India update 9-20-08

Thousands Fast and Pray for India's Persecuted Christians
By Nirmala Carvalho9/9/2008
Asia News (www.asianews.it/)
Cardinal Vithayathil calls the day a sign of a "new era": "the Christians have responded to the violence with nonviolence, following the teaching of Jesus".
MUMBAI (AsiaNews) - The day of prayer and fasting launched by the Indian Church as a response to the violence against Christians in India has been welcomed by tens of thousands of people. Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, head of the bishops' conference, calls it "the sign of a new era". The "novelty" is in the fact that instead of responding "to violence with violence", Christians have "fasted and prayed to overcome evil", leaving the ultimate judgment to God. With this day, the cardinal continues, the Indian Church "is giving a very powerful catechesis to India, Asia and the world - believers and non-believers - of the teachings of Christ, the Sermon on the Mount: ’Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, forgive, and by this love the world will know you are my disciples"". All over India, Catholics gathered in the churches or in open spaces to express their participation in the sufferings of their brothers and sisters in faith in Orissa.In Orissa itself, where a pogrom against the faithful has been underway for more than a week, all of the ceremonies had to be guarded by the police, who watched over the bishops' residences, the churches, and other Christian institutions. In Ranchi (Jharkhand), Cardinal Thelesphore Toppo gathered more than 6,000 people on the Loyola grounds, a few hundred meters from the cathedral. In Mumbai, Cardinal Oswald Gracias gathered people of different religions in Azad Maidan, to express rejection of the pseudo-religious struggle against the Christians of Orissa




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US asks Indian govt to protect religious freedom
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AgenciesPosted online: Sep 20, 2008 at 1113 hrs
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US asks Indian govt to protect religious... Washington, September 20: Taking note of the recent violence against the Christian community in India, the US has asked the Indian government to protect the religious freedom throughout the country.
"We urge all parties to refrain from violence and urge government officials to protect religious freedom throughout India and thus preserve India's longstanding tradition of religious tolerance," said Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, John Hanford.
He made the remarks while presenting the 10th Annual State Department Report on International Religious Freedom, which is mandated every year by the United States Congress.
"Despite the central government's efforts to foster communal harmony, we have seen more violence against Christians in the state of Orissa, where religious factors, combined with underlying social, economic, and ethnic grievances, have sparked unrest, just in the past few weeks," Hanford said.
He said "we are also concerned about the killing of a prominent Hindu religious leader that sparked the recent unrest in the state."
The State Department also said vast majority of persons of every religious group lived in peaceful coexistence in India but alleged that there were organised communal attacks against minority religious groups, particularly in states governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"In Orissa, governed by a coalition government that include the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal(BJD), Hindu extremists attacked Christian villagers and churches in the Kandhamal district over the Christmas holidays," it said.
"Approximately 100 churches and Christian institutions were damaged, 700 Christian homes were destroyed causing villagers to flee to nearby forests, and 22 Christian-owned businesses were affected," the report said.
We have also seen violence against Christians in the state of Karnataka this past week, some of which appears to have been politically motivated..., it alleged.
The report said that the Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, some state level laws and policies restricted this freedom.
"The National Government generally respected religious freedom in practice; however, some state and local governments imposed limits on this freedom. There was no change in the status of respect for religious freedom by the National Government during the period covered by this report; however, problems remained in some areas," it said.
"Some state governments enacted and amended 'anticonversion' laws and police and enforcement agencies often did not act swiftly to effectively counter communal attacks, including attacks against religious minorities," the State Department's report said.
A section on India said "during the reporting period, the State of Gujarat implemented its 'Freedom of Religion' Law initially passed in 2003 and withdrew an amendment that would have defined "conversions" as occurring only between denominations and not between religions, and would have classified Jains and Buddhists as denominations of Hinduism.
This law requires prior permission from the Gujarat Government for a conversion ceremony."
"Throughout the reporting period, mission officers investigated and reported on numerous cases of alleged religious persecution, ongoing cases in Gujarat, attacks against Christians in Orissa... mission officers also monitored the plight of internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, known as Pandits, who fled their home areas in the valley of Kashmir starting in 1989," the report said.
"The US Government continued to express regret over the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, and urged all parties in Gujarat to resolve their differences peacefully.
The report was prepared after Consulate and senior embassy officers met in Mumbai with a range of NGO, business, media, and other contacts, including Muslim leaders, to monitor the aftermath of the Gujarat violence.
"The Embassy and consulates reached out to madrassas directly and through the special International Visitor Madrassa programmes; religious freedom, tolerance, and respect for diversity were topics of discussion" the report said.

Please pray for the persecuted, Torturing church members, especially leaders, and handling them without mercy
Torturing Christians into falsely confessing to crimes, or torturing them to make false accusations against other communities
Torturing Christians in an attempt to have them renounce their faith
The destruction of buildings used for worship or prayer meetings
The confiscation of Bibles and other religious materials
The beating of Christians by police and government officials
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 8:29pm BIGGEST FLOOD SINCE 7 YEARS IN ORISSA
GOD'S FURY WAS UNLEASHED FOR SEVERAL YEARS IN ORISSA AFTER VHP-BAJRANG DAL BURNT DOWN AUSTRALIAN MISSIONARY STEPHEN CAINNES IN FORM ON VIOLENT STORMS .
AFTER RECENT INHUMAN ATTACKS BY VHP ON CHRISTIANS AND CHURCHES GOD HAS UNLEASHED HIS FURY AGAIN.NOW ORISSA IS TO SUFFER BIGGEST FLOOD SINCE 7 YEARS.
Breaking News-GOVERNMENT OF INDIA ISSUES ADVISORY TO KARNATAKA
New Delhi ;Perturbed over attacks on churches in Karnataka, the Union Home Ministry on Friday put the state on alert and directed it to report to the Centre on the steps taken to deal with the situation.Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said an advisory has been issued to the state government asking it to take effective measures to bring the situation under control.
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 11:26am Bajrang Dal planned attacks-DECCAN CHRONICLE
September 17 : The attack on prayer halls of New Life group was not a sudden attack but planned well in advance. The Bajrang Dal had made all the arrangements to study the working of New Life, collect the literature they use for propagating their sect and finally hatched the plan to attack all the places one after the other.
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 11:19am Church attacked in Chikbalapur district
16th September 2008
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 11:00am Arson and looting reported from PDID in Kandhamal
A mob damaged a church and set some Christian homes ablaze shattering the government's claims that all is under control in Kandhmal. In two identical incidents in PIDI in Raikia block 8-10 houses set on fire and 34 hapless victims moved to the Raika camp. Accoring to sources the government authorities in are threatening shutting down of the camps this week.
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 8:58am Attack on churches: Centre to warn Orissa, Karnataka
Friday, 19 September , 2008New Delhi: The Centre is understood to have decided to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution to warn Orissa and Karnataka to rein in violence following attacks on churches and prayer halls in the two states.
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Fri, 19/09/2008 - 7:32am Forcible conversion the new term by Karnataka to attack Christians
After large scale violence aginst christians in the pretext of 'naturl fall out of murder of its head in Orissa'VHP justified its attacks,.Christian institutions all over India shut down to mourn the death and destruction of Christians in Orissa.Immediately after the shut down, the Karnataka education mimister threatened to cancel licences of all Christian institutions exercised their democratic rights.
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Thu, 18/09/2008 - 9:46pm Atempted to burn down Peter and Paul Cathedral,Jabalpur- Madhya Pradesh
Friday, September 19, 2008JABALPUR, MADHYA PRADESH: A church was set on fire here on Thursday night by two unidentified persons."The two unidentified persons entered the church by breaking the glass of the window and tried to set ablaze the church with the help of a candle," city superintendent of police Raghavendra Yadav said.
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