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Massive conspiracy by Christian missionary NGO to show India in bad light unearthed

December 1, 2020
The Commune

Persecution Relief, an organization claiming to help ‘persecuted’ Christians in India has been working clandestinely and carrying out anti-national activities.

This organization has been gathering details about crimes across the country where the victims are Christians, collating them, and preparing periodical reports which are then shared with various lobbying organizations in the USA and evangelist organizations across the world.

They primarily collect data of skirmishes between Christian missionaries who go for proselytization in villages and the locals there, in an attempt to make a case for alleged ‘persecution’ of Christians in India.

While this activity of documenting crimes is a legitimate one, what is to be noted is that the so-called incidents of alleged crimes of ‘persecution’ are isolated incidents which are given a communal colour and presented before the international audience to portray India as an ‘intolerant’ nation and to tarnish the image of Hindus globally as they label innocent citizens of the country who resist Christian conversions as ‘religious fanatics’. It has been found that reports of reputed newspapers/sites and police reports differ vastly from the rhetoric peddled by Persecution Relief. Analysis conducted by Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) on 8 cases of alleged ‘persecution’ as reported to international agencies by Persecution Relief, concluded that most of them are everyday crimes and not hate crimes. Some of the cases were tussles between local villagers and Chrisitian evangelists who had come to proselytize.

Modus Operandi

Persecution Relief has been set up by one Shibu Thomas from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. It is one of the organizations involved in the collection of information on incidents of alleged ‘Christian persecution’ in India and submitting it to various international organizations including the United States Council on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a body of Christian Crusaders, waging a religious war stealthily on native religions and cultures.

According to Shibu, they have a network of 300 Whatsapp groups organized district wise in 28 states, as well as district-wise and state-wise co-ordinators. With around 50,000 members representing most of the churches in India, this organized group breaks the news of ‘attacks on Christians’ and ‘arrest of Christians’.

They have a toll-free helpline for reporting incidents of ‘persecution’ of Christians. It publishes ‘persecution reports’ which are then utilized by Christian organizations like the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA). The official website of FIACONA carries the punch line ‘Pray for a Persecuted Church’. This data is then used to lobby with US Politicians, Church organizations to classify India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ and push for sanctions against India.

So far, they have documented 2,200+ instances of so-called ‘persecution of Christians’ since the year 2016 and have reported to both politicians belonging to the Congress party in India and international agencies.

They also support the church through political, judicial and financial interventions.

Conspiracy to spoil India’s global reputation

Incalculable damage has been done to the prestige and image of India in the eyes of the international world through the notorious attempts of Persecution Relief, a Christian missionary NGO that is out to destroy native culture and religions.

It is to be noted that Persecution Relief has been taken into cognizance by US Law Makers and members of United States Council on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a body of Christian Crusaders, waging a religious war stealthily on native religions and cultures. As a result, India has been branded as a “Country of Particular Concern” with respect to religious minority rights.

In its report for the year 2020, the USCIRF put India in the same league as China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and other countries where there is zilch freedom of religion. Amongst several reasons cited in its report, one of the reasons cited is the jump in Christian persecution in India.

In 2019, India was rated “10th most dangerous country for Christians to live”, by UK & US-based monitoring group named Open Doors. The same monitoring group had ranked India 28th in 2014. This group was also influenced by the reports of Persecution Relief.

Isolated incidents portrayed as hate crimes

Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF), a legal activism organization working in the area of Scheduled Caste and Tribal communities rights has analyzed 8 cases of alleged ‘persecution’ as reported to International agencies by Persecution Relief. However, most have them are isolated incidents of crime that have been given a communal twist to blame the Hindus.

Click here for the list of cases analyzed by LRPF.

Exposing their recent webinar

In a webinar named “FIACONA Webinar November 2020” held on 17th November 2020, the members of FIACONA expressed their satisfaction at getting India included in the top 14 countries, moving from 28 in 2015 to top 10 in the persecution of minorities but regretted that they could not get sanctions imposed on India by the US government.

Ironically, while the topic of the webinar was ‘Hate Crimes against Christians in India’, one of the speakers  Valson Abraham (President of Indian Pentecostal Church) was gloating over how ‘in one state they have grown from 300 to 1800 churches in 10 years’ and there were ‘4th generation of churchgoers’. He was also excited about the ‘huge jump in the number of Christians in the state of Punjab’ and then went on to spell out strategies for fulfilling the ‘Great Commission’ and ‘reaching out to the world’s largest unreached population’ words which in plain English mean evangelism and conversion of non-Christians into Christianity through ‘spreading the Gospel’ and ‘church planting’.

Valson Abraham also stated that just sheer “sheer number of workers, money or field visits alone will not give results” adding that there was a need for “well thought out strategies, missionary work, and well-trained pastors”. He said that only 5% of India’s pastors are ‘adequately trained’.

He also said that there was “good news about good happenings in Orissa and Bihar, Central and northern states of India”. “There is tremendous growth and there is no longer strong resistance to our work.”, Abraham says.

Valson Abraham claims that there are now ‘6-8 % in India praying to Jesus’. “We should pray like never before. Satan can laugh at our toils but will tremble at our prayers.”, Abraham can be heard saying.

He also said that they were attempting to bring through 7 domains: the entertainment industry, sports, education, politicians/government officials, newspapers, businessmen, and the Church.

Another speaker of FIACONA, Mr. John Prabhudas said “We expressed our displeasure to state department officials for not placing India on the agenda for sanctions, for various political considerations. We hope it will change”.

In the webinar, Shibu Thomas of Persecution Relief introduces himself as a businessman who is now doing “Lord’s work”. His organization had an FCRA registration which he has not renewed, as he was asked to answer a 22-point questionnaire for its renewal. He further states that ‘he was attacked, slapped with FCRA and income tax recovery notice’.

He says that 2224 incidents have been documented and also referred to the incident of Pastor Mahesh of Sharon Church (Refer to the link above).

Shibu Thomas claims to have been a part of BJP in Madhya Pradesh for 10 years and was supposedly in charge of minorities cell. He states that he started Persecution Relief in 2015 (Note: Until 2015, India was not seen as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the USCIRF).

Shibu Thomas in the webinar laments that the most difficult issue that they are facing now is the tactic of social boycott and ex-communication implemented at village level by ‘fanatics’ (local villagers who are non-Christians).

He also says that signboards with “No Christian preachers allowed in this village” have become another big problem in their efforts.

“The small Christian community is unable to withstand this social boycott where fines of up to ₹5,000 are imposed on those who speak/deal with ex-communicated members. These people are not allowed to draw water from common sources, no work is offered to them, no goods are sold to them in shops, etc. Then pressure is applied to do “ghar wapsi” (coming back to native Hindu fold),” he says.

Shibu Thomas and Congress

Referring to the incident of Kondagaon in Chattisgarh, Shibu Thomas says that he has written to Sonia Gandhi and has even got a reply from her. He says that he has also been given an appointment by Chattisgarh Chief Minister (currently ruled by Congress) to present their case.

In February 2019, Shibu Thomas had met with Rahul Gandhi who was then Congress President and had handed over him a copy of the “Persecution Relief Annual Report – 2018”.

 

During the webinar meeting, Shibu Thomas also says that they had earlier met with Jharkhand Chief Minsiter Hemant Soren supposedly facilitated by former Defence Minister during the UPA regime A.K. Anthony. At that time, Hemant Soren had promised to them about repealing the anti-conversion law.

Recently, the Hemant Soren Government in Jharkhand had passed a resolution that allows members of tribal communities to identify themselves as ‘Sarna’, a distinct religious category from the Hindus. About this move, Shibu Thomas said, “The Jharkhand act on allowing Tribals to mention their religion is a great step. We have made great efforts in this regard and achieved success. Census wants Tribals to be treated as Hindus. There are 200 tribal districts in India and this movement of tribals allowed to declare their religion is important for us as most of the tribals are Christians.”

LRPF, which has brought this matter to light has written to the Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate Persecution Relief and its owner Shibu Thomas. It has also called for initiating a thorough inquiry into 2224 incidents cited in its reports.