By Jon Brown
Human rights advocates are using the recent U.S. visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an opportunity to raise the alarm about the reported spike of persecution against Christians in India.
“What we are seeing in India is a religious freedom crisis,” Sean Nelson, legal counsel for Global Religious Freedom for ADF International, said in a statement.
“Christians and other religious minorities are systemically targeted in India by radical Hindu nationalist mobs, who carry out widespread violence and harassment with impunity,” Nelson said. “No person should be persecuted, harassed, or killed for simply living out their faith.”
“The government of India should work to put an end to the violence and reform any laws that restrict freedom of religion and implicitly encourage such violence. President Biden and other world leaders should speak clearly about the deteriorating religious freedom conditions in India and encourage the Indian government to work to reverse this trend,” Nelson added.
Reports of Christian persecution in India have escalated in recent years and reached the country’s Supreme Court last fall, which directed eight Indian states to verify the claims of Christian groups that filed a petition for protection.
The petition, which was filed by Archbishop Peter Machad, the National Solidarity Forum and the Evangelical Fellowship of India, noted approximately 500 reported attacks against Christians in 2021 and about 200 attacks during the first five months 2022.
The Christian groups pleaded for both a government investigation and for police to protect churches.
The Indian government dismissed such claims as based on “half-baked and self-serving facts and self-serving articles and reports… based upon mere conjecture,” and speculated on “some hidden oblique agenda” driving the petitioners, according to the Hindustan Times…
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