PRESS RELEASE  

CHURCH BURNT IN PUNJAB AND SCHOOL BURNT IN KASHMIR

“The Church of North India and the Christian community in India had denounced the threat of a US Pastor, Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center, Gainesville, Florida, to burn a copy of the Holy Quran to “commemorate 9/11”.  With the efforts of the Christian Community world around in expressing its solidarity with the Islamic community a disastrous act that could have created havoc was foiled.

Church of North India had condemned the act by saying “thinking of burning of Quran is the most cowardly act any one individual or an organization can think of.”  No religion teaches to breed hatred.  One organization which has such a pervert thinking cannot be made representative of the Christians world around.

Our Churches and Schools are being attacked for no fault of ours. The miscreants have burnt down the Tangmarg branch of the Tyndale Biscoe School in Kashmir valley, which was serving the rural Kashmir for a number of years.  In another incident a CNI Church in Malerkotla in Punjab has been burnt.

We in India who are in minority along with the Muslim and Sikh community understand the need of religious peace, inter-religious dialogue.  We denounce the lunatic violent and fundamentalist’s fringes who proclaim to be the messiah of their religion where as none of these religions teach terrorism.

We the members of Christian community are peace loving and believe in brotherhood. We request the members of all religious faiths to stand with us to condemn this fundamentalist attack on our Churches and institutions by individuals who do not represent any faith community in the world.  

The Church of North India is one of the largest Protestant Churches in India , spread across whole of India barring four Southern States. The Church of North India calls upon the President, Prime Minister, Home Minister of India and the Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir and of Punjab to restore peace and provide ample security to safeguard the faith of the Christian community in Kashmir and Punjab .

The members of Christian Community are urged upon to stay calm and maintain their peace.  We need to be vigilant alongwith our brothers and sisters of other faiths that some miscreants should not break our harmony.

(ALWAN MASIH)

GENERAL SECRETARY

THE SYNOD OF THE CHURCH OF NORTH INDIA