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Don't Convert!- A rejoinder by Dr. Hilda Raja

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Rev. John P. Jones in his book: India: Its Life and Thought observed that:

"It is a curious fact that the hideous and bloody monster of religious intolerance was hardly known in India until, first the followers of Mohammed and, secondly, the disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus, began to invade the land ."

(source: India: Its Life and Thought - By John P Jones).  Refer to Mother Teresa The Final Verdict - By Aroup Chatterjee and The disadvantaged Hindus, pampered Minorities - By R K Ohri

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Conversion is process of Cultural alienation and Creates Western Clones

Don’t target Convertsby Michael Pinto (Times of India 8th October) poses many questions than it answers. No amount of provocation can justify violence is easily said but humanly not easy to follow. All are not Gandhians or Jesus to show the left cheek when slapped on the right. Some countries follow a justice system which is based on ‘eye for an eye’. Aggressive policy of conversion followed by some fundamentalist churches and fundamental Christians cannot justify taking law into one’s hand and no amount of provocation can justify violence is correct theoretically and logically. But if such logic rules the hearts and minds of men/women why is there so much of violence in the world? Why do countries violate the rights of other countries? Why do law makers turn into law breakers? Why do those in the Khaki who have to operate the law on the streets become violators of human rights? In the midst of such oppression, exploitation can we expect the people to meekly be submissive and subservient? Or is the author’s theory held good only in the provocation rising in the business of conversion?  

 

     

The heinous murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati - valiant warrior for Hindu civilization and Kashmiri Hindu refugees.

When the Brahmin pundits were killed and chased away from their homes in the Kashmir Valley and forced to become refugees in their own country under ethnic cleansing no voices were raised against such an abuse and violation? When a holy man held in great reverence was brutally murdered with his three disciples in his own ashram will the author’s theory be strong enough to hold back the emotional, social, and religious upheaval of the hurt psyche? 

Why are monotheistic traditions (Christianity and Islam) unable to live in peace in pluralist societies?

Refer Mother Teresa The Final Verdict - By Aroup Chatterjee and jesusneverexisted.com

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When Indira Gandhi was assassinated why thousands of Sikhs were butchered in the capital? Was it not justified by the Congress party? When the Brahmin pundits were killed and chased away from their homes in the Kashmir Valley and forced to become refugees in their own country under ethnic cleansing no voices were raised against such an abuse and violation? When a holy man held in great reverence was brutally murdered with his three disciples in his own ashram will the author’s theory be strong enough to hold back the emotional, social, and religious upheaval of the hurt psyche? 

 

Depiction of Samudra Manthan at Thailand airport.

A Glorious Hindu Legacy: Indic influence in Southeast Asia.

A unilateral war against Hinduism is being waged by anti-Hindu forces to wipe out Hinduism the way other native religions and cultures have been destroyed in the world. It is tragic that frontiers of Hinduism which used to extend from Afghanistan to Indonesia are shrinking and getting confined to less and less area.

 

Hindu Civilization in Thailand.

Christianity has virtually destroyed South Korea and Korean Buddhists have become a minority in their own country and gone into hiding. China and India are next on the missionary list of cultures to subsume and conquer.

Christian Love? Christianity has destroyed Native cultures around the globe from Australia, New Zealand to India to Africa and the Americas. 

Tragically Native Americans/African Americans have been stripped of their Cultural Identity. Hair styles, clothing and even names and body languages were changed. The intention was to completely erase the Indian way of life.  Indeed, in order to destroy completely not only their African heritage, but also their very African identity psychologically, they were forced to change their names to Arabic and Christian names...  

Museum pieces? Christianity's morbid desire to retire and gawk at Ancient cultures and religions in Museums.

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Every action has a reaction. When a nun is raped then all hell breaks loose. Daily children are sexually violated and raped and murdered, no protest voice is heard -no Church rallies are held, no Archbishop/bishop rebukes Chief Ministers and express pain and anguish. And no European Union raises the issue with the PM in a foreign land.

So Christians have global brokers and Christian lives become sacred and the PM is accountable to foreign powers for their safety.-the lives of others can be snuffed out without even a whimper. What is the root cause of this warped perception but religion? Does a crime become more heinous because the victim belongs to a particular religion?  

It is a utopia that Michael Pinto is envisaging when he states that no amount of provocation can justify violence. This is armchair wistful thinking. When the Christians were oppressors this theory vanished. The tables are turned and when there is an assertion of the Hindus to retain their culture, their religion and their heritage then the drum beating of the Constitutional guarantees is heard. It is the right of the Hindus to protect the Hindu ethos of this country which they feel is threatened. Was Art 30 not enacted to ensure the Right of the Minorities to establish manage and administer institutions to safeguard their ethos?  

It is shocking that politicians are equating the Bajrang Dal and the VHP with the SIMI.

Conversion from time immemorial has a concomitant-violence. Indian history is replete with it. The oppression, force, torture, massacre of the Indians to convert them to Islam, and Christianity is not a fable. The Inquisition and all that it wrought is world record. Again it is in the name of religion. What you sow you reap. Violence begets violence-this is nature’s order. 

 

Immature Monotheism (Islam and Christianity), stands out as especially dangerous, repressive and loony. 

World conquering movements

 

Monotheism's discontent. Prophetic religion is severe, militant, uncompromising, intolerant, while mystic religions are renouncing, and peaceful.  

Nations were ruthlessly converted to Christianity by the sword just like Islam converted Arabia, Central Asia, and Africa by the sword. Clash of monotheism? Islam vs. Christianity. In the world today, one religious ideology, monotheism, stands out as especially dangerous, repressive and loony. 

The oppression, force, torture, massacre of the Indians to convert them to Islam, and Christianity is not a fable. When the Brahmin pundits were killed and chased away from their homes in the Kashmir Valley and forced to become refugees in their own country under ethnic cleansing no voices were raised against such an abuse and violation? 

Why are monotheistic traditions (Christianity and Islam) unable to live in peace in pluralist societies?

Refer to The Goa Inquisition and Inquisition of Goa: Atrocities on Hindus by missionaries in Goa - By V Sundaram and Islamic Onslaught Refer to Secularism has degenerated as the backbone of terrorists & evangelists - By Dr Gautam Sen and Nomenclature terrorism - By Rajeev Srinivasan - haindavakeralam.com.

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In ‘don’t target converts’ the author finds it strange that converts are targeted in a country which constitutionally upholds the right to preach and propagate one’s religion. 

But then to preach and propagate one’s religion does not mean to force and use fraudulent means to pressurize people to change from one religion to another.

Money is flowing from foreign based churches and the gods of these churches need recruits-the greater the strength the greater the power of these gods and hence the brokers of these gods are all out targeting the poor. The inducement-a plate of rice, a loaf of bread to the hunger, shelter for the homeless, and also the promise of the green pastures in the next world. The strategy has first an entry point-first denigrate, abuse, degrade and demolished their gods and icons. Second instill in these victims the doubt that their gods are false and then promise to lead them to the true god. A vulnerable victim, with a vacuum inner self is then ready for the initiation into a “New Life”/to be “Born Again”. The false propaganda is vicious because of its attack on another religion. This kind of provocation is not easy to overlook because human nature is to refute and repel this atrocious slander/blasphemy. 

When posters depicting Jayalalitha as a Virgin Mary appeared in Chennai there were massive rallies and protests. But if Madhuri Dixit is depicted as Durga and the goddess is painted nude it comes under the freedom of expression of a painter. Only difference is that the same painter will not dare to let his artistic acumen and constitutional right to freedom of expression to depict Allah even in the best form. This is how we perceive the operation of guarantees/Rights enshrined in our Constitution.  

If opting for a “New Life”/ “Born Again”, demands discarding of one’s culture, social practices, adapting a western life style and adapting western forms of worship then the convert becomes an alien to the Indian/Hindu ‘ethos’, and is sucked into a process of alienation. This has other ramifications. 

Why did East Timor break away from Indonesia when its Christian population swelled to 27percent just in a matter of ten years?

World history and Indian history is replete with the experience that ‘peace cannot co-exist with conversion. The reason being conversion has an inbuilt violence: physical, psychological, social and cultural. It may even abet one to be anti-national. I belong to the Catholic Church and my understanding of conversion is that it is a process-a life long search for truth. Conversion is a private affair and not a street tamasha-neither is it an activity intended to swell numbers.

When conversions are a threat to peace then it needs to be banned. Like the curfew order-the ban to strike etc. The million dollar question is why conversion? Is it a prerequisite for development work? Why are the foreign agencies funding conversion activities? It is strange that the fundamental Christians and the churches to which they belong do not turn their attention and energy in this salvation ensuring business to the Muslims. Development and upliftment of the poor is the camouflage of evangelization all the more why the need for the churches to work with the Muslims. Because according to Sachar report the Muslims are the lowest in India -both economically and educationally. Is it not strange that not a single Muslim has been converted? Conversion has been commercialized by the Fundamentalistic churches. 

The number of converts is co-related to the quantum of funds that flow in.  

Refer to Foreign contributions to India 2006 - 2007 and Christian Institutions Top List of NGOs Operating in India in 2007

This must not be overlooked. Why not ban foreign funds and watch how evangelization evaporates? All laws have their accompanying lacunae/loopholes and difficulties in implementation, do we on such grounds fight shy of enacting laws? Conversions must be banned to ensure peace and harmony. Let us give peace a chance-for peace and conversion cannot co-exist.

(source:  Don't Convert!- A rejoinder - By Dr. Hilda Raja).

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