The martyred Kashmir pastor of GCIC, the late Pastor Bashir Tantri, has named his elder daughter as Shabanam. Shabanam, in the Kashmiri language means, dew drops. The dew-drops in the Kashmir valley under a winter sun reflect riotous colors, looking very beautiful indeed to any beholder. If you know what the Mughals said about it, you would fully endorse their statement. They said, “If there is a heaven on earth, it is here, and it is here.”
Does that heaven on earth continue to exist till today with all the blood that has been shed all these years, only to prove ones superiority over another. What kind of heaven is it anyway! The Mughals who went into raptures about its beauty, are only a part of mere history today. Kashmir, which every tourist in the world wished to visit and go back home with its sweet memories, dare not set foot here for fear of losing his very life. Every nook and corner of the valley has seen death, terrible death in recent years. This is so, because, the people have forgotten their Creator and have strayed from the path of justice and righteousness. There is no longer any sense of right or wrong in that valley. It is one absolute confusion, since only cunningness and ruthlessness seem to have sway over all and brute strength alone seems to be the order of the day today, the once well sought after and famed tourist centre of India, perhaps of the whole world.
Ever since the simple Kashmiri engineer laid down his life for his faith in Christ in the hands of the Islamic militants, life for the teen-ager Shabnam, her sister Shakkena, their kid brother Adil - has never been the same. Shbanam, the eldest among his children, had to struggle with her college studies, and take upon herself the burden of her widowed mother and her siblings.

In a crammed quarter in Mumbai, the sisters live with their kid brother, Adil. Their other brother, Ijas, was given a job by Kashmir Government, after a long struggle. Kashmir's civil society and the Christian community have not woken up to the plight of the children rendered orphans by the religious fanatics. Even as various groups are engaged in taking care of a small segment of the less fortunate folks by setting up various facilities to provide them with food, shelter, education and healthcare, doubts have been expressed with regard to the intention and purpose of their very functioning.
“A number of commercial enterprises have sprung up in the name of the orphans, having a detrimental impact on the institutions serving this cause for decades,” Rev. C.M. Khanna, who has pioneered a collective effort aimed at looking after orphans in the Kashmir valley, an insider in what is being seen as a noble and humanitarian endeavor in an organized manner, says, must have shocked countless people with his forthright views and keen observations. “On the one hand, the government spends crores of rupees on golf courses and palatial houses for politicians, but on the other, ignores the task of helping the widows and the orphans.
Ever since the eruption of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir, the number of orphans has multiplied. Various civil society groups have put the figure at more than one lakh orphans in the valley. Sadly, there has been no positive change in the mindset of the religious fanatics.
The recent developments on the religious front, has been very disheartening in the valley. Though Jammu and Kashmir is also the part and parcel of secular India, and where the freedom of religion is a fundamental right, the Muslim clerics in this Muslim majority State of Kashmir seem to have thrown all norms of inter-religious and inter-communal harmony to the winds. They seem to be quite happy and contented in imitating what is being done across the borders in the neighboring Theocratic State of Pakistan, and other Middle East countries, where the mullas and the muftis call the shots with impunity, and push people around irrespective of what religious groups they belong to. If our country is keen on upholding the constitutional guarantees to the citizens of our country as incorporated therein by the founding fathers of our constitution for a peaceful and harmonious co-existence in the sub-continent, it is time that our leaders who are often given to the nauseating habit of roaring with their commitment to the cause of secularism and the freedom of religion and of speech, woke up to the ground reality in the Kashmir Valley and did something positive about it. Some of the recent developments in the valley are very unnerving, more so with regard to the Grand Mufti in Srinagar, the head of the Shariat court, acting like the supreme judge of a civil court, and ordering members of other religions to appear before him and explain their behavior.
Rev. C.M. Khanna's is one such case wherein he was ordered to appear before the Sharia court for allegedly inducing conversions of Muslim youth to Christianity. Rev. Khanna, who, in the interests of peace and inter-religious harmony in the valley, appeared before the sharia court, could not be found guilty by any length of imagination, as he has never done any such work. Then, not satisfied with the outcome, the hard core Muslims supposed to have pursued it further at the civil level and complained to the police who arrested Rev. Khanna and got him imprisoned, till he got out on bail on the 3rd of December, on some cooked-up charges. All this seems to have been done by the grand mufti and his accomplices for the simple reason that Rev. Khanna could not help in getting an admission for the grand mufti's candidate in one of the CNI run schools in Srinagar.
Another recent case is that of a Catholic Priest, Fr. Jim Borst, a 79 year old Catholic Dutch Missionary, who has spent 48 years of his life in the Kashmir Valley, literally revolutionizing the field of education in Kashmir starting a number of top schools in the valley. Now, after all that he has done for Kashmir, he receives an order from the Grand Mufti for the same reason of converting Muslims to Christianity. Incidentally, some of our well-known Muslim leaders like Farooq Abdulla and his son, the present CM of J&K, Omar Abdulla, had studied in some of those schools still continue to be Muslims. Fr. Jim Borst may not appear before the Sharia court for the trumped up charges against him by the grand mufti, since the Archbishop of Srinagar has already clarified that point in unequivocal terms that Fr. Jim Borst will not appear before the sharia court under any circumstances.
The issue is not of appearing or not appearing before the sharia court. It is a very serious matter of infringing upon the rights of the members of one religion by the members of another, that too in a country where all its citizens enjoy the fundamental right to practice, preach and even propagate the religion or the ideology one is wedded to. If measures like the ones resorted to by the grand mufti, are also resorted to by other religious heads, depending upon the region in which they are has a powerful chunk of their followers, where will it end ultimately, except in communal disharmony, uncalled for strife on the religious front and ultimately inevitable chaos in the society. Most of the culprits, unfortunately, are powerful rulers, both at the centre and the state, who always love to play to the gallery, rather than fight for justice and righteousness. The message for all our rulers, more so in this particular context for the rulers in the Kashmir valley is clear - you cannot hunt with the hounds and also run with the hares all the time. It is indeed very pertinent in this context to remember the words of the father of our nation, Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “What is obtained by love is retained for all times. What is obtained by hatred proves a burden in reality, for it increases hatred.”
It is indeed time now that tall leaders like Gandhiji began appearing on the horizon of our country - people with vision, who could look beyond their immediate interests, interests on all fronts - social, economic and even religious. Unlike the little Lilliputians, whom we have in countless numbers in our country today, representing all sections and political hues, only leaders who emulate our founding fathers, can take this great country to greater heights in the years to come.
In this happy season of Christmas, the occasion of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I wish to end this on a happy note and fond hope, that peace will descend upon the Kashmir valley once again, and all will be able to live like brothers and sisters, with love peace and harmony. Wish you all a joy filled Christmas and a very prosperous and fruitful new year.
Dr. Sajan K George
National President
Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC)

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