Real danger

Sir, - I am a Christian of Indian origin and have travelled around the world. The real source of danger to the Indian Christian community is not the handful of Hindu extremists. Most of the violent incidents have been due to aggressive evangelising. Other than this there have been few attacks on Christians.

I am afraid that our so-called leaders such as John Dayal and Bishop De Lastic are leading our community down a dangerous path by allying with fundamentalist mullahs. Worldwide the main danger to Christians comes from Islam. In Islamic countries evangelising is banned with death penalty. In Egypt, no new churches may be built. Even repairs are forbidden. Each year dozens of Christian girls are forcibly converted to Islam. In Pakistan forcible conversion of Christian girls by Muslims is common. In Sudan, starvation is used as a weapon to convert Christian villagers to Islam. In Dubai, a Lebanese Christian man was beheaded when it was discovered that his wife back home was a Muslim woman.

From all this it is clear that we face a better future if allied with Hindus. John Dayal and Lastic are perhaps unaware of a recent speech by Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini at a Vatican meet, Synod of European Bishops, where he proclaimed Islam as the number one threat to Christianity. In this speech the lack of secularism in Muslim countries was highlighted.

Samuel Varghese,

Charlotte (U.S.)

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : Murky business
Next     : Defaulting NBFCs