Media is not anymore about giving information. It probably never was. It is about influencing opinion to further the agenda of certain interests and lies are apparently an accepted tool. Lies are often disguised as surveys or even research. Nobody would believe lies if they were too obvious. Yet when a World Watch List, for example, by Open Doors in England gives out a ranking regarding the level of persecution of Christians in the world, and when nobody less than the British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt releases it (in January 2019) and tweets about it, the ranking acquires respectability and credibility, even if it contains plain falsehood.
From now on, people who heard about this list will “know” that the level of persecution of Christians is extremely high in Bharat, higher than for example in Syria or Nigeria. Now this list falls clearly under propagating falsehood in the name of an agenda.
There is no other country where members of other religions are as safe as in Bharat. Hindus always gave shelter to those who were persecuted in their homelands. Jews gratefully acknowledged that Bharat is the one country where they were never persecuted. Syrian Christians under their leader Thomas of Cana (Thomas the Apostle did not come to Bharat) were given refuge in the 4th century. Parsis came in the 10th century to escape the Muslim invaders in Persia. And in 1959, some 100,000 Tibetan Buddhist refugees fled over high Himalayan mountains and found shelter in Bharat– only 12 years after the British had left Bharat– a country that was one of the richest on earth when they seized power and one of the poorest, when they left.
Yet now the British Foreign Secretary tweeted that nobody should be persecuted for their faith and obviously endorsed the ranking of Bharat in the “extreme level” category at number 10 out of 50 countries.
Of course, nobody should be persecuted for their faith. Yet an important issue is overlooked. What is the reason for persecution? Who is likely to persecute others for their faith?
Naturally it must be those who believe in an ideology which considers the faith of those others as wrong and unacceptable. There exist mainly three such ideologies – Communism, Christianity and Islam, and all three are known for not only persecuting, but even killing dissenting voices in the millions.
Communism wants to stamp out religion as such as it considers them as a disease.
Christianity wants to obliterate all other faiths except itself, and Islam has the same goal. It considers all others as false and unacceptable to their god. Both won’t tolerate other faiths and therefore are likely to persecute them.
So the first countries on the list may indeed deserve their rank and indeed persecute Christians. North Korea due to its communism, and then right up to rank 17, all are Muslim majority countries with one exception. On rank number 10 is Bharat with a Hindu majority.
How did Bharat get in there? There seems to be an agenda to obfuscate and muddle the issue. Hindu Dharma does not condemn other faiths as wrong and does not persecute others. It never has. It has the most liberal world view possible. Everyone has the right to seek his own truth, and his owns connection to the source of his being.
So why is Bharat ranked together with countries where indeed Christians are persecuted? Surely the compilers of the list must have reason to include Bharat, won’t they? Was there not a young American missionary killed by tribals in the Andaman Islands recently? And is this not brutal persecution?
Yes, it is true that he was killed. The young American was naïve. He knew that the Sentinelese tribe was fully cut off from civilization and hostile, and nobody was allowed to go there. Yet, he went nevertheless, feeling he was called to bring the Gospel to them, as if they were in need of it. His superiors should have warned him, yet they rather encouraged a possible ‘martyrdom’.
Yet, this definitely cannot be called persecution of Christians. It was a defense against an unwanted intruder by tribals, who had earlier had bad experiences under the British colonial rule. It also cannot be called persecution of Christians, when villagers occasionally chased away missionaries who had come to convert. These villagers have every right to protest against their gods being called devils and being pestered to leave their ancient tradition. Did the Christian missionaries not cross decent human behavior by not respecting others’ views, if those views are not harmful to anyone? Unfortunately, Christian missionaries are notorious for crossing decent human behavior and for putting out blatant fake news.
An example:
Swiss friends were alarmed by a forward they had got on 23rd November 2018 and asked me if there was truth in it. It was in German and I translate it here in full:
SAD NEWS: Please pray! Urgent issue for prayer. Pray for the Church in Bharat. Last night 20 churches were burnt down. And tonight more than 200 churches in the Olisabang province are meant to be destroyed. They want to kill 200 missionaries in the next 24 hours. All Christians hide in villages… Pray for them and send this message to all Christians whom you know the world over. Pray to God that He has mercy for our brothers and sisters in Bharat. When you receive this message, pass it on urgently to other people. Please pray for the 22 Christian missionary families who have been condemned to be executed. Please pass on this message as fast as you can, so that many will pray!!!
With love
Joyce Meyer
A Google search shows that this message is circulating since 2010 and is a hoax. Even the province doesn’t exist.
Would a persecuted religious group dare to spread such blatant, outrageous lies? Would it dare to have a detailed plan like the Joshua Project about how to convert maximum number of Hindus? So who is actually persecuting whom?
Yet instead of condemning the devious agenda of the missionaries, the world accuses Bharat of persecuting Christians. Why?
The west knows that they cannot bully Islamic countries. But in Bharat, which is a high target for conversion, there are enough western oriented Bharatiyas, who will happily toe its line and falsely accuse Hindus of persecuting Christians. In this way, Hindus and Bharat get a bad image in the eyes of the world and Christians receive support and compassion.
Mainstream media has tremendous power to shape opinions. Churches have tremendous financial and political clout. Both obviously cooperate to portray Hindus as intolerant and hateful of other religions – absolutely contrary to facts. There is a third power that wants Bharat to get a bad image the world over, at least as bad as its own image is. It is Pakistan, which is at rank number 5 in the list.
Intriguingly, not a single European or American country is among the 50 top countries where Christians are persecuted. But was there not a shooting in a church in USA? Have Christian refugees for example in Germany not been attacked by Muslim migrants? Does this not count as persecution? And are those French or German or Spanish or English citizens, who are randomly stabbed with a knife or blown up in a terror attack, not targeted for their faith? For not being Muslim?
We need to be clear. Those who are persecuted FOR their faith, are always persecuted by members of a different faith which is rigid and dogmatic and considers those other views as wrong – so wrong that they are ready to even cheat or kill to wipe this wrong faith out. Islam is one such rigid faith, but also Christianity.
So, in a tweet, I suggested to the British foreign secretary a slight change in his comment. Instead of “Nobody should be persecuted FOR his faith” I suggested “Nobody should be persecuted BY a faith”.
Will he understand?
(This article first appeared on author’s blog.)
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