Indian Christian Employees Persecuted in Saudi Arabia

SAUDI ARABIA (ANS) -- Seventeen Indian Christian employees are under house arrest and have been suffering severe persecution at a water company in Asir province in Saudi Arabia since August 15.

This information was revealed by Manoj of Kerala State, who escaped from the Saudi company and managed to get back to India, says a report from Salem Voice Ministries News Service.

They don't even get proper food and needed treatment, he said.

"There were 22 youth selected and sent to Saudi Arabia by a recruiting agency for the posts of driver come salesmen during the last week of April, 2007. The company offered them eight hours duty per day, good salary, and flight charges from India," Manoj told Salem Voice Ministries (SVM) News Service.

"But the company did not keep the promises, because the employees were Christians. They did not pay back their flight charges either," Manoj continued. "Employees were told to work in the company 18 hours per day without any rest. They were treated as slaves. Company authorities did not want to consider them even as domestic animals," Manoj said with tears.

According to SVM News Service, Manoj became sick during that time, but the company did not sanction him leaving. Manoj became worse and his friends took him to the hospital. That action provoked the company authorities and they started more persecution of the other Christian employees and put them under house arrest.

"They hardly get proper food in the custody. When they are being provided some food, Arabian people are spitting on it and giving them to eat," SVM News Service said.

When Manoj became seriously ill, the company sent him back to India without giving him a salary and allowances. Manoj told SVM News that he did not have a single coin with him. He sent a missed call to his brother, so that his brother called back from his mobile and learned that Manoj was arriving back in India and went and picked him up from Trivandrum airport.

Ronald Alex from Iritty in Kannur district was one among those 22. "He regularly used tp speak to us from Saudi Arabia by phone. But since August 15 we did not receive any call from him. So we enquired and found he is under police custody,"

Ronald's father Baby and mother Gracy told Paul Ciniraj, the director of Salem Voice Ministries.

Another young man, Jose Chacko, son of Chacko and Mariamma from Iritty in Kannur district fears arrest by Saudi police and is in hiding in a Keralite's home.

By Michael Ireland
ASSIST News Service

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Christian converts cease to be Indians

Durban: A Hindu religious leader in South Africa has caused a storm within the Indian community by saying that those who convert to Christianity will "lose their right to be Indian".

Thillayvel Naidoo, an executive member of the South African Hindu Maha Sabha and a Tamil linguist, made the remarks after a Christian convert, Deena Muthen, urged people to maintain their language and culture even if they convert.

Muthen, who is now a pastor practising in the large Indian-dominated residential township of Chatsworth in Durban, told his congregation that they should be proud of their rich language and culture.

But Naidoo said Muthen's comments were "tricks" to entice gullible people to convert to Christianity.

"Those who reject their religion lose the right to be completely Indian. He (Muthen) is distracting people with his Tamil preaching and hymns. Just because he preaches in Tamil does not mean anything, and I condemn it," he said.

However, Muthen, a former Hindu priest, rejected the assertion saying he made the comments because there was hunger for Indian culture and language among Indian Christians.

"I have been urging churches to become more culturally involved. People desire to know their heritage, and we can teach them Tamil. There is a lack of knowledge among Christian Indians, but this does not mean that we are not Indian or less than Indian," he said.

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