Re : Basilio Monteiro`s comment....." Of course, a few Catholic priests
and nuns get killed, and that is painfully sad; ".........this comment of
his smacks of tacit acceptance of coercion to the point of murder in
harassing and persecution of Christians in India ! How many Hindu
holy men are similarly killed ?
Santosh Helekar seems to gloss over the fact that a Hindu
organisation , ie the RSS ( Rashtriya Sevak Sangh ) set up in India`s
pre-independence days has morphed to a covert attacker of non-Hindu
activities. While the Goa BJP government has not shown any communal
tendencies............... we have to dread a federal BJP government in
Delhi under PM Narendra Modi with its " hindutva " philosophy that will
allow the RSS free rein to preach their message of hatred towards
all non-Hindu Indians be they goans or tribals or dalits who
refuse to bow to the high caste Hindu strict ideology.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Santosh Helekar" <[email protected]>
To: "estb. 1994! Goa's premiere mailing list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 15, 2014 2:50 PM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] Religious Persecution in India: Are you sure?
Basilio Monteiro wrote:
I would like to offer a few random (not exhaustive) thoughts for
consideration about the complex issue of >"religious persecution" in India.
It is a sensitive and provocative issue. Of course, a few Catholic >priests
and nuns get killed, and that is painfully sad; the murder of a priest or a
nun in the hands of a >non-catholic is not necessarily an act of
persecution.
Basilio has presented a reasonable case on the issue of religious
persecution in India. It should throw some light on why the claims of some
Indian and foreign religious organizations/activists about widespread
religious persecution in India against Christians in particular, are by and
large exaggerations and distortions, although incidents of violent crimes or
harassment involving religious fervor and discrimination do occur and have
occurred from time to time throughout history.
To provide a global perspective on this issue, I give below the list of
countries in which there is actual persecution according to an international
Christian organization that monitors persecution of Christians around the
world.
North Korea
Saudia Arabia
Afghanistan
Iraq
Somalia
Maldives
Mali
Iran
Yemen
Eritrea
Syria
Please see http://www.opendoorsusa.org/persecution/about-persecution
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom which makes lists of
"countries with particular concern" about religious freedom based on
complaints made by political and religious activists around the world has
provided the following list of such countries in its latest report:
Burma
China
Eritrea
Iran
Iraq
Nigeria
North Korea
Pakistan
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Vietnam
Please see:
http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1456&Itemid=1
Cheers,
Santosh
