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Violence fuels ‘Christian jihad’ fears

The anti-Christian violence ongoing in several states allegedly by the Bajrang Dal and other affiliates of the Sangh Pariwar may spur a Christian jihadi group

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NEW DELHI; The anti-Christian violence ongoing in several states allegedly by the Bajrang Dal and other affiliates of the Sangh Pariwar may spur a Christian jihadi group, fear church leaders, Congressmen from Karnataka, the CPI(M) and even union finance minister P Chidambaram, even as several secular-nationalist Muslim groups in Karnataka have decided to support the Christians.

Decrying the violence against the Christian community, Karnataka Imams Council (KIC) has decided to hold a dharna in Bangalore to condemn the attacks on churches. Mufti Ihathmul Haq, a council official, in a statement said: “The attacks on prayer halls and places of worship in three districts in Karnataka posed a threat to the country’s unity and strength.” The statement said the council’s dharna in front of the Gandhi statue aims at expressing Muslims’ opposition to violence. The council also demanded action against the culprits.

Sources said a few Congress leaders who visited Mangalore with church leaders in the wake of the violence got the feedback that Christian youth feel the BJP government in Karnataka is patronising the Bajrang Dal and the VHP and that they will not get justice. “They are becoming restive and may turn to militancy,” said a church official.  

Some Catholic youth are understood to have told visiting leaders that if Muslim youth could take up arms and retaliate, why not Christians? They said the time had come for Christians to obliterate the “meek, law-abiding, docile tag”.    

Fearing the “hate campaign” may open another terror front, the CPI(M) on Thursday said “the most dangerous message that is being sent out by the BJP-ruled states is the minorities cannot expect just and equal treatment as citizens. This creates the most fertile ground for terrorists of all hues.”

Chidambaram warned of “new waves of terror” if the alienation of the minority communities was not addressed. “There is the challenge of alienation of the Muslim community and, more recently, of the Christian community...Out of hopelessness and despair of the Muslim community — and if not addressed firmly, the Christian
tribal communities too — will rise new waves of terror,” he said at the Field Marshal KM Cariappa memorial lecture here on Wednesday.

Catholic Bishops Conference of India spokesperson Father Babu Joseph, said “The church will never promote violence.  It always advocated peaceful means for solving conflicts, but at the same time Christians like anybody else have the right to self-protection and if the government fails to provide security to their lives and property, Christians will also find ways  to protect themselves like anybody else.” 

Sources said senior Congress leaders Oscar Fernandes and Margaret Alva, hailing from Karnataka, who visited the violence-hit Mangalore, apprised the  Congress top brass and prime minister Manmohan Singh that if the “hate campaign” continued unchecked, the state could get polarised on religious-lines.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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