Media
Christian Leaders in India Confront Anti-Christian Media Trend
India – According to the Union of Catholic Asian News (UCAN), Christian leaders in India are confronting a new media trend in which fabricated stories are used to tarnish the image of Christian missionaries.
On October 28, a delegation of Christian leaders met with the editor of Nai Duniya (New World), a mass circulation daily in India’s Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states. In this meeting, the Christian leaders asked the editor to take corrective measures against articles that regularly appeared in the publication “maligning the Christian community.”
“Initially, we did not bother, but when it continued to publish defamatory articles against us without any base, we thought it appropriate to inform the editor about our concerns,” Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal of Indore told UCAN. “We want the editor to take corrective measures and avoid publishing baseless articles against a community and creating ill will.”
Bishop Thottumarickal told UCAN that the editor promised the delegation he would convey the delegation’s concerns onto the newspaper’s top management.
According to UCAN, an atmosphere of intolerance against Christians has prevailed across India since the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014. Hindu groups and pro-Hindu publications consider the BJP’s political victory as a mandate to push for India to become a Hindu nation.
This in turn has led to the proliferation of attacks on India’s religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians. The publication of articles that cast fear and suspicion upon individuals and communities deemed “foreign” by Hindu nationalists has also dramatically increased.
Sources:persecution
The United Arab Emirates has suspended an agreement to inaugurate visa-free travel for Israelis to the Gulf country until July 1, citing the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.
Until then, Israeli citizens seeking to travel to the UAE will need to obtain a visa, as will UAE citizens seeking to travel to Israel, the ministry said on Monday. The UAE has taken a similar step regarding travel from most European countries, as well as India and Pakistan, the Israeli ministry said.
Israel is in its third lockdown and discussing the possibility of extending it beyond Jan. 21 as the number of new cases remains high.
The UAE ratified the agreement on visa-free travel with Israel last week and it was set to go into effect 30 days from then. The agreement follows a normalization accord between the countries signed in September.
The announcement of the suspension comes a day after Israel’s cabinet voted to require all people returning from the UAE and Brazil to quarantine in government-run hotels. A similar decision made previously regarding travelers returning from South Africa and Zambia was extended for 10 days.
India – According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), Indian Christians endured at least 327 incidents of persecution in 2020. This was despite the fact that most of India’s population lived under locked down conditions for months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to EFI, 327 cases of persecution were documented in 2020. At least five Christians were murdered and six churches were burnt or demolished in religiously motivated attacks. In addition, EFI noted 26 incidents of social boycotts where Christian communities were shunned by their non-Christian neighbors due to their religious identity.
EFI’s report documents the continuation of an ongoing trend of growing religious intolerance and violence in India. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took political power in 2014, incidents of Christian persecution documented by EFI have more than doubled. In 2014, the year the BJP rose to political power, EFI recorded 147 violent attacks on Indian Christians. In 2019, after five years of BJP rule, EFI recorded 366 violent attacks.
The incidents documented by EFI likely represent only a portion of the violence experienced by India’s Christian community. Most incidents go unreported due to fear of reprisal and lack of confidence in India’s justice system.
Sources:persecution
സ്റ്റാറ്റസായി കാര്യങ്ങള് പറഞ്ഞ് വാട്ട്സ്ആപ്പ്; ‘നിങ്ങളുടെ ചാറ്റ് ഞങ്ങള് കാണില്ല’
ദില്ലി:സ്വകാര്യനയത്തിന്റെ പേരില് ഏറെ പ്രതിസന്ധിയിലായ വാട്ട്സ്ആപ്പ് എല്ലാ വാട്ട്സ്ആപ്പ് ഉപയോക്താക്കള്ക്കും വ്യക്തിപരമായി സന്ദേശം അയക്കുന്നു. വാട്ട്സ്ആപ്പിലെ സ്റ്റാറ്റസ് സെക്ഷനിലാണ് വാട്ട്സ്ആപ്പ് പ്രത്യേക സന്ദേശം പ്രദര്ശിപ്പിക്കുന്നത്. സ്റ്റാറ്റസില് ആദ്യം...
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