Posted on 10/07/2021 6:19:59 AM PDT by Cronos
Catholic Bishop Mar Joseph Kallarangatt’s remarks that youth from non-Muslim faiths are falling prey to “narcotics jihad” has stirred controversy in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
“Various types of drugs are being used in ice-cream parlours, hotels and juice corners run by hardcore jihadis,” Kallarangatt said in his sermon to devotees at Marth Mariam Pilgrim Church in Kerala’s Kottayam district on September 10, adding that “they are using various types of drugs as a weapon to spoil non-Muslims.”
“Narcotics jihad is the activity of spoiling the life of non-Muslims, particularly youths, by making them addicted to drugs,” the bishop said.
Kallarangatt also referred to “love jihad” – a conspiracy theory that has been widely peddled by Hindutva activists but also endorsed by Catholic and Protestant clergy in India, according to which Muslim men are allegedly luring non-Muslim women into marriage and forcing them to convert to Islam. The bishop claimed that non-Muslim girls, especially from the Christian community, are being converted “after trapping them in love, exploiting and misusing them for destructive activities like terrorism.”
The bishop’s controversial claims evoked an array of responses.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been at the forefront of accusing Muslim men of waging a “love jihad” against Hindu women, jumped at the opportunity arising from Kallarangatt’s claims. Its leaders rushed to meet the bishop to express solidarity and accused the ruling Left Front government and the Congress party of “supporting extremist forces.”
Brushing aside the unsubstantiated allegations, Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that it was the first time he had heard of “narcotic jihad.” The issue of narcotics is an “anti-social” matter and not a religious issue, Vijayan said. He cautioned those in positions of power to refrain from making divisive statements.
Kerala has generally voted either for the Congress or the Communist parties. The BJP has virtually no presence in the state. The party has been trying desperately to gain a toe-hold among voters. It has been trying to attract the votes of Christians, who make up 18 percent of the state’s population, and is wooing the Christian clergy. This incentivization has led to Catholic and Protestant priests echoing the anti-Muslim positions of the Hindu nationalist BJP. Heading one of the biggest Catholic churches in Kerala, Kallarangatt exercises massive clout within the realm of the church.
Kallarangatt heads the same Syro-Malabar Church, which released a statement in 2020 claiming that Christian girls were being “targeted and killed” in the name of “love jihad.”
But the same year, the BJP government admitted in parliament that “no such case of ‘Love Jihad’ has been reported by any of the central [investigative] agencies.”
The term “love jihad” was initially created to explain the case of identity theft that happened with Tara Sahdev, the national-level air rifle shooter in 2014, when she alleged that her husband Raqibul Hassan, alias Ranjit Kohli, had pressured her to change her religion.
The term was adopted by Hindutva organizations to harass interfaith couples, particularly Hindu-Muslim couples, on the grounds that the Hindu partner is often “forced” to convert to Islam, which is seen as a ploy to increase India’s Muslim population.
Although Hadiya chose to convert to Islam of her own volition to marry a Muslim, Hindutva activists accused her husband of waging a “love jihad.” After using this term to discredit Hindu-Muslim marriages in the country, the word “jihad” is being routinely added as a suffix by right-wing propagandists to stir anti-Muslim and Islamophobic sentiments in a country where 14 percent of the population is Muslim. They have floated terms like “Corona jihad,” “Land jihad,” “population jihad,” “economic jihad,” “history jihad” and “media jihad” to name a few. To this long list of concocted terms that reek of Islamophobia, Kallarangatt has added another: “narcotics jihad.”
However, Kallarangatt did not stop here. He has stirred controversy again by writing an article on how “pseudo-secularism will destroy India” in Deepika, the church’s official mouthpiece. This will endear him even more to the BJP.
Kallarangatt has conveniently forgotten that since the BJP came to power in 2014, incidents of vandalism and desecration of churches have increased manifold in India. The mobs responsible for the attacks on churches have often belonged to groups that pledge their allegiance to organizations affiliated with the BJP.
As recently as October 3, over 200 unidentified men and women, allegedly belonging to local right-wing groups, vandalized a church in Uttarakhand’s Roorkee in northern India. The violent mob injured several people who had assembled for morning prayers. Even after a complaint being filed with Uttarakhand Police, no arrests have been made yet.
Kallarangatt’s aligning with the BJP could prove costly to his own community.
The BJP and Hindu fundamentalists want India for Hindus only and for Christian missionaries to be banned and Muslims killed.
On the other hand Muslims are targeting Christians just as they do everywhere else.
Love jihad is happening in the West big time. They thought they could convert Muslims to secular practices like free sex but the schizophrenic reverse is happening, with now Muslims even “greeting” gays outside nightclubs
This is a patently false statement. The BJP is against conversion not Christianity. I am forever grateful I studied in a Convent and I draw a clear distinction between missionaries and evangelists. Today many Evangelists wear saffron robes and chant Sanskrit shlokas after inserting the Jesus' name in place of "Bhagwan". And offering inducements in cash and kind.
How is your statement “The BJP is against conversion “ different from mine “the BJP want for Christian missionaries to be banned”
What exactly is wrong with Evangelicals replacing Bhagwan (meaning God in Sanskrit) with Jesus?
and the “inducements offered in cash and kind” are BJP propaganda. It’s illegal to offer cash/kind for conversion and yet in all these decades not one case has been brought up before the courts about this.
Net-net - it’s a false story
I mentioned that I draw a clear line between missionaries and evangelists. Not all missionaries are in the business of conversion. A lot of BJP seniors' kids go to convent schools.
What exactly is wrong with Evangelicals replacing Bhagwan (meaning God in Sanskrit) with Jesus?
Christians have their own devotional songs. Why pretend to be Hindu, wearing saffron robes and singing Sanskrit Shlokas?
Workers in my company were approached by evangelists offering free Chinavirus treatment and 5 Lakh Rupees if they converted with their family. This person had the audacity to come into the company during working hours to ply his trade. So while you may think it illegal, that does not stop it happening. It is an open fact that admission to good convent schools is obtainable only after hefty donations to the church. I was also hinted at this when my kid needed admission but I had not the wherewithal to pay. My kid could not study in that school. And the donation was in cash or by cheques made out to the Jesuit Society. Both illegal and unethical. In poor areas, bags of grains are often used as inducements. Or bribes as popularly called.
You can fulminate, but the facts remain.
USA with pot promotion has no moral determinsm.
It’s not that I think it is illegal - it IS illegal.
The Orissa Freedom of Religions Act of 1967 states that “no person shall convert or attempt to convert either directly or otherwise any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means nor shall any person abet any such conversion.”
That’s there in other states.
your company should prosecute such people.
Next - the “donation” for admission to schools is a different issue, bribery. But it is not related to conversion.
Do you even know the meaning of the verb “to fulminate”?
I’m pointing out
1. there are laws against conversion by inducements
2. there have been NO cases in the courts around this - if it really happened in your company, then why didn’t you take this person to court?
3. you bring up a different issue (yes, it’s an issue but a different one) unrelated to this to change the topic.
Show me even one case brought up before Indian courts of conversion by inducements
What exactly has this got to do with the USA?
This is in India.
Indian Christians are the target of BJP hindu fundamentalists (not most hindus) and of Muslims.
the article in particular is about Muslims but talks about whether the Marthomites should be dallying with the BJP. SO the Christians are stuck between a rock and a hard place
One tactic that pimps use, is to seek out dysfunctional girls and get them addicted to drugs, which the pump can supply to them.
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