Indian church leaders plead for protection amid ‘relentless attacks’ on Christians

Bangalore, India, Dec 9, 2024 / 11:40 am (CNA).

The Christian leadership of Assam in northeast India has expressed “deep concern over relentless attacks on the Christian community” in the state ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Assam Christian Forum (ACF) “expressed shock, pain, and anguish over the relentless attacks on the Christian community, its institutions, and individuals over the past year,” the ACF said after a Nov. 28 meeting presided over by its chairman, Archbishop John Moolachira of Guwahati.

“We need protection against what is happening and urge the government to ensure the safety of the Christians,” Moolachira told CNA on Dec. 3.

The diverse concerns of the Christian community in Assam — which accounts for nearly 4% of the state’s 35 million people — were listed in the statement the ACF issued after the meeting involving a dozen key Christian church leaders.

The ACF lamented that there have been several attacks on Christian institutions “demanding the removal of faith-revered statues and pictures.”

“This blatant disregard for religious freedom and tolerance is unacceptable,” the statement said. 

“Police conducting investigations against the church and individuals in [several] districts has created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation,” the organization said.

ACF also pointed to reported “false and malicious accusations against the church” by a Hindu nationalist leader claiming “that [the church] was behind drug dealing and supplying.”

“It is shocking that no action has been taken against him for hurting the sentiments of the Christian community,” the Christian leaders wrote.

Further, ACF noted, under the Magical Healing (Prevention and Evil) Act enacted earlier this year, “innocent church personnel and believers have been harassed and booked for praying for the sick and their well-being or even helping the poor and marginalized to cope with their studies. This is a clear infringement of their constitutional rights.”

Allen Brooks, Catholic coordinator of ACF, pointed to last week’s arrest of a Christian under the dubious Magical Healing Act. “Luckily, he was released on bail by the court,” Brooks said.

“Posters demanding a ban on Christian symbols continue to be pasted on the walls of schools here and there,” Brooks said.

“If the government had acted against the one who launched this demand, we would not have faced a situation like this,” noted Brooks, who served as chairman of the Minority Commission of Assam.

“Our problems have multiplied of late and the situation has become awful and Christians are living in fear,” he said.

Brooks called the effort to portray Christians as drug peddlers “all part of a systematic campaign to terrorize and discredit Christianity.”

In February, meanwhile, the Hindu Kutumba Surakshya Parishad (Family Safety Council) indicated that religious institutions should strip many identifying religious features from schools. 

The “dress of the fathers-sisters,” the “installation of idols of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary and sign of the cross” and the installation of “churches inside the campus of educational institutions” are “exclusive religious practices,” the council said.

It ordered churches to “remove all kinds of exclusive religious items from the campus of the school for maintaining the secular values of the country.”

The group also threatened “to storm into [Christian] campuses without any hesitation if the missionary schools failed to comply with their demand.”

The ACF is appealing to the government “to safeguard the constitutional rights of the Christian minority community and protect them from being targeted for their faith.” 

“We demand immediate action against those responsible for these attacks and false accusations,” it said. 

The Catholic Church in Assam, which numbers more than 600,000 faithful, runs over two dozen hospitals and dispensaries besides nearly 400 schools and other educational institutions in the state.

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260923/indian-church-leaders-plead-for-protection-amid-relentless-attacks-on-christians