{"id":5595,"date":"2024-01-17T12:01:28","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/17\/ucf-reports-massive-surge-in-violence-against-christians-in-india-2\/"},"modified":"2024-01-17T12:01:28","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T12:01:28","slug":"ucf-reports-massive-surge-in-violence-against-christians-in-india-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/17\/ucf-reports-massive-surge-in-violence-against-christians-in-india-2\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF reports massive surge in violence against Christians in India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<header>\n<\/header>\n<figure class=\"left\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"imgPhoto \" layout=\"responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/christiantoday-4cf9.kxcdn.com\/en\/full\/82399\/indian-christians.jpg?w=380&amp;h=253&amp;l=39&amp;t=73\" height=\"253\" width=\"380\"\/><figcaption class=\"caption\"> <span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Getty\/iStock)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The United Christian Forum (UCF), a watchdog organisation dedicated to documenting instances of persecution against Christians in India, highlighted a disturbing surge in violence against the community.<\/p>\n<p>A C Michael, the National Coordinator of UCF, expressed concern over the unsettling average of three incidents per day in the last week of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>This spike follows an already alarming trend, with an average of two incidents daily leading up to Christmas, resulting in a staggering total of 720 incidents throughout the year. The UCF&#8217;s helpline (1-800-208-4545) received distressing reports of 23 incidents during the final seven days of last year.<\/p>\n<p>Uttar Pradesh led with ten reported cases, followed by three each in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab. Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan also reported one incident each.<\/p>\n<p>On 2023 Christmas day, as church leaders attended festivities at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#8217;s residence, five pastors\u2014identified only by their first names, Rakesh, Arun, Ram, Ramkishore and Ashok\u2014faced arrest for conducting a worship service. Simultaneously, three individuals were arrested in Uttar Pradesh under the Freedom of Religion Act (FORA).<\/p>\n<p>Chhattisgarh witnessed a denial of burial rights, a pastor in Karnataka was physically assaulted, and a family in the same region faced excommunication, ration denial and threats from villagers. Punjab reported an incident where a female pastor was stopped from conducting a church service, facing threats and abuse.<\/p>\n<p>In Andhra Pradesh, a mob attacked and physically assaulted a church service in the Visakhapatnam district. Even in the national capital, Delhi, a pastor was forcefully prevented from hosting a Christmas prayer meeting.<\/p>\n<p>In response to these alarming developments, the UCF has issued a statement urging immediate attention and action to safeguard the religious freedom and safety of the Christian community in India.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christiantoday.co.in\/news\/ucf-reports-massive-surge-in-violence-against-christians-in-india.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Christian Today India<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n            window.fbAsyncInit = function() {\n                FB.init({\n                    appId      : '105496396833914',\n                    status     : true,\n                    xfbml      : true,\n                    version    : 'v2.8'\n                });\n            };\n            (function(d, s, id) {\n                var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n                if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n                js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n                js.src = \"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\";\n                fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n            }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n            var socialGetter = (function() {\n                function injectScript(url) {\n                    var script = document.createElement('script');\n                    script.async = true;\n                    script.src   = url;\n                    document.body.appendChild(script);\n                }\n                return {\n                    getFacebookCount: function(url, callbackName) {\n                        injectScript('https:\/\/graph.facebook.com\/?id=' + url + '&callback=' + callbackName);\n                    },\n                    getTwitterCount: function(url, callbackName) {\n                        \/*injectScript('https:\/\/cdn.api.twitter.com\/1\/urls\/count.json?url=\"+ url + \"&callback=' + callbackName);*\/\n                    },\n                    getPinterestCount: function(url, callbackName) {\n                        injectScript('https:\/\/api.pinterest.com\/v1\/urls\/count.json?url=\" + url + \"&callback=' + callbackName);\n                    }\n                };\n            })();\n            function twitterCallback(result) {\n                document.getElementsByClassName(\"tw_share_count\").textContent=result.count;\n            }\n            function facebookCallback(result) {\n                document.getElementsByClassName(\"fb_share_count\").textContent=result.shares;\n            }\n            function pinterestCallback(result) {\n                document.getElementsByClassName(\"pt_share_count\").textContent=result.count;\n            }\n        <\/script><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christiantoday.com\/article\/ucf.reports.massive.surge.in.violence.against.christians.in.india\/141269.htm\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Photo: Getty\/iStock) The United Christian Forum (UCF), a watchdog organisation dedicated to documenting instances of persecution against Christians in India, highlighted a disturbing surge in violence against the community. A C Michael, the National Coordinator of UCF, expressed concern over the unsettling average of three incidents per day in the last week of 2023. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}