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Rally to be held in U.S. to protest violence against Christians

Special Correspondent

“U.S. must help hold the people responsible for the violence accountable”

Rally to be held outside White House during Manmohan’s visit
“Probe activities of agencies affiliated to radical Hindu groups in U.S.”

CHENNAI: A rally demanding an end to violence against Christians in India will be held at Lafayette Square in front of the White House in Washington on Thursday during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit there.

The rally is being organised by the Federation of Indian American Christian Organisations of North America (FIACONA).

“We will be holding our Prayer Rally outside the White House to draw attention to the unprecedented levels of religious violence against Christians in India by extremist religious radicals,” FIACONA president Rev. Bernard Malik, said in a statement.

Radical religious extremist outfits such as the VHP and the RSS, both associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, have “unleashed a wave of unprecedented level of violence and bloodshed against Christians in Orissa and Karnataka for the past several weeks,” Rev. Malik added.

At least 49 Christian priests, nuns and members of local congregations were killed and over 300 churches, besides a number of convents/orphanages, were burnt or destroyed, he said.

“It is shameful to allow such things to take place while India is on its way to becoming an economic power. This kind of behaviour needs to be discouraged if India must become a member of the civilised global society,” the statement said.

“U.S.-based organisations affiliated to these radical Indian religious outfits support a number of things from restricting the Constitutional rights of people to follow a religion of their own choice, to supporting the creation of a Hindu religious state in India.”

FIACONA demanded that the U.S. and international governments strongly condemn this religious violence directed against a particular group solely because of their religious faith and to tell the Prime Minister to do all that is necessary to provide adequate security to the people of Orissa and Karnataka.

“We ask the U.S. to help hold the people responsible for this violence accountable and bar them from entering the U.S. as per the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 passed by U.S. Congress,” it said. “We ask the Justice Department to investigate the activities and fund raising efforts by organisations affiliated to radical Hindu groups in the U.S. and how these funds are used for supporting violence against Christian religious groups.”

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