ICC Note: Buildings owned by a Christian ministry in India’s Tamil Nadu state was vandalized last month after a complaint was filed against Christians celebrating there. Attacks on Christians and their places of worship have dramatically increased in recent years. In 2017 alone, Christians documented 351 separate attacks on their community.
09/05/2018 India (Asia News) – Unknown criminals damaged the property of a Christian mission in the state of Tamil Nadu, accusing it of celebrating too loudly. The vandalism took place between August 11 and 12, but the news only recently emerged. Commenting on the incident to Asia News, Sajan K George, President of the Global Council for Indian Christians (GCIC), condemned the “vandalization of the properties of a Christian fund.”
This is the “Jesus Comforts You Trust”, a fund of the Christian mission located in Kangeyam, in the district of Tirupur. The Rev. Freeth John Knox reports that in the past the institute “bought an acre of land in Varadhappapalayam to build an orphanage. Later the structure was not built, while a representative building was created.
Saminathan, another pastor, reports that every year the fund celebrates the anniversary of ownership. This year the anniversary took place between August 11 and 12. “But the first day,” he said, “the police arrived, interrupted the celebrations and took away the musical instruments. Then they accused us of not having permission for the party and that the volume of the music was too loud. The agents later informed us that some residents of the village had reported the noise.”
The Rev. Freeth said that the next day “we went to the property and we found the main door smashed. Inside, everything had been vandalized, including musical instruments, electronic equipment and other things that the police had returned to us.”
“We suspect,” he added, “that the incident was caused by those who filed a complaint about the volume of music. They want to put our religious practices at risk.”
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