being religious whacks. This article isn’t about what religious is superior.And whether you like it or not there will always be vast diversity of religions and belief systems in the world and that is a good thing.
And regardless of what you believe India already has religious freedom. And fact will all the religious freedom is Christianity is actually falling apart in US and Europe, Islam is the fast growing religion in these two places. Religious freedom is a two edged sword.
India HAS religious freedom -- freedom to practise and to preach/convert (* NOTE below).
Christians in Bombay, Goa, Tamil Nadu (large Catholic minorities from 34% in Goa to about 5% in TN), Kerala (large Catholic/Syriac/Orthodox/Protestant minorities -- 30%+ of the population, Mizoram/Nagaland (99% Christian), Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura (Christian majorities), Meghalaya etc with large Christian minorities
In all of the states where Christians are a sizable population, Christians have been living there for hundreds or even thousands (as in the case of Kerala since St. Thomas the Apostle came) of years. They have places of worship, teaching, etc. and are not only unmolested but are an integral part of society
In the places where they are 1% or less of the population they are still accepted as part of society and not persecuted.
The cases of persecution were in Orissa and in Karnataka -- different reasons for each. In Orissa this was a mix of caste, class, politics and religion -- India has a kind of affirmative action, only its more extensive -- instead of 1/2 categories it has dozens of different% of reservations. The lowest caste get some (as Scheduled Caste), the tribals who are not part of the caste system get some (as Scheduled Tribes), the other backward castes (50% of the population) get some (as OBC category), etc. etc.
In Orissa the lowest caste mostly converted to become Christian. But the problem is that Hindu right-wing politicians who are also anti-lower caste and anti-Affirmative Action said "if they are Christian they can't claim lower caste reservation" and also the Christian lower-castes were actually getting better educated (thanks to Christian missionaries) than even upper caste folks. So some Christians reclassified themselves as Scheduled TRIBals
This caused conflict with the Tribals who btw were not even Hindu but animist. This was a perfect situation for the Hindu right-wing party to politicize to get votes (it shares power in that state with a regional party).
PLUS, add to the mix, a STRONG MARXIST/MAOIST movement. These Maoists were the ones who killed a Hindu religious/political leader which triggered off the violence
The state government is to be blamed for not acting fast enough, but like most other state governments in India they are incompetent. Only when the National federal government took action did the state move faster.
In the case of Karnataka it is politics mixed with sheer stupidity on the part of some born-again groups. The state is ruled by the hindu-right wing party. The Christians have lived there (in South Canara, Mangalore) for centuries peacefully, intermarried, been part of the local landscape and are part of the society there.
The Born-again groups there printed and distributed pamphlets calling hindu gods and goddesses as demons. Now, you can suggest this, but if you preach or distribute pamphlets like this, guess what, there will be violence in return.
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Also the hindu right-wing group is trying to say that there are forced conversions to Christianity (which no one, not even hindus believe) or conversions due to money (which some hindus believe -- even moderate ones -- and which are possible, but these are people who bluntly will change back tomorrow if given a gift. They are not true conversions) and tried to make laws. But the problem is that it's difficult to prove the latter and it goes against India's secular, respect-for-all-religions constitution.
In contrast, Pakistan is constitutionally defined as an Islamic state run by shariah, where any form of "blasphemy" (such as saying a man is also God) is punishable by death. There is no comparison
t in an atmosphere of freedom, nothing can resist the Gospel of Jesus Christ. -- we Christians would like to think so, but its not completely true -- look at the US for example, there are many non-Christians here. People who are seeking God are few in most countries -- many are just content to carry on.