A local Sharia court on Jan 19 issued a decree seeking the expulsion of five Christian clergymen from Jammu and Kashmir.
Nasir-ul-Islam, a deputy of grand Mufti Bashir-ud-din, told reporters that the Sharia court had found the pastors guilty of alluring Muslim youth in Kashmir to Christianity.
Senior pastor of All Saints Church in Kashmir Rev C M Khanna, Dutch missionary Jim Borst and Gayoor Messah, pastor of the Noor-e-Hayat (Light of Life) evangelical church are among the five Christian clergymen whose expulsion the Muslim court has sought.
The court has also asked the State government to monitor the activities of Christian missionary schools in the Valley.
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According to the Sharia court, the 5 Christian workers were found ‘guilty’ of attracting Muslim youth to Christianity through monetary allurement.
“Khanna and his associates have been found guilty of spreading communal disaffection and were involved in immoral activities. They are ordered to be expelled from the state,” deputy grand mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Nasir-ul-Islam said while reading the verdict of the Sharia court.
The grand mufti, however, failed to name the ‘immoral’ activities that the Christian workers were purportedly involved in.
The court said it had conducted a trial after a video clip showed Rev Khanna baptising seven Muslim youth at a church last year.
The pastor was subsequently arrested by police and is currently out on bail.
“Since the majority of students in these schools are Muslims, Islamic studies should also be included in the curriculum,” the court said. The court also called for the inclusion of local scholars and educationists in the governing bodies of these schools.
An investigation is also probing the principal of Tyndale Biscoe School, Parvez Samuel Koul. The school, serving people in the rural area of Tanmarg, belongs to Church of North India (CNI) and serves some 500 students, all Muslim
“These schools should include a period for Islamic education in their daily teaching programmes and a prayer written by poet Iqbal should be part of the school assembly prayers at these schools,” the decree said.
Rev Khanna had earlier clarified the young men converted of their own will and without his persuasion.
Earlier, Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, head of the Diocese of Amritsar for the Church of North India, expressed that the allegations were fabricated and no material benefits were offered to anyone desirous of baptism.
Bishop Samantaroy said the Muslim youth were coming to the church for over a year and they had voluntarily expressed their desire for baptism.
