Namaste Maya,

No one in their right mind would condone this. But yes, after years of what's been going on, tensions rise and things happen. We're all human, but we have to rise above our humaness and realize our true Selves are one with God and this sort of thing wouldn't happen.

Regards,

ganesh_bhakta

A friend sent me this article by François Gautier, a correspondent of the French news paper La Monde. Mr. Gautier is a Hindu.

What made Hindus angry in Karnataka

François Gautier
First Published : 06 Oct 2008 02:12:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 06 Oct 2008 07:40:54 AM IST

I WAS born in a Catholic family. My uncle was a priest, a wonderful man of warmth and compassion and I spent most my early years in Catholic boarding schools. When I was young I wanted to become a missionary and to ^Ñconvert^Ò pagans in Asia. What I was taught by priests was that Hindus worship false gods and they needed to be brought back to the True Word by Jesus Christ.

Then of course, I came to India and discovered that actually Hindus, far from being the heathens, as had been portrayed in Europe, not only believed God^Òs diversity, the wonderful concept of avatar, but had given refuge to all persecuted minorities of the world, whether the Syrian Christians, the Parsis, the Jews (India is the only country in the world where Jews were not persecuted), the Armenians, or today the Tibetans.

I am also aghast at the one-sided coverage by the Indian media of the Christian- Hindu problem: blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus in Varanasi, Delhi, Mumbai train blasts, Jaipur, etc. Yet, neither Manmohan Singh nor Sonia Gandhi have pronounced once the word ^Islamic terrorism.^Ò But when furious Hindus, tired of being made fun of, of witnessing their brothers and sisters converted by financials traps, of seeing a 84-year-old swami and his Mataji brutally murdered, of reading blasphemy about their Gods, vent their anger against churches, many of them makeshifts, the Indian government goes after the soft target which the Hindus are. The same thing applies to the United States: they never warned Muslim organisations in India about the killing of Hindus, but when dollars are used to buy new converts and it angers the majority
community of India,Washington has the arrogance to issue a warning, and Manmohan Singh does not have the pride to tell the US to mind its own business.

Neither the Indian press nor the western correspondents bothered to write about what made Hindus angry in Karnataka: Newlife, one important westernfunded missionary centre ( http://www.newlifevoice.org), began making conversions in and around Mangalore by accosting poor people in market areas, or in bus stands, befriending them and then taking them to churches to introduce them to the father.

Upon introduction they were paid Rs 2,500 per person and then taken to the Velankanni shrine, in Tamil Nadu, where they would get another Rs. 3,000.

When they finally converted to Christianity by changing the name, they got an incentive of Rs 10,000 onwards.

Newlife would then give them instructions to abandon wearing tilak on forehead, not to visit and offer prayers at the Hindu temples, replacing the photos and idols of Hindu gods and goddesses with a Cross, etc.

But what really angered local Hindus was when Newlife went one step further and published a book in Kannada ­ Satya Darshini ­ which was widely distributed by its missionaries. Here below is the translation of some of the most abusive passages: ^ÓUrvashi ­ the daughter of Lord Vishnu ­ is a prostitute.

Vashistha is the son of this prostitute.

He in turn married his own Mother. Such a degraded person is the Guru of the Hindu God Rama. (page 48).

When Krishna himself is wallowing in darkness of hell, how can he
enlighten others? Since Krishna himself is a shady character, there is a need for us to liberate his misled followers (page 50). It was Brahma himself who kidnapped Sita.

^ÓSince Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva were themselves victims of lust, it is a sin to consider them as Gods. (page 39).

When the Trinity of Hinduism (Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva) are consumed by lust and anger, how can they liberate others? The projection of them as Gods is nothing but a joke. (page 39). God, please liberate the sinful people of India who are worshipping False Gods. (Page 39).^Ô When blasphemy and much worse is brought against the most sacred Hindu Gods, Hindus are supposed to take it meekly as sheep and let themselves be converted to a foreign religion! There are more than 4,000 foreign Christian missionaries involved in conversion activities across different states.

In Tripura, there were no Christians at the time of independence. There are 1,20,000 today, a 90 per cent increase since 1991. The figures are even more striking in Arunachal Pradesh, where there were only 1,710 Christians in 1961, but 1.2 million today, as well as 780 churches! In Andhra Pradesh, churches are coming up every day in far-flung villages and there was even an attempt to set up one near Tirupati.

Christians throughout the ages have strived on the concept of persecution and as a brought up Catholic, I remember feeling bad about all those martyred saints of Christianity. Christians in India like to say that they are only two per cent and can do no harm. But it is a sham: in the Tamil Nadu coastal belt from Chennai to Kanyakumari, there must be now 10 per cent Christians posttsunami and the same may be true in other parts of south India.

My heart goes out to Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa who took a courageous stand against unethical Christian conversions, but is now under pressure from the Centre.

The BJP, having learnt from bitter experience that the Congress has no qualm in invoking President^s rule under fallacious pretexts in states which are ruled by non-Congress governments is in a quandary: it must show some action against militant Hindu groups while remaining true to itself.

This is why Yeddyurappa took some action against Hindu groups while saying that his government will not tolerate forcible conversions and will take stringent action against missionaries involved in conversions.

And ultimately, the blame must fall on Hindus: they are 800 million in
India, the overwhelming majority; they have the brains, they have the money and they have the power. But either their intellectual and
political class sides with the minorities, out of fear, inferiority
complex imbedded by the British or just sheer crass political
opportunism, or the bigger mass is indifferent inert, selfish, un-civic
conscious. Every Hindu is the inheritor of the only surviving spiritual
knowledge which at the moment is under a concerted attack by Christian missionaries, Americanisation, Marxism and Islamic fundamentalism.

fgautier@rediffmail.com

Namaste gangajal,

Thank you for posting Mr. Gautier's article!

Regards,

ganesh_bhakta

What can people do when the Indian government in never with us. They are more concerned about Christians and Muslims that they don't pay attention to us and give America the advantage. America is a Biased country, more concerned about themselves than anyone else, most of its news are biased. For example they blamed Obama to be a Muslim when he already converted to Christianity.Propaganda were used to get the support for war in Iraq and many more. I hate Christianity more than Islam, because I know what to expect from Islam but Christianity back stabs when people are not aware. I 'm not favoring Islam or anything but sincerely I feel very good about Islam, even when it has a bad reputation and much more, 98% of its followers will never convert to any religion and will not take any insults against their Allah either. There is Pride in Islam, a very very strong belief and a very powerful brotherhood which bonds them together and avoids internal conflicts. Unlike Hindus who make games on Ram and Krishna, don't even take the religion that seriously, don't care whats happening to their brother and sisters, rather interested in pulling each others leg. All together only few Hindus have a powerful faith, what ever was left is devastated by the caste systems which is a great advantage to the Christians. One last thing the Sanatan Dharma was the fist one to come in the world and will be the last one to leave no matter how many bombs Muslims will blast and how many Hindus will the Christians convert.

Peace to All