Dara Sing Verdict.

[Michael Gonsalves]

Gladys Staines, widow of Graham Staines,

today expressed satisfaction over the Supreme Court judgement that upheld life term for Dara Singh, convicted for the murder of her husband and two minor sons. Gladys Staines, who has been staying in Australia after the killing of her missionary husband and two sons in 1999, was happy that Dara Singh and his accomplice Mahendra Hembram were convicted in the case. "Every person should be given another chance to rebuild his/her life," said Prof Subhankar Ghosh, quoting Staines' widow.

Ghosh, a close friend of the Staines family and in-charge of the Staines leprosy home and Evangelical Missionary Society, Mayurbhanj, had a telephonic conversation with Gladys after the Supreme Court pronounced its judgement. Gladys, who last visited Orissa last year, had told media that she had already "forgiven" the killers. Her sons Philip and Timothy, then 10 years and six years old respectively, were killed along with their father. Their only daughter Esther, who was brought up in Orissa's Mayurbhanj district and was now a final year medical student in Australia, had meanwhile married, said Ghosh, adding that both the mother and daughter had forgiven the killers.

"There is need for the killers to repent for their actions," Ghosh said, quoting the mother-daughter duo. Meanwhile, welcoming the apex court verdict, Bhubaneswar Christian Community (BCC) and Orissa Minority Forum said at a meeting here that the entire community had forgiven the convicts. "The killers should not be killed. We hope Dara and his accomplice will be transformed and follow the right path," they said. "We are happy that justice has been done. I think that he (Dara Singh) should be given an opportunity to repent for whatever he has done and whatever is the law of the country."

"We are happy about the verdict. Life is precious and it is for the court to decide. It is for him (Singh) to know that life is precious and that he should not indulge in such activities. There is no point in 'life for life'," Ghosh said. Rev Dominic Emmanuel, spokesperson of Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, welcomed the verdict and said they were happy that the court has upheld the High Court verdict and that they were "happy that he has not been given death sentence". "Though there has been a demand for death sentence, the Church has always been against capital punishment. But what we are worried about is that not just Singh's crime but Christians have been the victim of what they call as saffron terror," he said.

Shivsankar Mishra, lawyer of Singh, said the Supreme Court maintained the judgement of the High Court and claimed that the apex court concluded that there was no evidence as such regarding the conspiracy.

Islamic fundamen­talism has replaced commu­nism as the threat to Christians – International Report

It used to be the case that Christians suffered greatest in communist countries, but today Islamic fundamentalism has replaced communism as the number one cause of persecution against Christians, says International Christian Concern. The persecution watch­dog released its 'Hall of Shame' list of the world's worst countries for persecu­tion in 2010 this week. New entries include Iraq and Egypt, both of which have seen a substantial increase in anti-Christian violence. In Iraq, Christians have been murdered almost weekly since October, when Islamic militants killed more than 50 worshippers in a Baghdad church in October and Al-­Qaeda announced the follow­ing day that Christians were legitimate targets for the Mujahedin.

According to the UN Refugee Agency, the attack on the Baghdad church and the random killing of Chris­tians in the following weeks has triggered a "slow but steady exodus" of thousands of Christians out of the city. ICC warned that Egypt, more than any country out­side of Iraq, had suffered the most from the AI-Qaeda threat. 2010 got off to a bad start when Muslim gunmen shot and killed six Christians in a drive-by shooting in Janu­ary. Then in November, two people were killed when Egyp­tian security forces opened fire on Christian protestors in Giza. The highest death toll came this week, however, when a suicide bomber mur­dered 21 Christians outside a church in Alexandria on New Year's Day.

Writing in the forward to the report, ICC president Jeff King said that while forms of persecution such as harass­ment, imprisonment, torture and murder had "steadily de­clined in communist and former communist countries with the exception of north Korea and China – there continued to be a “significant increase” in incidents of persecution in Islamic countries. In North Korea, ICC said the information it had received indicated that Christians were suffering harsher penalties than most criminals and that an estimated 100,000 Chris­tians are believed to be in labour camps where they are "pushed to the point of being worked to death".

Asia News reported that North Korean officials raided a house church in Pyungsung County last May and arrested 23 Christians. It reported that three pastors were executed, while the other 20 believers were sent to a labour camp. The Chinese govern­ment came under criticism from ICC for listing Christian­ity as a cult – a move which could be used to justify gov­ernment-backed persecu­tion. The report said that house churches have be­come a target of the Chinese government, which continues to conduct raids, arrest be­lievers, and send them to labour camps for 're-educa­tion', often without a court hearing. The report does not at­tempt to rank the 11 coun­tries in the Hall of Shame in any particular order on the grounds that it is impossible to fully determine the sever­ity of Christian suffering throughout the world.

Mr King said: "In com­piling the report, it was strik­ing to see the rate at which Christian persecution has accelerated around the globe, especially in the Islamic world. "Anti-Christian hatred arising from Islam has flowed into 2011, as seen in the horrific attacks in Egypt, Pa­kistan and Iraq already this year. "Constant vigilance is needed in the struggle to de­fend the fundamental human right of religious freedom. “Those of us fortunate to live in countries that grant religious freedom must not forget nor neglect the plight of Christians who are condemned by extremist ideology or government tyranny to suffer – or die – for their faith.”

 

Fr. Michael G.
     Jeevan Jyotee, Girij, Vasai (W), 401201, India. Mobile: 9326433487. http://bloggers.com/MichaelG, micha...@yahoo.co.in

FORTHCOMING EVENTS:

INDIAN CATECHETICAL ASSOCIATION

XV GENERAL BODY MEETING

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THEME: FAITH FORMATION IN MULTI-RELIGIOUS CONTEXT.