Christians hide in forests as Hindu mobs ransack villages

Source: The Observer

Thousands of terrified Indian Christians are hiding in the forests of the volatile Indian state of Orissa after a wave of religious 'cleansing' forced them from their burnt-out homes with no immediate prospect of return.

A mob of Hindu fundamentalists rampaged through villages last week, killing those too slow to get out of their way, burning churches and an orphanage, and targeting the homes of Christians. Up to 20 people were reported dead, with at least two deliberately set alight, after the murder of a Hindu leader last Saturday provoked the violence.
...
The violence erupted after the murder of Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati at an ashram last Saturday night, along with four other activists from the hardline Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) party.

It was claims by the VHP that Christians were to blame for the deaths that acted as a trigger for the killing spree, although Maoist guerillas have since claimed responsibility for the murders. Reports said that about 30 Maoists opened fire on the ashram. A spokesman for the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army said it had targeted Saraswati, who had campaigned against conversions and the killing of cows, for 'fascist activities'.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/31/india.religion

fundamentalism is dangerous.

Now that is persecution.

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The VHP is disgusting-a bunch of crazed, fundamentalist nut-jobs and they have a fair amount of influence making them even scarier.

They burnt an orphanage?? :wtf:

but think nothing of burning little children to death. fuck them all.

blaming and holding responsible the wrong party for (whatever) troubles.

Even the law and courts gets convictions wrong (susceptible to the same human phenomenon), look at all the prior death row inmates released on DNA related evidence. Interview the former prosecutors, and often they're still convinced the formerly convicted, but now released, were responsible for something else criminal and still deserved punishment.

Perhaps there is no solution. Deep down in places often not revealed, people want revenge for perceived wrongs, even if transference of responsibility is involved. Some use pens and court proceedings, others the police and or military, sometimes (the OP's story) it's imposed by violent mobs.

The Milgram Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Third Wave

Humans appear to have very little social self-awareness and consequently, very little social evolution. For all the machines we create to run the world for us, we're still reacting to eachother at the level of dumb animals. In sum: homo sapiens sapiens is deeply stupid and rather dangerous.

I sometimes get a chuckle out of the notion that if there are any alien anthropologists out there studying humankind, they surely prefer to watch us from a safe distance rather than get too close to the Monkey House.

GOD bless 'em. There is suffering in this world of immeasurable proportions and we need to always turn to CHRIST in these times, imho, so that we can gain strength to get through them and look towards the day of joy when HE returns. Christians are peaceful and do not seek out conflict, as these people fleeing the attack show. They are being "cleansed" for no reason other than extremism and judgment. I pray for them...

forced to burn witches, forced to carry smallpox to the heathen Indians so that Christians could make proper use of the land as God intended, forced to drive out the Jews in place after place with pogroms, forced to destroy the heretical Albigenses...has any religion ever been so beset and subjected to cruel circumstance as the poor Christians?

and not every Christian was involved in those things - just like I and millions of other pacifist Christians are not involved in the Iraq invasion, or the torture of enemy combatants. Throughout history many people have taken up the Cross without following what the guy who hung on it stood for.

Peace to you

Peace to you.

and look what we allow to go on in our own country, when there is a majority of people who aren't like them.

And Peace to you, my fellow DUer. :)

has been done in our name? that is too easy, becoming a sheep in a totalitarian circle jerk. we aren't exempt. Unfortunately.

:spray:

mess. I feel for them.

Comforting salt for the wounds of those currently in hiding I imagine...

Christian churches and orphanage for them to be so ready to jump to that false conclusion, and the Maoist guerillas were a much more intimidating group to blame. How dreadful. I doubt anybody will be given jail time as no one will tell which people actually did the killing, and the VHP seems to represent the majority in the village. They will take over the Christians' land now. They will have to continue to live with the Maoists. I think I prefer the dictatorial control over reproduction that China imposes on its populace, to the consequences of the runaway population growth in India. What we are seeing here on all sides is desperation. Even the Maoists seem to have been opposing the prohibition against killing cows. They must have wanted them for food.

Hindus killing Christians in Orissa, Christians killing Hindus in Tripura, Hindus and Muslims killing each other in Punjab and Kashmir...

When are the Buddhists gonna join in, I wonder? I suppose they got slaughtered in India once, so they'll sit this one out?

I ran into one of those types on campus that are over here for college and they believe so much BS fake history it's pathetic.

these assholes would get more outraged at someone eating beef than the murder of a child who may be of a different religion or caste.

This is not the Hindu religion as I understand it. There is no excuse whatsoever for this.

The religion of 'untouchables' is not a very nice religion.

If those Christians had oil interests the U.S. might help them.

The US would have installed whatever fascist dictator it took to get their hands on it. By way of example: The Shah of Iran and Saddam Hussein. If that fascist was head of the VHP Party, you can bet the farm that the US would be calling the Christians "insurgents" and Faux News would be saying, every thirty minutes at the top and bottom of the hour, that they fully deserved what the VHP was doing to them, and worse.

Or elephants.

Yes, now I'm remembering why I stay as far from ALL organized religion as I can.

Thank you, I'll take a beautiful worship experience of walking through the forest on a drizzly afternoon or watching the full moon rise over the top of the oaks.

to 'turn the other cheek', but the Christians, with the active encouragement of the Pope, organized crusades that killed hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews.

They abscond with an entire religion and give it the worst possible image. They certainly are not representative of the religions in which they profess to believe.

Perhaps they should be called Hindamentalists, Christamentalists, and Muslamentalists instead...with an emphasis on the "mental".

"We need to find new labels for fundies"

Some years back, I read a collection of essays by Gore Vidal. His label for American militant clerics was "Christers". I'd always thought that it had a nice ring to it-- a short, harsh sounding word which has that diaphanous ring of the pejorative about it.

But, on the few occasions that I discuss politics with my fellow parishioners, my sobriquet for the fundies is simply 'Radical American Clerics'; which does two things-- it draws a distinction between the average church-goer and the more aggressive religious posturing taken by many individuals, AND it wraps up all the negative connotation we have re: Iraqi/Iranian Radical Clerics into a (fundamentally) irrefutable phrase placed squarely on the shoulders of those who practice religious bigotry.

said the man who bought an extra apartment at the Dakota to keep his furs in.

1. Make public "religiosity" illegal, with an escalating penalty from a caution to, at last, a prison sentence.

2. Define fundamentalist behavior to be a mental disorder requiring custodial treatment.

:hide: :popcorn:

What precisely is "public religiosity"?

Now whenever I go into a diatribe on the dangers of fundamentalism, I can add Hindus to the list of Muslims, Christians, and Jews.

One shudders to think what Old Norse fundamentalists must have been like.

As are political fundamentalists. And philosophical fundamentalists. And, well... I think we get the idea.

these people are oppressed.