Tomichan Matheikal's blog

You are dying, Columbus. I wish your corpse would carry to your grave the sins you committed against whole races of people, my people, and all the other people, whom you held to ransom in the name of a god and a king and his queen. What were you but a thief, a murderer and a rapist? You came armed with a sword in one hand and the Bible in the other. Our women were naive to welcome you with gifts of parrots and bales of cotton; They showered their hospitality on you and made spears for your men on your demand. And you killed them with those spears after raping them. Did your god smile when you poured the baptismal water on our infants who grew up to be plunderers of the earth like you? We were clay in your hands and you moulded us in your image. We despise us in your image. PS: America is celebrating Oct 12 as Columbus Day.

“... the worst thing of all is religious proselytism, which paralyses: 'I am talking with you in order to persuade you,' No. Each person dialogues, starting with his and her own identity. The church grows by attraction, not proselytising.” It is Pope Francis who said it in a recent interview he gave to an Argentine weekly.  The Catholic Church was the foremost champion of religious conversions for centuries.  The Church now has a visionary leader in the person of the Pope.  What reminded me of the interview is a report that appeared on the front page of today’s Hindu with the headline, BJP, Parivar outfits to intensify campaign against ‘love jihad’ .  The last paragraph of the report reads: “On December 23, the martyrdom day of Swami Shraddhanand (the leader of the 19 th century Shuddhi (re-conversion) movement) we will convert Muslims to Hinduism in at least 50 locations in west UP” he [Rajeshwar Singh, coordinator of Religious Awakening, an affiliate of the