Former British Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali calls for immediate release of arrested Indian pastor

By Michael Ireland
Senior International Correspondent, ASSIST News Service

OXFORD, UK (ANS) -- Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, patron of the UK-based Release International www.releaseinternational.org , has called for the immediate release of an Indian pastor accused of bribing Muslims to convert to Christianity.

Release International says Pastor Chander Mani Khanna from Srinagar, Kashmir Province, was arrested after being summoned by a local Muslim mufti (religious leader) to appear before a Sharia court -- and answer allegations of converting Muslim children by offering bribes.

According to AsiaNews a video appeared on YouTube showing Pastor Khanna baptizing Muslim converts. Witnesses claim that police beat the converts to make them give evidence against the pastor.

In a media update, Release International says that as tensions grow, there are fears for Pastor Khanna’s life and that a fatwa may be issued against him.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali

Release International Patron Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali said: “I know the Reverend Chander Mani Khanna, and he is a respected parish priest of the Church of North India who would never use underhand methods to evangelize.

“I am astonished that such a person can be arrested by an India committed to religious freedom and democracy. I call not only for his immediate and unconditional release but also for protection for him and his family. Let us pray that freedom and justice will prevail in Kashmir for everyone: Muslim, Christian and Hindu.”

Bishop Nazir-Ali was the 106th Bishop of Rochester in the Church of England: he retired in September 2009, taking up a position as director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue. He holds dual citizenship of both Pakistan and Britain.

Release International says Pastor Khanna denies the claims. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) believes the charges arose because the pastor failed to get a local Muslim's son into the Christian school of his choice.

The GCIC has written to the Government of Jammu and Indian Kashmir to intervene on behalf of the pastor, who leads All Saints Church (part of the Church of North India).

According to AsiaNews, police arrested Pastor Khanna on grounds of promoting enmity between religious groups and outraging religious feeling.

Release International says the GCIC reports that tensions between Muslims and Christians in Kashmir have been rising since last year when a US pastor burned copies of the Koran in public.

Through its international network of missions Release International serves persecuted Christians in 30 countries around the world by supporting pastors and Christian prisoners and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles, and working for justice.

Follow this link to the story on AsiaNews: www.asianews.it/news-en/Kashmir-pastor-arrested-for-baptising-seven-Muslims-23237.html 

For further information, please contact Release International on +44 (0)1689 823491, or by email atinfo@releaseinternational.org  Website: www.releaseinternational.org 

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** Michael Ireland is the Senior International Correspondent for ANS. He is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB UK, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649, at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can make a donation online under 'Donate' tab, then look for 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' under 'Donation Category' to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' Michael is a member in good standing of the National Writers Union, Society of Professional Journalists, Religion Newswriters Association, Evangelical Press Association and International Press Association. If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Senior International Reporter

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Pastor’s Arrest Stir’s Anti-Christian Sentiment in Kashmir, India

Bishop says area Christians in danger from angry Muslims after accusation of ‘allurement.’

By Vishal Arora

 

NEW DELHI, November 23 (Compass Direct News) – Charges that a pastor in Jammu and Kashmir state “lured” Muslims to Christianity by offering money are false and have put the lives of the clergyman and other Christians in danger, according to Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of the Church of North India denomination.

 

Following the arrest on Saturday (Nov. 17) of the Rev. Chander Mani Khanna, pastor of All Saints Church in Srinagar, Bishop Samantaroy told Compass by phone that the time has come for the church to speak up against the “discriminatory action” by authorities in India’s Kashmir Valley.

 

The bishop of the Amritsar Diocese said the pastor told him his life was in danger, as the charges have angered area Muslims. The government must provide protection to the pastor, churches and Christian institutions “immediately,” he said.

 

The allegations of allurement appear to have turned Muslim clergy and separatist leaders against the Christians. Kashmir lies at the heart of a bitter territorial dispute between India, Pakistan and China, even as many Kashmiris call for separation from India. Two prominent leaders of the separatist movement, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have met religious leaders to prevent “conversions.”

 

A court in Srinagar on Sunday (Nov. 18) remanded Pastor Khanna to judicial custody for 15 days, a representative of the Evangelical Fellowship of India’s advocacy wing told Compass. Pastor Khanna was arrested for creating “enmity” between religious communities and hurting religious sentiments.

 

Bishop Samantaroy said the allegation made by Kashmir Grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din Ahmad, the state’s highest official of Islamic law, that Pastor Khanna had converted Muslims by offering money was “totally baseless and untrue.”

 

Ahmad has a video of Muslims being baptized in Pastor Khanna’s church, which he said was evidence on which to file a police complaint of fraudulent conversion, although the video only shows a baptism ceremony. The Constitution of India grants religious freedom to all, allowing them to propagate and change their religion or have no religion at all.

 

Superintendent of Police of East Srinagar Sheikh Zulfkar Azad, however, told Compass there was “certain evidence” of allurement by Pastor Khanna, though he did not specify it.

 

“I am in hospital for treatment, and that’s all I can say at the moment,” he said.

 

Seven youths who were baptized, as shown in the video, have denied to police that they were offered money to convert, a local Christian told Compass. But some local newspapers have quoted anonymous police sources as claiming the converts were given money.

 

A source who requested anonymity previously told Compass that police beat the converts from Islam when asking them if Christians had given them money for their conversion (seewww.compassdirect.org, “Police Detain, Beat Converts from Islam in India,” Nov. 10).

 

Police arrested Pastor Khanna two days after the mufti held a hearing on conversions in thesharia (Islamic law) court he heads. Although sharia courts in India deal only in civil matters with community people’s cooperation and do not have any legal authority, the mufti had summoned the pastor to appear for the hearing. The pastor agreed in an effort to maintain peace.

 

On the pretext of meeting with a senior police official, police picked up Pastor Khanna at his residence on Saturday evening (Nov. 17). After arresting him, officers did not inform his family, nor was the pastor given any written communication concerning the charges, the bishop said.

 

Police later brought Pastor Khanna to his home as they searched for evidence. They took CDs and literature for examination and kept him in custody.

 

Bishop Samantaroy said Kashmir’s Bar Association had asked its members not to defend the pastor. The church has asked a lawyer from Jammu, a Hindu-majority region in the state, to apply for his bail.

 

He also said he was worried about Pastor Khanna’s health. The pastor is diabetic and needs daily medical attention, and the bishop said he has learned that the doctor looking after him has a poor attitude toward him.

 

The pastor earlier told Compass that the Muslim youths had been coming to the church on their own initiative and wanted to take part in Holy Communion. Pastor Khanna told them they had to follow a procedure if they wanted to join in the sacrament, and they expressed desire to be baptized in due course.

 

Barring a few sporadic incidents of communal violence, Christians and Muslims had had good relations in Kashmir. Tensions began in March 2003 after local newspapers alleged that Christian missionaries were converting Muslim youth. Reports of conversions followed an article in an evangelical Christian website in the United States that claimed thousands of Muslim youths were converting to Christianity, which local Christians say was not true.

 

In November 2006, a convert from Islam, Bashir Ahmed Tantray, was shot dead by Islamist extremists in Barmullah district. Tantray’s name had appeared in newspaper reports.

 

In September 2010, Muslim mobs burned a school and a church in Tangmarg district after a television channel showed U.S. pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran.

 

www.compassdirect.org

 

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Copyright 2011 Compass Direct News