Kerknet, New Delhi: British weekly The Tablet denounces growing religious extremism in India.

The authoritative British Catholic weekly The Tablet in an exceptional demarche denounces the brutal persecution of Christians by Hindu extremists in India. A video shows a Christian woman being forced by a gang of extremists to burn an image of Jesus. The bystanders also shout at her that she was bribed to become a Christian and that she is a prostitute. Another video shows a group of Christians being led away, while bystanders wearing saffron headscarves chant `Hail Lord Ram` and jeer at them.

Most notably, these videos are spread as propaganda not by victims or witnesses of the incidents, but by radical Hindu groups. In this way, they hope to also frighten members of religious minorities. According to Open Doors UK, such armed vigilantes are increasingly popping up, especially in rural India. Moreover, the abundance of testimonials and images make it impossible any longer to deny the seriousness and scale of these types of incidents. At the same time, this illustrates how violence against religious minorities has become socially acceptable.