US Government has published a report on ‘atrocities’ on minorities,targeting India. Multiple media outlets have also picked up the report and spreading it. But not a single media/influencer seems to have actually looked into the report, before advising India.
The report is based on documentation of ‘atrocities on minorities’ by organizations – such as IAMC (ouch!), Open Doors, ICC, and FIACONA. We won’t waste breath on IAMC, so let’s have a look at the other players, starting with FIACONA.
FIACONA is US-based org founded by John Prabhudoss (2000) & is a member of Coalition Against Genocide(Shaik Ubaid of ICNA/IAMC & Angana Chatterji of Fai fame). It started ‘documenting’ atrocities on Christians in India since 2021 whose data finds its way to @StateIRF report.
FIACONA has released 2 reports so far(2022 & 23). It claims to have one of the most detailed documentation. How significant its data, can be seen from fact that many Indian & foreign media covered its stories on ‘increasing atrocities on Christians in India’ apart from IRF.
Recently, a representative group of Christian leaders protested at Jantar Mantar against rising Christian Persecution, citing the same database. Another delegation submitted a Memorandum to President Murmu demanding immediate attention.
So, what does the ‘Data’ say?
Data is full of duplication, fabrications, and in some cases outright imagination. FIACONA has THREE different data on atrocities on Christians in India in a single report! Talk of precision and records.
In its 2023 report alone the figures change as: 1198 + hundreds (on page 8 of FIACONA report) 1198 + thousands (page 9) 30 Million (page 19) Lord forgive them, they really don’t know what they are doing.
FIACONA seems to be inspired by Jamaat fronts’ documentation of ‘atrocities’ on Muslims like DOTO & is equally fake. FIACONA’s data doesn’t even have proper calculation! The total mismatches & same data reference changes next year.
DOTO was exposed by DisInfoLab in 2021)
In FIACONA’s 2022 report about 53.6% of cases are based on 2 sources:EFI-RLC’s report (287) & witness-victims reports (120).But EFI in turn has no references. FIACONA also refers to persecution.org or International Christian Concern (ICC). But ICC’s reference is EFI (Evangelical Fellowship of India).
Basically, FIACONA referred to EFI & ICC Report. ICC’s source is EFI! Guess who else uses EFI & ICC as its source? Open Doors! And @StateIRF uses Open Doors & FIACONA data in its report. (Referencing was coming in way of fabrication, so FIACONA didn’t do that in 2023)
Who will tell them that data isn’t matter of faith?
A cursory look at the data shows majority of ‘documented cases’ are duplicate entries. In Indian States, max duplication is done for UP & Chhattisgarh where single case is repeated 7-8x;~50 duplicate entries on UP alone.
Duplication has no limits. If an incident is reported by 3 newspapers, it’s counted as 3 atrocities! To the extent, every news related to Uttarakhand anti-conversion law was recorded as an instance of atrocity against Christian.
That’s not all.
A pastor is jailed is an atrocity. But his release from jail has been counted as yet another atrocity by FIACONA. You can’t make this stuff.
Even the cases where the civic authorities have acted against an unlawful/ illegal encroachment by Christian Missionaries/ pastors (Delhi, Rajasthan, MP, Gujrat & Tamil Nadu) these have been recorded as part of religious persecution.
More than 50 cases are of family disputes, where the family members object to the conversion of a person. However, this is also recorded as targeted atrocity against Christianity. Below is a sample of the ‘nature’ of ‘atrocity’ documented by FIACONA.
The report makes it obvious that it is written from a perspective of propaganda, as it is obsessed with the term “Hindu Nationalists” throwing accusations in practically each case.
Here is one sample that depicts the quality and intent of the report:
Chhattisgarh needs special mention with 2nd most no. of cases, most from Tribal areas implying tension between tribal groups & missionaries. FIACONA calls them ‘animistic tribals’ whose reservations against conversion of a family member is counted as atrocity on Christians!
Most horrific: any case filed against an evangelist/pastor, even for child sexual abuse and cases where women have accused Pastors, are also counted as atrocity against Christians! Ironically Rev Ajai Lall, Chair of Evangelical Federation of India is one such accused.
In a nutshell: as per FIACONA and International Christian evangelists, following rules should be applied while dealing with Christians if the Indian society has to avoid getting black-listed by USCIRF/ Open Doors, FIACONA et al.
Even FIACONA members don’t believe their own story. In a webinar held in 2020, FIACONA members boasted the success of ‘increasing conversion’ in India. Ironically, in the same webinar they stated their agenda of getting India blacklisted.
Interesting Fact: based on this report, FIOCONA Chair John Prabhudoss infers that the increasing atrocity on Christians is a grave threat to US National Security Interests!(sic) Will the fact of fabrication of atrocity data impact ‘security calculation’ of the US?
IRF uses another org’s report, called Open Doors, which is also a Christian evangelical Organization. It releases World Watch List (WWL), ranking countries based on Christian survival difficulty. WWL enlists India among countries of ‘extreme persecution’ of Christians.
The data of Open Doors is ‘audited’ by members of International Institute of Religious Freedom (IIRF) – another org led by evangelists. Open Door data is also used by USCIRF to rank countries. Predictably, it also collaborates with Islamist fronts.
Its data? Similar to FIACONA. WWL claims ‘grassroot’ (sic) survey in 150 countries with 100 questionnaire. And then the data it provides is ‘symbolic numbers’! We found many discrepancies, like: -Wrong fig of Christian population -Mismatch in ranking & violence rate.
For starters, India’s Christian population is given as 69,494,000 (~4.93%). Considering last population census (2011) of Christians at 27,834,370 (2.3%), the jump in the figure is more than 100%! Unlikely, unless evangelists have converted as many people in a decade.
Secondly, the violence rate per WWL and their corresponding ranking does not tally. Several countries with a lower violence rate are ranked higher, while countries with much higher numbers are given better grading.
Rev. Vijayesh Lal, Gen Sec of Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) initiated the ‘Ministry of ODI’ in India in 1999, serving as its ED till Dec’13. Not surprisingly, Open Doors report on India relies heavily on EFI data for documenting ‘atrocities on Christians in India’.
What about EFI ‘data’ ?
EFI ‘documents’ atrocities on Christians in India, but report is replete with stories having ZERO references. Most of the EFI inputs come from another organization: United Christian Forum (UCF) which uses a helpline number to document cases.
To recap, the basis of IRF Report is Open Door and FIACONA, which in turn rely on host of other documentation, which in a circular evidence refer to each other. The data is almost deliberately fabricated.
IRF report also mentions Jamaat front IAMC. This is the first time that IRF report referred to IAMC. Former USCIRF commissioner Nadine Maenza also joined IRF last year. Also, IAMC had hired a firm owned by Maenza’s friend for lobbying to USCIRF against India in 2013.
Worth noting that the Supreme Court quashed a PIL filed by these fronts accusing the ‘increasing atrocities’ on Christians in India. It is surprising why they were not reprimanded/ fined for such a frivolous PIL based on fabricated data.
To sum up – US based Christian orgs and their Indian affiliates create fabricated data, which is lapped by media to build narrative of Christian atrocities – which is then used by US Govt religious watchdog to target India – from a US national security perspective.
But all these fabrications and faulty data must not interfere in the narrative building, where the mainstream media is happily following the lead. USCIRF has done its bit, let the pliant media follow. If only ‘journalists’ could read before write.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @DisinfoLab on May 16, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
