Topic started by Ravi (@ 210.4.51.67) on Mon Oct 7 06:51:57 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

TN bans religious conversions....REad the Nesa down


The Tamil Nadu Government has now brought in a tough ordinance to ban religious conversions. This is also being seen as yet another indication of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's proximity, both politically and ideologically, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to the ordinance, religious conversions by the use of force, allurement or fraudulent is liable for prosecution with punishment up to three years imprisonment and fine up to Rs 50,000. It also makes it compulsory to inform the district magistrate when a conversion takes place.

But the issue of conversions in not new in Tamil Nadu. In fact, the Hindutva groups made it political as early as the 1980's by opposing mass conversions of Dalits to Islam at Meenakshipuram, a village in southern Tamil Nadu.

Now, all the Hindu organisations, including the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, have now welcomed the new law.

But the BJP's NDA ally, the DMK, says it will oppose the ordinance in the assembly. "As per Periyar's ideology and Anna's ideology this law cannot be accepted. It will also be misused by the government," claims M Karunanidhi, DMK President.

The minority institutions in southern Tamil Nadu where most mass conversions take place are also angry. Some of them have even threatened to take the matter to the court. Most of them argue that there is seldom any forced conversion or that Dalits are lured with pecuniary benefits.

"They even want to give up the privileges that are there for the Dalits in employment and ration simply to become Muslims," says Abdur Rehman, Chairman of the Islamic Foundation Trust.

However, Tamil Nadu is not the only state with such a law, states like Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have similar legislations.

But Jayalalithaa's new ordinance is sure to face a challenge at the Chennai High Court even before it is passed by the Tamil Nadu assembly, which will take it up in it's next session.

Naidu welcomes ban

BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu has welcomed the ordinance saying, "It is a very good step taken by the Tamil Nadu government under the leadership of J Jayalalithaa. It should be a model for all of us. Debate and discussions should be held in the country on the matter".

Naidu asked all the political parties to come to a consensus to prevent religious conversion by allurement, force or fraudulent means.

"All parties should rise above petty interests and should initiate measures so that religious conversion by allurement, force or fraudulent methods do not take place in the country," he said.

Right to religion and observance of religious practices are fundamental rights in the country, he added. (With PTI inputs)

Do u think is it a right move?

Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Star (@ dial0-336.dialin.uic.edu) on: Sun Apr 4 04:31:10
  
  Good job, TN government.
  
  
• From: alabaster (@ bess-proxy.trin.edu) on: Thu Apr 8 14:18:25 EDT 2004
  
  The Terrible Cost of "Christendom"
  
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  Christianity was the first creed in history to exterminate its adversaries in the name of love
  
  
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  "The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly.'
  * Friedrich Nietzsche *
  
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  10th Century Obscenities
  Vile Princes of the Papacy
  "Popes maimed & were maimed, killed & were killed... Without question, these pontiffs constitute the most despicable body of leaders, clerical or lay, in history. They were, frankly, barbarians. Ancient Rome had nothing to rival them in rottenness."
  – Peter de Rosa (Vicars of Christ, p48)
  John XII (955-964).
  Born from an incestuous relationship between Pope Sergio III and his13-year-old daughter Marozie. John, in turn, took his mother as his own mistress. Pope at 18, he turned the Lateran into a brothel. He was accused by a synod of "sacrilege, simony, perjury, murder, adultery and incest" and was temporarily deposed. He took his revenge on opponents by hacking off limbs. He was murdered by an enraged husband who caught him having sex with his wife.
  
  11th Century Horror
  Church lords over ignorant squalor of millions
  1095 - Pope Urban II calls upon the Franks to invade the more civilised Muslim world. Begins five centuries of warfare.
  
  "Let those who have hitherto been robbers now become soldiers."
  – Urban II addresses his gangsters
  
  1009: Rivalry from Islam prompts eastern churches to break with idolatry. This 'iconoclasm' begins breach with idol-worshipping Catholic west. Centuries of bloodshed ensue.
  1079: The Council of Rome: Persecution of Berengarius & his followers who cannot stomach the dogma of 'transmutation of bread & wine into Christ.
  
  12th Century Criminality
  Christian Church ally of murderous kings & rogue princes
  
  "Warrior Monks" - Muslim heads catapulted into the besieged city of Antioch by Christian Knights (Illumination from Les Histoires d'Outremer by William of Tyre 12th c, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)
  
  1118: Christian fanatics captured Saragossa; the beginning of the decline of Muslim civilisation in Spain.
  1184 Council of Verona condemns Waldensians for witchcraft. The charge is later extended to condemn heretics.
  
  
  

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