Over 300 U.S. Christian Leaders Appeal for Persecuted Indian Religious Minorities
Letter to U.S. State Department demands designating India a “Country of Particular Concern” CLICK TO VIEW LETTER & SIGNATORIES August 1, 2024: Washington, DC — Hundreds of mostly American Christian leaders have united in a powerful call to action in a letter urging the U.S. State Department to designate India a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC). “As Indian Christians struggle to follow their faith in the face of Hindu supremacist policies, persecution of religious minorities is being buried by U.S. adoration of the current Indian regime,” says Federation of Indian-American Christian Organizations in North America (FIACONA) Executive Director Rev. Neal Christie. “This letter highlights the rapidly escalating state-sanctioned violations of human rights targeting religious minorities, including Christians, Muslims, Dalits, and indigenous tribal peoples.” The over 300 signatories include 18 bishops, three archbishops and 167 clergy from diverse denominational and non-denominational backgrounds, eight current or former presidents and deans from five theological schools, and leaders from over 40 Christian organizations. This is the first letter ever produced by U.S. Christian leaders addressing religious persecution in India. Signatories include the immediate past president of the National Council of Churches; the president, immediate past president, and ecumenical officer of the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church
JOINT STATEMENT AT USCIRF HEARING
Read by Sunita Viswanath, Executive Director, Hindus for Human Rights (832 words / 4:35 min) Dear USCIRF Chair Cooper and Vice Chair Davie, Thank you for inviting me to testify. I speak on behalf of Dalit Solidarity Forum, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, Hindus for Human Rights, Indian American Muslim Council, India Civil Watch International, and the New York State Council of Churches. We are disappointed that Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits, who face the brunt of religious freedom and human rights violations under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have not been invited to speak on this panel. The Biden Administration is in denial of religious persecution in India, failing to call out India’s persecution of its 250 million Muslims and 40 million Christians. In June, President Biden shocked the world by applauding India’s “open, tolerant, robust debate” with Modi standing next to him at the White House, just two days after 75 Members of US Congress had written to Biden expressing concern over “the shrinking of political space, the rise of religious intolerance, the targeting of civil society organizations and journalists, and growing restrictions on press freedoms and internet access” in India. Yesterday, The New York Times wrote: “Mr. Biden has soft-pedaled any criticism of the increasing
FIACONA APPLAUDS EU PARLIAMENT ON ADOPTING A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE ATTACKS ON CHURCHES IN INDIA:
The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) welcomes the strong response from the European Union Parliament (EUP) on the tragic crises in Manipur, India. FIACONA calls the violence in Manipur against Christians as state sponsored. The BJP government armed and aided the militia loyal to the Hindu nationalist BJP party. In speech after speech, Members of the EUP challenged the Indian government’s disregard for human rights in Northeast India and questioned the policies of the Indian Prime Minister Modi when it comes to human rights within India. The Indian Prime Minister has remained silent on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Manipur where mainly Christians have been killed and churches destroyed. “The situation in the state of Manipur in the North East of India is serious…violence is ongoing without the perpetrators being prevented. We call on the Indian government to do everything to restore order, bring the perpetrators to justice, and stop the excessive violence. With this resolution of the European Parliament, we call on the most populous democracy in the world to do what it is duty-bound to do as per its Constitution — to maintain religious freedom for the Christians in Manipur,” said parliament speaker Sven Simon,
A New Model of “Religious Cleansing” Pioneered in Manipur, India
At least 317 churches and 70 church administrative/school buildings were burnt. At least 75 Christians killed. Over 30,000 displaced in the worst anti-Christian violence India has ever seen. The violence in the Northeast Indian State of Manipur against Christians in the month of May has been one of the deadliest and most violent attacks against Christians in India. Verified facts defy the government-sponsored narrative that the conflict is not religious but tribal over land rights. Every piece of detail collected contradicts the claims made by the Modi-led Hindu nationalist government. The BJP government used a decades-old underlying ethnic tension between two ethnic groups to bring down the deadliest violence against Christians. This wave of destruction was instigated by Hindutva nationalists from a particular indigenous community. Most destruction was done in the first three days of conflict from May 3rd- 6th. The destruction continues to this day in the state capital of Imphal and the surrounding Valley with target killings by government forces. Under the guise of inter-community conflict between the majority Manipuris (Meiteis) and the minority tribal people (collectively known as Kuki/Zomi tribes), almost all churches in the extended Imphal Valley have been burnt, vandalized, or desecrated by BJP government-supported militia. Though Meiteis are primarily
Statement
May 16, 2023, Washington DC. The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations is greatly troubled by the large-scale assault on the Christian churches and homes in the Northeastern Indian State of Manipur during the first week of May by the Hindu nationalist BJP government-supported militia. The Federation has reasons to believe that it was a well-planned, coordinated attack by the party in government against the Christian population of the state. The attack has all the markings of the Hindu nationalist campaign seen in previous violent campaigns carried out by the BJP party and its mother organization, the RSS, in Gujarat 2002, Odisha 2008, and Delhi 2020. In all these cases, government authority was used to facilitate and protect the Hindu militia while the police were ordered to stand down for the duration of violence. During this government-sponsored violence, on May 3rd and the 4th, over 200 churches and over 500 homes of the Christians were burned by the BJP militia. The violence has forced more than 23,000 people to flee their homes. Initial reports indicate that the police were actively supporting the militia providing them tactical support. FIACONA strongly condemns the violence perpetrated by the ruling party on its Christian population. FIACONA urges the US
The Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations is greatly troubled by the large-scale assault on the Christian churches and homes in the Northeastern Indian State of Manipur during the first week of May by the Hindu nationalist BJP government-supported militia.
The Federation has reasons to believe that it was a well-planned, coordinated attack by the party in government against the Christian population of the state. The attack has all the markings of the Hindu nationalist campaign seen in previous violent campaigns carried out by the BJP party and its mother organization, the RSS, in Gujarat 2002, Odisha 2008, and Delhi 2020. In all these cases, government authority was used to facilitate and protect the Hindu militia while the police were ordered to stand down for the duration of violence. During this government-sponsored violence, on May 3rd and the 4th, over 200 churches and over 500 homes of the Christians were burned by the BJP militia. The violence has forced more than 23,000 people to flee their homes. Initial reports indicate that the police were actively supporting the militia providing them tactical support. FIACONA strongly condemns the violence perpetrated by the ruling party on its Christian population. FIACONA urges the US Administration to see this for what it is and not buy into the Modi government’s talking points. FIACONA believes that the BJP government is using pre-existing ethnic tension in society to create religious violence against the Christian population. “For the peace and prosperity of
STATEMENT
FIACONA urges U.S. State Department to designate India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ May 15, 2023, Washington DC. The Federation of Indian Christian Organization in North America (FIACONA), an advocacy organization for religious freedom in India, applauds the United States State Department for exposing the dubious record of Human Rights and Religious Freedom in India under the BJP administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the 2022 report on International religious freedom, India has been accused of systematic violations of human rights that included punitive bulldozing of Muslim homes and businesses, attacking the places of Christian worship on baseless allegations of ‘forced conversions’, and creating fear and spreading a sense of insecurity among the religious minorities. The report states, “In multiple states, police arrested Christians accused of forcing others to convert. Christian groups said police sometimes aided crowds who disrupted worship services the crowds said were forcibly converting Hindus”. The report also cited that 108 former senior government officials wrote Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that government discrimination against religious minorities, “particularly Muslims, in states like Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand,” was “undermining” the country’s constitution.” The report also stated, “Attacks on members of religious minority
