Response to Mr. Amitabh Tripathi

Submitted by Faqi Hussain (United States), Sep 23, 2005 at 03:39

This is to Mr. Amitabh Tripathi .
If you have something against Christianity its O.K. You are not the first. But for Gods sake do not insult the dead (murdered in this case). After the Hindu Mob burnt to death this wonderful man Graham Stains & his two small sons, they spread a rumor that he tried to molest a woman. This man was happily married, his widow and daughter left for Australia so that the daughter could go to an Australian school and be with the extended family. All the years that this family lived and cared for the outcasts of society, not once was there any negative comments about his work or his family. His wife & daughter returned to India since then to visit and they were received with a lot of love, joy & gratitude by the people. This project to care for Indian lepers was of paramount importance to them. I know this is not the place to air this, but utterly false hateful information should allowed to be dispensed by the likes of you.
There are extremists in every religion, Hindus are not exempt read the Indian papers Mr. Tripathi. Here is the article from an Indian paper on the court case against the murderers of Mr. Stains and his young sons.
If as you say a immoral act was involved it would have been the very first item on the defense, there was none. Get your facts straight please.

Graham Stains' killer wanted to ‘bury' Christianity: judge

NEW DELHI: A Hindu fanatic sentenced to die for killing Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons hoped to "bury" the spread of Christianity, the judge said.

In his written judgement released overnight following his sentencing Monday, Judge Mahendra Nath Pattnaik said he ordered Dara Singh to the gallows because the murder in the eastern Indian state of Orissa was the "rarest of the rare". "He formed a militant group of local tribals to physically liquidate Staines on the belief that with Staines the spread of Christianity will be buried in the area," Pattnaik said. He said he sentenced 12 others to life in prison but spared them the gallows because they were manipulated by Singh.

"The rest of the convicts who are gullible tribals blindly followed him (Singh)," the judge said.

Singh, an anti-conversion activist and radical vegetarian, was convicted of leading a mob which surrounded Staines' station wagon on January 23, 1999 as the missionary and his children slept in the remote village of Manoharpur.

The crowd chanted anti-Christian slogans and blocked the Australians' escape by brandishing axes before torching the car, burning to death Staines and his sons Philip, eight, and Timothy, 10. "A crime has no religion. What sin (had) the two small boys committed?" the judge said. "The Manoharpur massacre speaks loudly that humanity is not yet fully civilised."

Staines, a 57-year-old Baptist missionary, had worked in India since 1965 treating leprosy patients.

The judge said the Australians' work led to the conversion of some rural Indians who distanced themselves from non-Christians "and adopted the anti-customary practice of eating beef".

"Dara Singh with his group of men headed a crusade against Muslims trading in cattle, attacked their trucks transporting cattle, rescued and distributed cattle among the tribals and burnt trucks," the judge wrote. —AFP

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