Hindus Attack Christians: What If They Were Muslim?
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A Christian center in India defaced by Hindu extremists. Parth Sanyal/Reuters.
The invaluable LoonWatch, a site run apparently by non-Muslims to monitor and mock anti-Muslim prejudice, had started a sister site: What if they were Muslim?
The question is quite salient to discourse about Islam and Muslims today in the West. That is because here in the United States there is what Lebanese-American academic As'ad Abu Khalil calls "selective secularism" defined as: "The analysis of the thought of Islamic fundamentalism in the West often reflects hostility toward Islam. There are people and governments in the West, especially in the United States, who do not hide their sympathy for Christian or Jewish fundamentalism, and yet preach secularism to Muslims. This selective
secularism is intended to undermine the appeal of a religion that is viewed by governments in Israel and the West as threatening." (Source: The Incoherence of Islamic Fundamentalism: Arab Islamic Thought at the End of the 20th Century, Abu Khalil, 1994, Middle East Journal).
A perfect illustration of this is the temerity of the likes of, say, Pat Robertson and Franklin Graham, Christian lunatics here in America, criticizing Islamic fundamentalist. The pertinent question is: Is one opposed to Islamic fundamentalism from a principle secular and humanist perspective or is one selective in criticizing Islamic fundamentalism but then excusing if not championing Christian fundamentalism. These three - Jewish, Christian and Islamic - fundamentalist movements are all truly more alike than disparate. But we know have the image of Christian fundamentalists and Jewish fundamentalists - especially in Israel - opportunistically attacking Islamic fundamentalism but then engaging in their own brand of religious intolerance, fanaticism and militarism.
And we see this around the world: Jewish fundamentalists attacking Palestinians and Israeli rabbis saying such things as God should curse the Palestinians and that non-Jews exist only to serve Jews and Christian fundamentalists killing abortion doctors and protesting with heinous homophobic signs at military funerals. But, somehow, there is never that much attention to these levels of religious extremism.
So LoonWatch now asks: What if they were Muslims? What if this or that incident committed by Jewish or Christian fundamentalist were Muslim? What would the media say then. Certainly there would be more politically motivated, and often maliciously motivated, attention and all of Islam and Muslims would be unfairly smeared.
Christian fundamentalists and their Jewish counterparts in America and Israel often like to point to this or that example of Islamic persecution of Christians in Islamic lands. It is true that such matters happen (but usually due to economic roots or America's own stirring of a hornet's nest as is the case of Iraq), but attacks against religious minorities is not the monopoly of Islamic fanatics.
Christians in India also often suffer attacks by Hindu extremists. The root causes of the attacks are, akin to Egypt, often economic disputes which quickly morph into an us vs. them along sectarian lines. Many Hindus also resent the work of Christian missionaries to convert members of their community and thus disparage their faith. And, finally, of course this is the work of a few fanatical Hindus and does not speak for India.
But what if Muslims did this: would there be that nuance and understanding and would condemnation be limited to such the actors of violence or extended to include the entire faithful?
LoonWatch:
India is branded as the largest democracy in the world and it is a growing world power, however unfortunately it at times suffers from chronic sectarianism that explodes into all out violence in the form of riots, pogroms and discrimination. For the past few years there has been extensive violence against the Christian communities in certain regions of India, specifically Orissa.
Recently, Robert Spencer and fellow Islamophobes have been focusing on the mistreatment of Christians in Pakistan and other Muslim countries but they have been precariously silent on the condition of Indian Christians.
Hindu mob storms Orthodox school
A group of rightwing Hindu activists yesterday attacked an Orthodox school in a central Indian town in protest at disciplinary actions against three students, witnesses say.
The group forced their way into the visitors’ room of St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh and shouted anti-Christian slogans, ucanews.com reports.
They then smashed a picture of the Blessed Virgin in the visitors’ room state before staff prevented them from further action.
Another group of nearly 50 young people later went to the school and threatened the staff.
School principal Father K. J. Louis said the troublemakers had been angered by the school for punishing three students for indiscipline.
The police were called and are now being asked to offer protection to the school, the principal told ucanews.com today.
The principal said the school acted against the students after getting their parents’ consent. They had been suspended them for 10 days in November after they were caught setting off firecrackers in the school premises.
Catholic Bishop Gerald Almeida of Jabalpur condemned the incident, which he said was part of an ongoing hate campaign against Christians in the state.
The protests are suspected members of the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people’s party) which rules Madhya Pradesh.
Christians and their institutions in the state have witnessed several incidents of violence after the BJP came to power seven years ago.
Since then, more than 180 cases of attacks on Christians have been reported from the state.
The school has started 25 years ago and has some 2,500 students.
