Beleaguered Christians in India have “run out of cheeks to be struck” a senior Anglican bishop declared yesterday, on hearing reports that a Christian mob had hacked a Hindu to death in the troubled state of Orissa.
Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, called for peace, and said that the murder, conducted by a knive-wielding mob of 50 Christians, could not be condoned. But he told The Times: “For months now, scores of Christians have been killed, homes, convents and presbyteries have been burnt down to the ground.”
He said: “Now one Hindu has been killed, allegedly by Christians. We do not know under what circumstances but it suggests that the worm has turned and the Christian community has run out of cheeks to be struck.”
I have read also of some anti-Christian trouble in Bangalore, far from Orissa. Lower-caste and no-caste Indians are easily incited to violence, in the case of Hindutva groups, led by cynical educated men who cause riots and deaths for political gain. This Christian violence is deplorable but probably stems from extreme frustration. The bishop is right to condemn it and to call for peace.