Posted on 05/03/2002 7:22:30 PM PDT by swarthyguy
For seven-year-old Shreema, 13th Jan 2002 was a special Sunday. All through the year, the girl had awaited the dawn of this day. For, that was the day one goes out and purchases new clothes, new toys and sweets, as the next day would be Makar Sankranthi -- the harvest festival celebrated throughout India. The Singicherra Bazar was bustling with activity. Like Shreema's family there were many people looking forward to a happy Makar Sankranthi. But they didn't realise that they were violating a fatwa issued by the Baptist Church-created Christian Al-Qaeda, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT). Nor did they know that they would pay with their lives for celebrating a heathen festival of their motherland.
Shreema would never again celebrate Makar Sankranthi. She died, along with sixteen others, on the spot as 13 terrorists of the NLFT encircled the people shopping for the festival and fired indiscriminately1. The soldiers of Christ have done again in Tripura what they have been doing for centuries to heathens throughout the world.
The Baptist Church of Tripura is not just the ideological mentor of the NLFT; it also supplies the NLFT with arms and ammunition for the soldiers of the holy crusade2. Never mind that the holy war involves killing infants and torching the huts of 'heathen Hindoos'. The NLFT does all these to bring to the infidels the peace and love of Christ. So, when Nagmanlal Halam, secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in Tripura, was arrested by the Tripura police he had rather curious tools for evangelisation, which included along with the gospel 50 gelatin sticks, 5 kg of potassium and 2 kg of sulphur and other ingredients for making explosives. Mr. Halam confessed that his activities for the saving the heathen souls involved buying and supplying explosives to the NLFT over the past two years. Another church official, Jatna Koloi, who was also arrested, admitted that he received training in guerrilla warfare at an NLFT base last year. Surely, gelatin and AK-47s have more efficiency when it comes to bringing the light of the only revealed truth to the disbelievers suffering in 'spiritual darkness'. Those who are in doubt can check it out with another great light-bearer of the other 'only true book', Osama bin Laden (that is, when and if the prophet of terror is captured).
The Baptist Church of Tripura was initially set up by proselytizers from New Zealand 60 years ago. Despite their efforts, even until 1980, only a few thousand people in Tripura had converted to Christianity. Then the Church used one of its most efficient and time-tested weapons of evangelisation -- creating racial and ethnic divide among the people. In the aftermath of one of the worst ethnic riots, engineered by the Church3, the NLFT was born -- but not without the midwife role of the Baptist Church. From its very inception, the NLFT has been advancing the cause of Christianity through armed persuasion. Every trace of indigenous culture is being eliminated through violent means. Every resisting group is made to bleed its way to extinction.
The case of Jamatya tribals provides a telling example. These tribals have strong spiritual leaders and a network of social service organisations headed by their religious leaders. These indigenous sects are neither exclusive nor expansionist. The Baptist Church has always failed miserably in its conversion efforts with regard to this well-knit community. Hence, it is no wonder that the NLFT has made Jamatya institutions and their religious leaders the targets of their attacks. In the August of 2000, religious leaders of the Jamatya community like Jaulushmoni Jamatya and Shanti Kumar Tripura were killed by the NLFT, and Jamatya families were uprooted from their homelands and made refugees. The death threats issued by the NLFT to the inmates of these institutions have already forced the closure of 11 Jamatya institutions like schools and orphanages, set up by the slain religious leaders in various parts of Tripura4. Interestingly, these tribals are not close-minded fanatics. For one thing, they do not mind teaching the theory of evolution in their schools.
The greatest challenge to the Bible inspired mission of the NLFT comes from the Sangh Parivar's Banbasi Kalyan Kendra. The dedicated life workers of RSS have started empowering the tribals by running many educational institutions which while empowering them through imparting secular technical education also retain their tribal cultural and spiritual identity. Rather than making them disown their roots, the Kendra made the tribals feel proud of their culture. It even conducts national level tribal sports festivals. If the NLFT is to carve out a kingdom for Christ out of the secular republic of India, it has to make sure that the Kendra activities are stopped at all costs. In July 2000, armed NLFT militants torched a residential school and students hostel run by the Seva Mission in the remote Ananda Bazar area of North Tripura5. They had also taken hostage four RSS life workers. These RSS workers were all in their sixties. The crime committed by these old men was that they had dared to run educational institutions for tribals while preserving the tribals' culture. Later, all four were killed by the NLFT.
The NLFT has been an active partner of the Baptist Church in winning converts to the Christian creed. They have killed tribal priests to threaten communities and effect mass conversions. But those tactics have obviously backfired. In 2001 alone, the NLFT killed more than 20 Hindus who refused to 'accept the love of Christ'. They also torched to death a Hindu family sleeping in a hut6. In 2001, community chiefs and religious heads of 19 tribes formed the 'Tribal Culture Protection Committee' to counter the threat posed by the NLFT7. Despite the NLFT taking all possible steps to enforce conversions, the conversions are still slow. Frustrated, the NLFT has now begun an all out war against Hindu tribals. They have issued fatwas against infidel activities. These fatwas prohibit people from celebrating festivals like Durga Pooja and Makar Sankranthi, listening to Indian music, watching Indian TV channels and films, and prohibit women from wearing bangles or sporting bindis, etc. Just a year before the NLFT started all these atrocities in India, the Southern Baptist Church of the United States of America had given a clarion call to bring the light of the gospel to “millions of Hindus and Jews lost in the darkness” of their religions8.
Shreema, the seven-year-old girl from Tripura, died with bullets pumped into her tender body. Her crime was that she violated the Christian fatwa which prohibited her from celebrating an Indian festival. She was not just a victim of barbaric terrorism but she is also a martyr for Indian culture, a culture that has preserved thousands of tribal customs from barbaric persecution. Yet, she will not make it to the glossy covers of the weekly magazines of English speaking Indian media. Unsubstantiated, fabricated stories of Hindu fundamentalists (an oxymoron) killing Christian priests have been making their headlines. However, these fabrications have their use. They do help in the covering up of such acts of Christian love like killing in cold blood a seven-year-old girl or burning a family to death.
I came to bring not peace but a sword – Jesus Christ
References:
1. 16 shot dead by NLFT in Tripura – PTI, January 13, 2002. 2. Church backing Tripura rebels – BBC, April 18, 2000. 3. India's North-East Resurgence: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Governance, Development by B.G. Vargheese, 1996, p.175. 4. Militants raid Hindu Ashram – The Telegraph, December 5, 2000. 5. NLFT curb on Hindu institutions – The Telegraph, September 14, 2000. 6. Three killed by Tripura rebels – BBC, April 14, 2000. 7. Tribals unite against conversions in Tripura, Syed Zarir Hussain, www.rediff.com/news/2001/aug/02trip.htm 8. Southern Baptists target Hindus, Julia Lieblich, The Associated Press, October 21, 1999.
I'll freely admit that I don't know much about this gang of thugs - except this:
Any group can call themselves Christians, but "by their fruit you shall know them". A massacre cannot be commited except in defiance of the teachings of Jesus Christ (in spite of the deliberate mischaracterization of Christ's words at the end of the article)
Fundamentalist Christians, that is to say those who believe and follow the Bible, don't act like those described above. In spite of the rantings of liberal media types, the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have never called on believers to slaughter the unbelievers. Christians wouldn't follow them if they did, because the call would contradict the teachings of Jesus.
Fundamentalist Muslims, those who believe and follow the koran, are notorious for their atrocities. The mullahs, ayatollahs, sultans, shieks, and muftis can call for jihad against the "infidels", and get results, because the violence they incite is known to be in accordance with the memorized teachings of muhammed, who commited such atrocities himself.
The comparison is only trotted out by Christian bashers who don't particularly care that it's an unfair and disingenuous argument.
Simply stated, when "Christians" can commit atrocities only in defiance of the faith they profess. When muslims commit atrocities, they do so as a result of the koran, its author, and its adherents across the ages.
His tendentiousness and neglect of fact leave his whole polemic suspect of being utterly vacuous. I searched the host site and found he had written another bit of foamy slobber:
NKR Comments on THE DALITS - Dynamic upsurge Posted on 1/7/2002 10:07:00 PM /***An interesting response from a reader of 'The Week'.***/ The article is blatantly anti-Hindu and deeply prejudiced. The writer, Gail Omvedt, labels Dalits who are averse to their Hindu identity as radical. Then she goes on to admit that most middle class Dalits call themselves Hindus. Does she mean that it is wrong for middle class Dalits to consider themselves Hindus? What type of white woman's burden makes her think that she knows the reasons why Dalits call themselves Hindus? What makes her think that these Dalits are ashamed of their roots? Does she base her writings on hard scientific research? As a Sudra, I feel strongly about Omvedt's views. Not only is the article biased but it also suffers from a superior attitude of 'I the academic western woman knows what is right for you Indian Dalits.' Connecting casteism and racism will benefit no Dalit in India. Such great liberators of Dalits like Narayana Guru and Ayya Vaikundar of South Travancore were not seminar-attending elites but people who used the innate spiritual strength of this nation to empower the masses. Dr Ambedkar would have rejected reading race in caste. After all, Ambedkar was one of the few scholars who rejected the Aryan interpretation of caste. He also criticised the conversion of Dalits to non-Indic faiths like Christianity and Islam. Omvedt falsely accuses Sangh parivar of opposing conversion to Buddhism. I am yet to hear any national level RSS leader oppose such a conversion. As far as I know, all Hindu Web sites are full of praise for Ambedkar and his decision to convert to Buddhism. It is not befitting the standards of a magazine like The Week to publish such a biased article. S. Aravindan Neelakandan, Nagercoil, T.N.
If any of this resonates with you, I am truly sorry.
BTW, these "Christians" are little more than overnight converts from headhunters. Fire away, anyhow.
More information on the NLFT can be found at satp.org
As much as I dislike the marxists, it doesn't sound like they are behind this. The NLFT is simply another separatist terrorist group.
"So that's not an accurate quote. Seemed incongruos to me."
What did that mean? I'm not sure what quote you're referring to. My statement about Robertson and Falwell was that they would NOT call Christians to commit atrocities. I think we agree on that?
MikeIII is right. I've read the same things about the ISI being the instigators behind the NLFT in Tripura.
I do think Christianity is not above being manipulated by those who use religion (of any flavor) to further their goals.
My post was to point out the author of this piece could not be marxist and support the RSS the way he has. Whether he is anti-western or anti-christianity is moot. I don't want to argue that point;-)
That's good, if I had asserted that, but I didn't. I did say the maoists are at work in India, but that isn't implying the marxists aren't. Both groups use the same tactics you mentioned in #21.
We were in agreement.
The quote is from Matthew 10 and is basically right but it has a context that makes it pretty obvious that Christ is not advocating conquest and war. The Lord Jesus is telling his disciples to expect rejection, hardships and persecution despite his innocuous message.
34 "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35 For I have come to turn "`a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law-
36 a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.
Here's a link to the entire chapter.
It most certainly was. FR is the greatest source of news and education in the world.
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