Date: Tuesday 7 February 2006
Subj: Palestinian Territories - 2.
What now for the Christians of Hamastan?
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Question: What sort of life are Palestinian Christians to expect now that Hamas has been elected to govern the Palestinian Territories? Answer: more of the same, and worse.
MORE OF THE SAME...
Hamas' electoral win is not a surprise result that cannot be explained. Hamas will not radicalise Palestinian Muslims. Hamas won the elections because the Palestinian Authority has already radicalised Muslim society to the extent that it freely elected a terrorist organisation as its government. Hamas' win is the culmination of decades of growing discontent – with the economy, violence and corruption – coupled with the increased radicalisation of Palestinian Muslim society.
Institutionalised discrimination, inequality, and pervasive persecution of Christians have been escalating in the Palestinian Territories for decades. When the Palestinian Territories came under Palestinian Authority (PA) administration after the Oslo Accords, security deteriorated and Islamic zeal and radicalisation increased. This has made life in the Palestinian Territories increasingly difficult for Christians. They live in a state of fear. Those who are able, emigrate. For a detailed scholarly description of the conditions suffered by Christians in the Palestinian Territories see "Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society" by Prof. Justus Reid Weiner. (Link 1)
..AND WORSE
SECULAR ARAB NATIONALISM IS DEAD – ISLAM RULES
In a 31 January Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report, George Friedman comments on Fatah's loss of power in the recent Palestinian National Authority (PNA) elections. "It was not simply internal Palestinian politics that drove the Hamas victory. A wave of Islamist politics is sweeping the Muslim and Arab worlds, and the Palestinians are far from immune. The Islamist movement is doing far more than simply challenging the West: It is challenging the secular Arabists who were the heirs of the Nasserite tradition... In many ways, Fatah was the embodiment of secular Arabism -- the purest form of Nasserism. The Palestinians were among the most secular in the Arab world. Therefore, challenging and defeating Fatah represents a critical moment in the history of the Arab and Muslim world. It represents a new high-water mark for Islamists."
Friedman suggests that Hamas will be primarily concerned with internal, not international politics, as it works to consolidate its position. Hamas will therefore say and do those things that will increase the fervor of their followers and discourage their opponents. They will look to the Islamic world while provoking the West. The West will react to the benefit of Hamas which, as Friedman says, "benefits from a sense of embattlement – the sense that it is confronting the enemies of Islam. As it backs the Israelis and Americans into a corner, and both start reacting, Hamas will increase its strength and authority."
Even before its election victory, Hamas was preparing to further the Islamisation of the Palestinian Territories. In December 2005 the leader of the Hamas contingent at the municipal council of Bethlehem, Hassam El-Masalmeh, told The Wall Street Journal that Hamas intends to re-institute the "jizya", a tax mandated by the Qur'an (sura 9:29) to be imposed on non-Muslims who have chosen not to convert to Islam and must now pay for their right to life. (Jizya is a form of systematic religious humiliation, persecution and extortion). (Link 2)
On 3 February 2006, Hamas leader Khaled Mash'al gave a fiery speech at a mosque in Damascus that demonstrated clearly Hamas is not interested in peace or any dilution of Sharia (Islamic Law). In his speech Mash'al warns that "...the law of Allah cannot be changed or replaced", and threatens that Hamas is prepared "...to place the entire Palestinian people at the disposal of the resistance and its weapons". (Link 3) We need to ask: what will this mean for Palestinian Christians who do not support Islamic jihad?
SO WHAT NOW?
For years, the institutionalised discrimination against and persecution of Palestinian Christians has been covered up by Christian leaders who are either afraid of the consequences of upsetting the status quo, or afraid of losing their good standing with the PA; and by Western nations and human rights organisation that are only interested in appeasing and coaxing the Palestinian Authority into peace negotiations. Well the "status quo" (as intolerable as that was) has ended, and peace is not on the table.
Writing prior to the elections, Professor Justus Reid Weiner called on the PA to crack down on Hamas and eliminate its influence and role as an enforcer of Sharia. It is too late for that now that Hamas controls the PA. But as Friedman notes in his Stratfor commentary, "Since peace is always made with enemies, better to deal with your worst enemy than with hapless moderates." This is as good a time as any to commence advocacy on behalf of the persecuted Christians of the Palestinian Territories.
Elizabeth Kendal
Links
1) "Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society"
by Prof. Justus Reid Weiner, Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs.
2) "Democrats" For Jihad and Jizya
by Andrew G. Bostrom. 30 Dec 2005
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5116
3) Hamas Leader Khaled Mash'al at a Damascus Mosque
MEMRI (No 1087). 7 Feb 2006
http://www.memri.org/bin/opener_latest.cgi?ID=SD108706
Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Thursday, February 2, 2006
NIGERIA: The central government fiddles while the north burns.
Date: Thursday 2 February 2006
Subj: Nigeria: The central government fiddles while the north burns.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
For decades after independence Nigeria was ruled by a succession of military dictators who were predominantly northern Muslims. In 1998 the death of dictator General Sani Abacha paved the way for democracy to be restored, and in February 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo was democratically elected President of Nigeria after winning 63 percent of the vote.
However, the election of the southern Christian inflamed many northern Muslim elites and former power-brokers. To regain their status, power and influence, northern governors exploited the poverty, hardship and ignorance of their constituents and re-invented themselves as religious reformers raising Islam and Sharia (Islamic Law) as banners of hope. (Note: these same "religious reformers" had not been concerned about Islam or Sharia while Nigeria was ruled by northern Muslims.) All across predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, the flames of Islamic zeal were fanned. In the northern states of Kano and Kwara, moves were made to relocate and raze churches, while Zamfara, led by governor Alhaji Ahmad Sani, declared itself to be an Islamic state. In January 2000, Zamfara became the first Nigerian state to officially implement Sharia Law.
President Obasanjo and Nigeria's attorney general declared the implementation of Sharia Law "unconstitutional and illegal". But that did not prevent other norther states following in Zamfara's footsteps. The central (religious fault-line) belt of Nigeria tore apart as riots and conflicts erupted over Sharia and claimed thousands of lives. By August 2000, eight northern states had defied Nigeria's secular Constitution and implemented Sharia Law.
Today, in what is essentially a defiant act of secession, Nigeria's 12 northern states are all under Sharia. What's worse, the Sharia states are able to exploit and abuse their citizens and deny them their constitutional rights, without consequence, as the central government timidly acquiesces, surrendering religious liberty and Christian security in exchange for peace with northern Muslim elites.
Nigeria's central government needs to move decisively to protect the lives and restore the constitutional rights of Christians in the north, and bring the northern Muslim masses on side so that justice, equity and national unity can be restored with minimal bloodshed.
The following posting is a Compass Direct Flash News written by Obed Minchakpu in Nigeria. It is an excellent article and I am forwarding it in full. Minchakpu details some of the severe persecution faced by Christians in the northern state of Zamfara, including the systematic discrimination against them, the systematic demolition of their churches, and the suffering they caused by the imposition of Sharia Law which is enforced by the state's Hisbah Commission. This includes a moving testimony from one Christian convert from Islam.
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
------------------------------------------------------
FLASH NEWS from COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
Summary:
GUSAU, Nigeria, January 31 (Compass) – On October 10, 2003, the local Bakura town government gave notice to the pastor of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Zamfara state that his church would be demolished the following day. That marked the beginning of an assault by Islamic fundamentalists in Zamfara under the leadership of Gov. Alhaji Ahmed Sani through imposition of sharia (Islamic law). At present 14 churches have been marked for demolition in Gusau town alone. "We have been served with demolition notices and even then, there have been announcements over the radio and television on the churches to be demolished," said Rev. James Obi, secretary of the Zamfara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. "It is just a matter of time, and these churches will be no more."
**********
Nigerian Churches Marked for Demolition in Zamfara State
Draconian decrees – including killing "infidels" – come with sharia.
by Obed Minchakpu
GUSAU, Nigeria, January 31 (Compass) – "For your information, the state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, has ordered that your church should be demolished before his arrival in this town tomorrow. So, we shall carry out this directive tomorrow morning."
On October 10, 2003, the Rev. Seth Saleh, then pastor of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Bakura town in Zamfara state, received a Bakura town councilor as an unexpected guest in his house with the above message. The following day, the local government demolished St. Peter's Anglican Church.
The demolition of that church in Bakura marked the beginning of an assault by Islamic fundamentalists in Zamfara under the leadership of Gov. Sani through imposition of sharia (Islamic law). In Gusau town alone, 14 churches have been marked out for demolition.
Those 14 churches have already received demolition notices, according to Rev. James Obi, pastor of Channel of Blessings Church and secretary of the Zamfara state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. They include Eternal Life Bible Church, Christian Faith Bible Church, Chapel of Grace, Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Nigeria, National Evangelical Mission, Assemblies of God Church, Channel of Blessings and Living Faith Church.
Other Zamfara state churches earmarked for demolition are the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ Embassy, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, Colgate Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
The government demolished Rev. Obi's Channel of Blessings church in 1997, and it has marked his rebuilt church for destruction as well.
"We have been served with demolition notices and even then, there have been announcements over the radio and television on the churches to be demolished," Rev. Obi lamented. "It is just a matter of time, and these churches will be no more."
Champion of Jihad
John Garba Danbinta, Anglican bishop of Gusau, said the demolition of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Bakura came on Gov. Sani's orders.
"The governor is from Bakura, and because he is the champion of Islamic jihad in Nigeria, he felt it will be unwise for a church to be seen in his hometown," Bishop Dabinta said.
The bishop pointed out these arbitrary demolitions to refute those in Nigeria who declare Christians face no opposition from the state.
"The news outside Zamfara state is that everything is okay with Christians here," he said. "Some claim that the governor is good and treating Christians well, that Christians do not have problems – but this is false. The problem of persecution of Christians here is a reality. It is a major problem facing us today in Zamfara state."
St. Peter's Rev. Saleh, now pastor at St. John's Anglican Church in Kaura Namoda, recalled how officials often had promised that sharia would only be applied to Muslims. Sharia had long been in effect in civil matters, as in all of Nigeria, but its imposition in criminal matters in 12 northern states has thrown the country into a constitutional crisis.
"When sharia was introduced by the government of Zamfara state, we were told that it is meant to guide Muslims in their faith and that it has nothing to do with us Christians," Rev. Saleh said. "Surprisingly, sharia is now a weapon being used against the church in Zamfara state."
Killing Infidels
Sharia as a weapon has been particularly sharp on Kabiru Lawal, a former Muslim who four months ago received Christ. The Hisbah Commission, Zamfara state's agency for the enforcement of the sharia, is gunning for his life.
In late December and early January, agents of Hisbah invaded the Lawal family's house three times looking for the 29-year-old man. Agents told family members that whenever Lawal is found, he should be prepared to pay the supreme price of abandoning Islam – death.
Each time the Hisbah arrived, Lawal was at the Federal Medical Centre in Gusau town due to illness.
He is now in hiding, no longer free to walk the streets of Gusau. His father, Mallam Lawal, comes from a family of Islamic clerics.
In 2002, Lawal read in the Quran about the second coming of Jesus into the world. Lawal, who holds a diploma in business administration from Kaduna Polytechnic in northern Nigeria, said his decision to investigate the life of Christ was informed by his desire to know whether "Jesus was coming as a Muslim or a Christian."
Tunde Adebayo, a relative, gave Lawal a pocket size New Testament in 2003, which he hungrily read.
Lawal said the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Jesus is coming back not as a Muslim, as Muslims believe, but to take those Christians who believe in Him. He began to attend church services. Last September 3, he went to the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church in Gusau town and asked to receive Christ into his life.
"The Bible clearly presented who Jesus Christ is and provided answers as to why he will be coming back into the world," Lawal said. "The Spirit told me that unless I receive Christ into my heart, I will perish with other Muslims because they do not know the true God."
His family stiffly opposes his conversion, but Lawal said there is no returning to Islam.
"Nothing on earth will make me turn away from Christ," he said, "not even if I will be slaughtered like a ram."
Draconian Decrees
Since the introduction of the sharia in January 2000, Zamfara authorities have banned Christians from sharing their faith or building churches, said Anglican Bishop Danbinta.
Officials are keeping Christians from building churches, he said, by making it impossible for them to acquire land. "We cannot get land, because there is a deliberate government policy to deny Christians land to build churches," Bishop Danbinta said.
There are about 4,000 Anglicans in Zamfara, yet Bishop Danbinta said that in almost all parts of the state the government has refused to allow the church land to build places of worship.
"Sharia, it would seem, is being implemented to curtail Christianity, since it is only targeted at Christians," he said.
70 Mosques, 0 Churches
The Rev. Barnabas Sabo, pastor of the ECWA church in Gusau town, concurred that local governments are using sharia to deny churches land.
Towns denied lands for building churches include Mada, from which Rev. Sabo's church members have to trek more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to Talata Mafara to attend worship services.
Other towns and villages where the ECWA church has been denied land are Kasuwa Daji, Dansadau, Tsibiri in Talata Mafara, and in the Bakura area.
"Gov. Sani, in six years of introducing sharia in the state, has used public funds to build well over 70 mosques," Rev. Sabo said. "Yet no single church has been built by this same government. How fair is this?"
Apart from denial of lands to churches in Zamfara state, Christians have encountered difficulties in other sectors, such as education, where discriminatory school fees have been forced on Christian students and pupils, and there is no teaching of what is known in Nigerian schools as Christian Religious Knowledge.
There is no employment for Christians in the public service, and a ban has been placed on Christian radio and television programs.
The imposition of sharia in criminal matters in 12 northern states has resulted in numerous conflicts bringing death to thousands of persons, most of them Christians.
"If there is anything anybody can do to hurt me, it is for such a person to stop me from serving God the way I want and to stop me from sharing my faith," Bishop Danbinta said. "This is precisely what we as Christians are experiencing in Zamfara state."
END
**********
Copyright 2006 Compass Direct
Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
For subscription information, contact:
Compass Direct
P.O. Box 27250
Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
USA
TEL: 949-862-0304
E-mail: info@compassdirect.org
www.compassdirect.org
Subj: Nigeria: The central government fiddles while the north burns.
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
For decades after independence Nigeria was ruled by a succession of military dictators who were predominantly northern Muslims. In 1998 the death of dictator General Sani Abacha paved the way for democracy to be restored, and in February 1999 Olusegun Obasanjo was democratically elected President of Nigeria after winning 63 percent of the vote.
However, the election of the southern Christian inflamed many northern Muslim elites and former power-brokers. To regain their status, power and influence, northern governors exploited the poverty, hardship and ignorance of their constituents and re-invented themselves as religious reformers raising Islam and Sharia (Islamic Law) as banners of hope. (Note: these same "religious reformers" had not been concerned about Islam or Sharia while Nigeria was ruled by northern Muslims.) All across predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, the flames of Islamic zeal were fanned. In the northern states of Kano and Kwara, moves were made to relocate and raze churches, while Zamfara, led by governor Alhaji Ahmad Sani, declared itself to be an Islamic state. In January 2000, Zamfara became the first Nigerian state to officially implement Sharia Law.
President Obasanjo and Nigeria's attorney general declared the implementation of Sharia Law "unconstitutional and illegal". But that did not prevent other norther states following in Zamfara's footsteps. The central (religious fault-line) belt of Nigeria tore apart as riots and conflicts erupted over Sharia and claimed thousands of lives. By August 2000, eight northern states had defied Nigeria's secular Constitution and implemented Sharia Law.
Today, in what is essentially a defiant act of secession, Nigeria's 12 northern states are all under Sharia. What's worse, the Sharia states are able to exploit and abuse their citizens and deny them their constitutional rights, without consequence, as the central government timidly acquiesces, surrendering religious liberty and Christian security in exchange for peace with northern Muslim elites.
Nigeria's central government needs to move decisively to protect the lives and restore the constitutional rights of Christians in the north, and bring the northern Muslim masses on side so that justice, equity and national unity can be restored with minimal bloodshed.
The following posting is a Compass Direct Flash News written by Obed Minchakpu in Nigeria. It is an excellent article and I am forwarding it in full. Minchakpu details some of the severe persecution faced by Christians in the northern state of Zamfara, including the systematic discrimination against them, the systematic demolition of their churches, and the suffering they caused by the imposition of Sharia Law which is enforced by the state's Hisbah Commission. This includes a moving testimony from one Christian convert from Islam.
Elizabeth Kendal
rl-research@crossnet.org.au
------------------------------------------------------
FLASH NEWS from COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
Summary:
GUSAU, Nigeria, January 31 (Compass) – On October 10, 2003, the local Bakura town government gave notice to the pastor of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Zamfara state that his church would be demolished the following day. That marked the beginning of an assault by Islamic fundamentalists in Zamfara under the leadership of Gov. Alhaji Ahmed Sani through imposition of sharia (Islamic law). At present 14 churches have been marked for demolition in Gusau town alone. "We have been served with demolition notices and even then, there have been announcements over the radio and television on the churches to be demolished," said Rev. James Obi, secretary of the Zamfara chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. "It is just a matter of time, and these churches will be no more."
**********
Nigerian Churches Marked for Demolition in Zamfara State
Draconian decrees – including killing "infidels" – come with sharia.
by Obed Minchakpu
GUSAU, Nigeria, January 31 (Compass) – "For your information, the state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Sani, has ordered that your church should be demolished before his arrival in this town tomorrow. So, we shall carry out this directive tomorrow morning."
On October 10, 2003, the Rev. Seth Saleh, then pastor of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Bakura town in Zamfara state, received a Bakura town councilor as an unexpected guest in his house with the above message. The following day, the local government demolished St. Peter's Anglican Church.
The demolition of that church in Bakura marked the beginning of an assault by Islamic fundamentalists in Zamfara under the leadership of Gov. Sani through imposition of sharia (Islamic law). In Gusau town alone, 14 churches have been marked out for demolition.
Those 14 churches have already received demolition notices, according to Rev. James Obi, pastor of Channel of Blessings Church and secretary of the Zamfara state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria. They include Eternal Life Bible Church, Christian Faith Bible Church, Chapel of Grace, Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Nigeria, National Evangelical Mission, Assemblies of God Church, Channel of Blessings and Living Faith Church.
Other Zamfara state churches earmarked for demolition are the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Christ Embassy, Church of Christ in Nigeria, Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church, Colgate Church and Deeper Life Bible Church.
The government demolished Rev. Obi's Channel of Blessings church in 1997, and it has marked his rebuilt church for destruction as well.
"We have been served with demolition notices and even then, there have been announcements over the radio and television on the churches to be demolished," Rev. Obi lamented. "It is just a matter of time, and these churches will be no more."
Champion of Jihad
John Garba Danbinta, Anglican bishop of Gusau, said the demolition of St. Peter's Anglican Church in Bakura came on Gov. Sani's orders.
"The governor is from Bakura, and because he is the champion of Islamic jihad in Nigeria, he felt it will be unwise for a church to be seen in his hometown," Bishop Dabinta said.
The bishop pointed out these arbitrary demolitions to refute those in Nigeria who declare Christians face no opposition from the state.
"The news outside Zamfara state is that everything is okay with Christians here," he said. "Some claim that the governor is good and treating Christians well, that Christians do not have problems – but this is false. The problem of persecution of Christians here is a reality. It is a major problem facing us today in Zamfara state."
St. Peter's Rev. Saleh, now pastor at St. John's Anglican Church in Kaura Namoda, recalled how officials often had promised that sharia would only be applied to Muslims. Sharia had long been in effect in civil matters, as in all of Nigeria, but its imposition in criminal matters in 12 northern states has thrown the country into a constitutional crisis.
"When sharia was introduced by the government of Zamfara state, we were told that it is meant to guide Muslims in their faith and that it has nothing to do with us Christians," Rev. Saleh said. "Surprisingly, sharia is now a weapon being used against the church in Zamfara state."
Killing Infidels
Sharia as a weapon has been particularly sharp on Kabiru Lawal, a former Muslim who four months ago received Christ. The Hisbah Commission, Zamfara state's agency for the enforcement of the sharia, is gunning for his life.
In late December and early January, agents of Hisbah invaded the Lawal family's house three times looking for the 29-year-old man. Agents told family members that whenever Lawal is found, he should be prepared to pay the supreme price of abandoning Islam – death.
Each time the Hisbah arrived, Lawal was at the Federal Medical Centre in Gusau town due to illness.
He is now in hiding, no longer free to walk the streets of Gusau. His father, Mallam Lawal, comes from a family of Islamic clerics.
In 2002, Lawal read in the Quran about the second coming of Jesus into the world. Lawal, who holds a diploma in business administration from Kaduna Polytechnic in northern Nigeria, said his decision to investigate the life of Christ was informed by his desire to know whether "Jesus was coming as a Muslim or a Christian."
Tunde Adebayo, a relative, gave Lawal a pocket size New Testament in 2003, which he hungrily read.
Lawal said the Holy Spirit revealed to him that Jesus is coming back not as a Muslim, as Muslims believe, but to take those Christians who believe in Him. He began to attend church services. Last September 3, he went to the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) church in Gusau town and asked to receive Christ into his life.
"The Bible clearly presented who Jesus Christ is and provided answers as to why he will be coming back into the world," Lawal said. "The Spirit told me that unless I receive Christ into my heart, I will perish with other Muslims because they do not know the true God."
His family stiffly opposes his conversion, but Lawal said there is no returning to Islam.
"Nothing on earth will make me turn away from Christ," he said, "not even if I will be slaughtered like a ram."
Draconian Decrees
Since the introduction of the sharia in January 2000, Zamfara authorities have banned Christians from sharing their faith or building churches, said Anglican Bishop Danbinta.
Officials are keeping Christians from building churches, he said, by making it impossible for them to acquire land. "We cannot get land, because there is a deliberate government policy to deny Christians land to build churches," Bishop Danbinta said.
There are about 4,000 Anglicans in Zamfara, yet Bishop Danbinta said that in almost all parts of the state the government has refused to allow the church land to build places of worship.
"Sharia, it would seem, is being implemented to curtail Christianity, since it is only targeted at Christians," he said.
70 Mosques, 0 Churches
The Rev. Barnabas Sabo, pastor of the ECWA church in Gusau town, concurred that local governments are using sharia to deny churches land.
Towns denied lands for building churches include Mada, from which Rev. Sabo's church members have to trek more than 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) to Talata Mafara to attend worship services.
Other towns and villages where the ECWA church has been denied land are Kasuwa Daji, Dansadau, Tsibiri in Talata Mafara, and in the Bakura area.
"Gov. Sani, in six years of introducing sharia in the state, has used public funds to build well over 70 mosques," Rev. Sabo said. "Yet no single church has been built by this same government. How fair is this?"
Apart from denial of lands to churches in Zamfara state, Christians have encountered difficulties in other sectors, such as education, where discriminatory school fees have been forced on Christian students and pupils, and there is no teaching of what is known in Nigerian schools as Christian Religious Knowledge.
There is no employment for Christians in the public service, and a ban has been placed on Christian radio and television programs.
The imposition of sharia in criminal matters in 12 northern states has resulted in numerous conflicts bringing death to thousands of persons, most of them Christians.
"If there is anything anybody can do to hurt me, it is for such a person to stop me from serving God the way I want and to stop me from sharing my faith," Bishop Danbinta said. "This is precisely what we as Christians are experiencing in Zamfara state."
END
**********
Copyright 2006 Compass Direct
Compass Direct Flash News is distributed as available to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
For subscription information, contact:
Compass Direct
P.O. Box 27250
Santa Ana CA 92799-7250
USA
TEL: 949-862-0304
E-mail: info@compassdirect.org
www.compassdirect.org
Thursday, January 26, 2006
India: The dictators of Hindutva aim for 'death blow' in Dangs
Date: Thursday 26 January 2006
Subj: India: The dictators of Hindutva aim for 'death blow' in Dangs
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Before entering into the details of what is about to take place in Dangs district, southern Gujarat, India, I will clearly define the main terms for the benefit of those not totally familiar with Indian religio-politics. I will also outline the socio-economic and religious situation in Dangs.
The "Citizen's Inquiry Committee" (CIC) report mentioned and used as a primary source throughout this posting is entitled, "The Untold Story of Hindukaran (Proselytisation) of Adivasis (Tribals) in Dangs, Gujarat". It was published on 8 January 2006 in the Milli
Gazette.
DEFINITIONS
OUTLINE OF DANGS
Dangs district is in southern Gujarat. Gujarat, northwest India, is a BJP stronghold.
Dangs has more than 90% rich forest cover.
While the Christian population of Gujarat is 0.05%, the Christian population of Dangs is around 5%. The total population of Dangs is 186,000; of whom around 8,000 are Christian. Ninety-two percent of Dangs residents are tribal (main tribes: Bhils, Kokanis, Warlis).
The CIC report comments, "The post-1947 political economy of Dangs presents a typical case of utter neglect, dispossession and non-development. Over the last fifty years the Dangi Adivasis have been systematically deprived of their traditional rights over forestland, forest and forest resources and left to fend for themselves. Neither agriculture nor industry has been developed as a source of secure employment and income. Wages and working conditions are strongly exploitative. The social sectors such as health and education are in a state of utter neglect and disarray."
The CIC report explains how Dangi Adivasis aiming to reclaim their traditional rights and freedoms are being driven to take recourse through resistance and struggle. The state is keen to scuttle this, and is doubtless willing to divide the Dangi Adivasis, polarise them along religious lines and set them against each other. The report describes the Sangh Parivar as having tentacles in every nook and corner of Dangs for the purpose of suppressing religious liberty and diverting Dangi Adivasi anger into Hindutva zeal and sectarian conflict.
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE DICTATORS OF HINDUTVA AIM FOR "A DEATH BLOW" IN DANGS
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Sangh Parivar is moving its game to a whole new level. Having lost power in the centre, the dictators of Hindutva are sparing no effort to re-energise and advance Hindutva through an aggressive campaign to co-opt the tribals as BJP voters and VKP Hindutva militants.
Sangh Parivar strategy includes eradicating obstacles to Hindutva; the main obstacle being Christians who serve, empower and liberate India's impoverished, enslaved, sub-caste tribals. The Sangh is creating a whole new localised mythology and tradition with which to deceive, seduce, pressurise and Hinduise the tribals. If successful in Dangs, this strategy could be repeated all across the tribal belt of India.
Once again we are witnessing a battle between openness through liberty and literacy versus religious dictators who seek to enslave through false histories, lies, deceit, persecution, repression and the removal of liberty. The dictators of Hindutva, just like all religious dictators, are doing this not for the good of the people, but in an effort to shore up their own power and prosperity.
HINDUISING ANIMISM
In the 7th Century, Mohammad won the allegiance of the pagan Arabs of Mecca primarily by letting them keep the pre-Islamic pagan practices that sustained their economy and formed their tradition. Thus he redefined as Islamic and absorbed, the crescent moon, the kahba, the month of fasting, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and more into his religion of Islam, making it easier for the Arabs to accept.
A very similar process is gradually and quietly underway throughout the tribal belt of India. One of the main strategies used by the Sangh Parivar to win the allegiance of the tribals is the campaign to convince them that they are actually Hindus who are just practising local and maybe corrupted expressions of mainstream Hindu traditions. Slowly the animist practices are redefined as Hindu, given Hindu names, and gently refined to suit Brahmin sensitivities.
Part of this campaign is the renaming of the Adivasis (first inhabitants) as Vanvasis (forest dwellers). Upon this foundation the proponents of Hindutva then claim that the tribals and the
Indo-Aryans are all one people (there is no indigenous population and no Indo-Aryan invasion) and the "Vanvasis" are really historically Hindu. They use this lie as a basis to "re-convert", absorb, communalise and exploit the Adivasis.
CREATING NEW MYTHOLOGY
When the BJP first wanted to create sectarian tensions for the purpose of promoting Hindutva for electoral gains, they laid claim to the 16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The Sangh Parivar alleged that the historic mosque was actually the very site where Ram, the main god of the high caste Brahmin, was born! In 1991 the BJP promised to demolish the historic mosque and replace it with a temple to Ram.
On 6 December 1992, after a year of communal sectarian tensions, the RSS led the demolition of the Babri Mosque in a violent rampage that cost many hundreds of lives. Following the destruction of the mosque, the BJP swept to power in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on the strength of its Hindutva campaign.
A reverse, but similar process is being undertaken in Dangs, where the Sangh has recently declared that the goddess Shabri, a devotee of Ram, was a Bhil tribal who lived in Dangs and even met Ram there on the hill Chamak Dongar. According to the myth, Shabri washed Ram's feet and fed him berries (tasting them for him first, lest they be bitter). Shabri, a tribal woman who allegedly served and adored Ram, is being held up as the goddess and role model for the "Vanvasis".
In 2004 the Sangh built a huge temple at the alleged site of Shabri's meeting with Ram. A Dangi local was forced to "donate" more than 10 acres to the Assemanand and Kumbh Trust for the Temple site. The hot springs at Uni are now being said to have been created by Ram. A pond has been built on the Purna River at what is allegedly the very place where Shabri's guru used to bathe. The site is being developed to accommodate the 500,000 pilgrims (religious tourists) who will soon invade this densely forested, sparsely populated, environmentally sensitive area for a holy dip during the Sangh's Shabri Kumbh Mela. Protected forest is being felled and forty temporary villages (holding 5,000 people each) are being built. (Remember: the total population of Dangs is normally only 186,000.)
SHABRI KUMBH MELA
The Shabri Kumbh Mela will be held in Dangs from 11-13 February. This is not a traditional Kumbh Mela. It is the recent invention of Hindutva forces. It is a new tradition, built upon a new mythology created for the purpose of Hinduising the Dangi Adivasis. The main aims of this pseudo-Kumbh are:
A central slogan of the Sangh's message is, "Hindu Jago, Christio Bhagao" (Arise Hindus, throw out the Christians). According to the recent CIC report, "The intense hate propaganda against Christians has started resulting in the intimidation of [the] Christian community as a whole. We could see the fear writ on the face of most of the Christians we met."
Augustine Rajwade, a fourth generation Christian told the Citizens' Inquiry Committee that Christian missionaries have been working in this area from 1885. He said that some tribals become Christians because they are impressed by the spirit of service of the missionaries. In some cases one family member will become Christian and the others follow later. He said that the government does nothing to help the Dangis struggle to deal with sickness and death, while the service and prayer healing of some missionaries often works and relieves, leading to conversion. He said his elder brother converted through healing.
The CIC report notes that even though Christian missionaries had been active in Dangs for over a century, sectarian tensions did not rise against them until 1998. It was BJP power in north India, followed by the BJP gaining power in the centre in 1998 that gave the Sangh Parivar great power and freedom to propagate its Hindutva ideology and strategies. After losing power in the centre in 2004 the Sangh is striving to convert as many tribals as possible to its Hindutva version of Hinduism, thus creating votes and militant muscle against its "enemies" (those who threaten its power).
The CIC report says that the Sangh has prepared highly professional materials, including CDs, that propagate an ideology of feverish anti-Christian hate. Christianity is described as foreign and dangerous, a threat that must be destroyed in the same way that Ram killed the demon Ravana.
As the CIC report makes clear, "The core issue is that of Adivasi empowerment. Adivasi land has been as such grabbed by outsiders. The education process run by Christian missionaries is a threat to the designs of upper caste/ upper class. So Christian missions need to be thrown out from these areas."
The leading Hindutva ideologue behind the Shabri Kumbh Mela is Hindutva activist and VKP hard-liner Swami Aseemanand. According to the CIC report he maintains that the Shabri Kumbh Mela will be held every four years and will "...end missionary activity in Dangs and establish it as a key pilgrimage centre of India". This is the same Swami Aseemanand who a few years ago was quoted in the Times of India as saying, "Dangs cannot know peace so long as even a single tribal remains Christian." (11 Feb 1999, see link below)
The forthcoming Shabri Kumbh Mela is being prepared with the full knowledge, cooperation and assistance of the BJP state government of Gujarat, using funds meant for humanitarian development.
Christian leaders are greatly concerned that the Shabri Kumbh Mela will trigger wide-scale anti-Christian violence. According to the All India Christian Council, the BJP government in Gujarat has been busy fixing flags to the homes of Dangi Christians so they will be identified. Indeed, the CIC report warns, "The openly partisan support of the state government for the dangerous sectarian objectives of the Sangh needs to be combated, and the safety of minorities secured, else the tribal regions of India, already dispossessed and pauperised, will flow with the blood of sectarian hatred."
- Elizabeth Kendal
-----------------------------------
IMPORTANT WEBSITE
-----------------------------------
The Shabri Kumbh Mela official website specifically states that the Shabri Kumbh Mela is "...for the defense of Hindu society in general and the vanavasi/tribal Hindus in particular... The sustained conversion activities carried out by Christian missionaries with the help of their foreign masters has altered the religious demography of large parts of our country. The tribal areas of our country are a special target of this missionary offensive. This has caused self-alienation among the tribals and fanned separatist and terrorist activities. The Shabarikumbh has been organized to deal a death blow to such anti-dharmic and anti-national activities..."
---------------------------------
IMPORTANT ARTICLES
---------------------------------
Times of India
Dangs Violence is A Story Foretold
by Arun Varghese, 11 Feb 1999
http://www.media-watch.org/articles/0299/182.html
NGOs accuse Sangh, Gujarat Govt. of converting Christian tribals in
Dangs. 11 Jan 2006 http://in.christiantoday.com/news/gen_631.htm
Rightwing Hindu militants target Christian aborigines
By Sankar Ray from Kolkata. 11 Jan 2006
http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=16704
Hindu festival in Dangs region may stoke communal violence, fears
AICC. 12 Jan 2006 http://in.christiantoday.com/news/gen_633.htm
CSW's All Indian Christian Council Meets With Government to Prevent
Attacks. 21 January 2006
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/missions/csws.all.indian.christian.council.meets.with.government.to.prevent.attacks./592.htm
A Report by the Citizen's Inquiry Committee
"The Untold Story of Hindukaran (Proselytisation) of Adivasis
(Tribals) in Dangs, Gujarat". 8 January 2006
http://www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/2006/20060108-Hindutva.htm
Subj: India: The dictators of Hindutva aim for 'death blow' in Dangs
To: World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis
From: WEA RLC Principal Researcher and Writer, Elizabeth Kendal.
Before entering into the details of what is about to take place in Dangs district, southern Gujarat, India, I will clearly define the main terms for the benefit of those not totally familiar with Indian religio-politics. I will also outline the socio-economic and religious situation in Dangs.
The "Citizen's Inquiry Committee" (CIC) report mentioned and used as a primary source throughout this posting is entitled, "The Untold Story of Hindukaran (Proselytisation) of Adivasis (Tribals) in Dangs, Gujarat". It was published on 8 January 2006 in the Milli
Gazette.
DEFINITIONS
- Hindutva: the ideology of Hindu supremacy which has as its goal the creation of a Hindu nation.
- Sangh Parivar: the umbrella body dedicated to the advancement of Hindutva.
- RSS: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps), the Sangh's paramilitary force.
- Bajrang Dal: the Sangh's ultra-violent Hindutva youth militia.
- VHP: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), the "cultural arm of the Sangh Parivar, committed to advancing Hinduism through"cultural" means.
- BJP: The Barantya Janata Party, the political wing of the Sangh Parivar.
- Adivasis: (literally: first inhabitants), the indigenous tribal people of India. Because Adivasis are considered to be outside/beneath the Hindu caste system they are massively and systematically discriminated against and exploited by Hindu Indo-Aryan society.
- Vanvasis: (literally: forest dwellers) the Sangh's hinduised name for Adivasis, whom the Sangh does not recognise as indigenous.
- VKP: Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, an offshoot of the RSS comprising hinduised tribals.
- Kumbh Mela: a traditional Hindu pilgrimage/festival that takes place four times every twelve years and rotates across four set venues – Prayag (Uttar Pradesh), Haridwar (Uttar Pradesh), Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) and Nasik (Maharashtra).
OUTLINE OF DANGS
Dangs district is in southern Gujarat. Gujarat, northwest India, is a BJP stronghold.
Dangs has more than 90% rich forest cover.
While the Christian population of Gujarat is 0.05%, the Christian population of Dangs is around 5%. The total population of Dangs is 186,000; of whom around 8,000 are Christian. Ninety-two percent of Dangs residents are tribal (main tribes: Bhils, Kokanis, Warlis).
The CIC report comments, "The post-1947 political economy of Dangs presents a typical case of utter neglect, dispossession and non-development. Over the last fifty years the Dangi Adivasis have been systematically deprived of their traditional rights over forestland, forest and forest resources and left to fend for themselves. Neither agriculture nor industry has been developed as a source of secure employment and income. Wages and working conditions are strongly exploitative. The social sectors such as health and education are in a state of utter neglect and disarray."
The CIC report explains how Dangi Adivasis aiming to reclaim their traditional rights and freedoms are being driven to take recourse through resistance and struggle. The state is keen to scuttle this, and is doubtless willing to divide the Dangi Adivasis, polarise them along religious lines and set them against each other. The report describes the Sangh Parivar as having tentacles in every nook and corner of Dangs for the purpose of suppressing religious liberty and diverting Dangi Adivasi anger into Hindutva zeal and sectarian conflict.
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE DICTATORS OF HINDUTVA AIM FOR "A DEATH BLOW" IN DANGS
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Sangh Parivar is moving its game to a whole new level. Having lost power in the centre, the dictators of Hindutva are sparing no effort to re-energise and advance Hindutva through an aggressive campaign to co-opt the tribals as BJP voters and VKP Hindutva militants.
Sangh Parivar strategy includes eradicating obstacles to Hindutva; the main obstacle being Christians who serve, empower and liberate India's impoverished, enslaved, sub-caste tribals. The Sangh is creating a whole new localised mythology and tradition with which to deceive, seduce, pressurise and Hinduise the tribals. If successful in Dangs, this strategy could be repeated all across the tribal belt of India.
Once again we are witnessing a battle between openness through liberty and literacy versus religious dictators who seek to enslave through false histories, lies, deceit, persecution, repression and the removal of liberty. The dictators of Hindutva, just like all religious dictators, are doing this not for the good of the people, but in an effort to shore up their own power and prosperity.
HINDUISING ANIMISM
In the 7th Century, Mohammad won the allegiance of the pagan Arabs of Mecca primarily by letting them keep the pre-Islamic pagan practices that sustained their economy and formed their tradition. Thus he redefined as Islamic and absorbed, the crescent moon, the kahba, the month of fasting, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and more into his religion of Islam, making it easier for the Arabs to accept.
A very similar process is gradually and quietly underway throughout the tribal belt of India. One of the main strategies used by the Sangh Parivar to win the allegiance of the tribals is the campaign to convince them that they are actually Hindus who are just practising local and maybe corrupted expressions of mainstream Hindu traditions. Slowly the animist practices are redefined as Hindu, given Hindu names, and gently refined to suit Brahmin sensitivities.
Part of this campaign is the renaming of the Adivasis (first inhabitants) as Vanvasis (forest dwellers). Upon this foundation the proponents of Hindutva then claim that the tribals and the
Indo-Aryans are all one people (there is no indigenous population and no Indo-Aryan invasion) and the "Vanvasis" are really historically Hindu. They use this lie as a basis to "re-convert", absorb, communalise and exploit the Adivasis.
CREATING NEW MYTHOLOGY
When the BJP first wanted to create sectarian tensions for the purpose of promoting Hindutva for electoral gains, they laid claim to the 16th Century Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The Sangh Parivar alleged that the historic mosque was actually the very site where Ram, the main god of the high caste Brahmin, was born! In 1991 the BJP promised to demolish the historic mosque and replace it with a temple to Ram.
On 6 December 1992, after a year of communal sectarian tensions, the RSS led the demolition of the Babri Mosque in a violent rampage that cost many hundreds of lives. Following the destruction of the mosque, the BJP swept to power in the northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on the strength of its Hindutva campaign.
A reverse, but similar process is being undertaken in Dangs, where the Sangh has recently declared that the goddess Shabri, a devotee of Ram, was a Bhil tribal who lived in Dangs and even met Ram there on the hill Chamak Dongar. According to the myth, Shabri washed Ram's feet and fed him berries (tasting them for him first, lest they be bitter). Shabri, a tribal woman who allegedly served and adored Ram, is being held up as the goddess and role model for the "Vanvasis".
In 2004 the Sangh built a huge temple at the alleged site of Shabri's meeting with Ram. A Dangi local was forced to "donate" more than 10 acres to the Assemanand and Kumbh Trust for the Temple site. The hot springs at Uni are now being said to have been created by Ram. A pond has been built on the Purna River at what is allegedly the very place where Shabri's guru used to bathe. The site is being developed to accommodate the 500,000 pilgrims (religious tourists) who will soon invade this densely forested, sparsely populated, environmentally sensitive area for a holy dip during the Sangh's Shabri Kumbh Mela. Protected forest is being felled and forty temporary villages (holding 5,000 people each) are being built. (Remember: the total population of Dangs is normally only 186,000.)
SHABRI KUMBH MELA
The Shabri Kumbh Mela will be held in Dangs from 11-13 February. This is not a traditional Kumbh Mela. It is the recent invention of Hindutva forces. It is a new tradition, built upon a new mythology created for the purpose of Hinduising the Dangi Adivasis. The main aims of this pseudo-Kumbh are:
- to bring the tribals into the "mainstream" (ie. Hinduise and communalise them) for the purpose of increasing electoral gains and militant strength;
- to stir up hatred against Christians whose welfare and education ministries threaten the Sangh's ability to enslave the tribals into the future. In fact the Shabri Kumbh Mela official website declares that the event is designed specifically to "...deal a death blow to such anti-dharmic and anti-national activities" as Christian missions (see link below);
- to shatter Adivasi solidarity (and maybe even reduce the Adivasi population) by polarising the Adivasis along religious lines and setting them against each other.
A central slogan of the Sangh's message is, "Hindu Jago, Christio Bhagao" (Arise Hindus, throw out the Christians). According to the recent CIC report, "The intense hate propaganda against Christians has started resulting in the intimidation of [the] Christian community as a whole. We could see the fear writ on the face of most of the Christians we met."
Augustine Rajwade, a fourth generation Christian told the Citizens' Inquiry Committee that Christian missionaries have been working in this area from 1885. He said that some tribals become Christians because they are impressed by the spirit of service of the missionaries. In some cases one family member will become Christian and the others follow later. He said that the government does nothing to help the Dangis struggle to deal with sickness and death, while the service and prayer healing of some missionaries often works and relieves, leading to conversion. He said his elder brother converted through healing.
The CIC report notes that even though Christian missionaries had been active in Dangs for over a century, sectarian tensions did not rise against them until 1998. It was BJP power in north India, followed by the BJP gaining power in the centre in 1998 that gave the Sangh Parivar great power and freedom to propagate its Hindutva ideology and strategies. After losing power in the centre in 2004 the Sangh is striving to convert as many tribals as possible to its Hindutva version of Hinduism, thus creating votes and militant muscle against its "enemies" (those who threaten its power).
The CIC report says that the Sangh has prepared highly professional materials, including CDs, that propagate an ideology of feverish anti-Christian hate. Christianity is described as foreign and dangerous, a threat that must be destroyed in the same way that Ram killed the demon Ravana.
As the CIC report makes clear, "The core issue is that of Adivasi empowerment. Adivasi land has been as such grabbed by outsiders. The education process run by Christian missionaries is a threat to the designs of upper caste/ upper class. So Christian missions need to be thrown out from these areas."
The leading Hindutva ideologue behind the Shabri Kumbh Mela is Hindutva activist and VKP hard-liner Swami Aseemanand. According to the CIC report he maintains that the Shabri Kumbh Mela will be held every four years and will "...end missionary activity in Dangs and establish it as a key pilgrimage centre of India". This is the same Swami Aseemanand who a few years ago was quoted in the Times of India as saying, "Dangs cannot know peace so long as even a single tribal remains Christian." (11 Feb 1999, see link below)
The forthcoming Shabri Kumbh Mela is being prepared with the full knowledge, cooperation and assistance of the BJP state government of Gujarat, using funds meant for humanitarian development.
Christian leaders are greatly concerned that the Shabri Kumbh Mela will trigger wide-scale anti-Christian violence. According to the All India Christian Council, the BJP government in Gujarat has been busy fixing flags to the homes of Dangi Christians so they will be identified. Indeed, the CIC report warns, "The openly partisan support of the state government for the dangerous sectarian objectives of the Sangh needs to be combated, and the safety of minorities secured, else the tribal regions of India, already dispossessed and pauperised, will flow with the blood of sectarian hatred."
- Elizabeth Kendal
-----------------------------------
IMPORTANT WEBSITE
-----------------------------------
The Shabri Kumbh Mela official website specifically states that the Shabri Kumbh Mela is "...for the defense of Hindu society in general and the vanavasi/tribal Hindus in particular... The sustained conversion activities carried out by Christian missionaries with the help of their foreign masters has altered the religious demography of large parts of our country. The tribal areas of our country are a special target of this missionary offensive. This has caused self-alienation among the tribals and fanned separatist and terrorist activities. The Shabarikumbh has been organized to deal a death blow to such anti-dharmic and anti-national activities..."
---------------------------------
IMPORTANT ARTICLES
---------------------------------
Times of India
Dangs Violence is A Story Foretold
by Arun Varghese, 11 Feb 1999
http://www.media-watch.org/articles/0299/182.html
NGOs accuse Sangh, Gujarat Govt. of converting Christian tribals in
Dangs. 11 Jan 2006 http://in.christiantoday.com/news/gen_631.htm
Rightwing Hindu militants target Christian aborigines
By Sankar Ray from Kolkata. 11 Jan 2006
http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=16704
Hindu festival in Dangs region may stoke communal violence, fears
AICC. 12 Jan 2006 http://in.christiantoday.com/news/gen_633.htm
CSW's All Indian Christian Council Meets With Government to Prevent
Attacks. 21 January 2006
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/missions/csws.all.indian.christian.council.meets.with.government.to.prevent.attacks./592.htm
A Report by the Citizen's Inquiry Committee
"The Untold Story of Hindukaran (Proselytisation) of Adivasis
(Tribals) in Dangs, Gujarat". 8 January 2006
http://www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/2006/20060108-Hindutva.htm