Introduction

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has been flagging India as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ consecutively for the last three years. In our previous report, ‘USCIRF: An organization of Particular Concern’, we uncovered how the move was an outcome of the influence and infiltration by Islamist elements constituting the Jamaat nexus in the US. One of the key individuals behind anti-India propaganda from USCIRF was Nadine Maenza, who has now moved to the International Religious Freedom Secretariat as its President, an organization duly promoted by the US State Department IRF.

In the last few months, we have also been observing efforts of the narrative building of persecution and atrocities of Christians in India. Based on that, we have also observed protests breaking out in several places in India. These protests are an outcome of a fabricated narrative and some reports that go beyond logic with the following traits:

  1. Fabricated or sometimes no data
  2. Lots of conjectures
  3. Exaggerated numbers
  4. Fabricated & unverifiable stories; &
  5. The intent to play victim via cross-referencing & tall claims

However, what stood out of all of this is the involvement of the same set of players, but via different organizations. The objective is to portray India as an oppressor of its Christian minorities and has become a tyrannical state for them. However, what remains hidden from plain sight is the driving force behind this narrative.

USCIRF- as exposed by Disinfolab in its previous reports, has been knee-deep in water with the Islamist circle that has targeted India via lobbying and engaging directly with the USCIRF officials in the past. These forces are evangelist organizations working in cahoots with the US-based Jamaat-e-Islami fronts and anti-India lobbying groups, who are circulating these reports targeting India.

The present report by the US State Department IRF, which is based on unverified and many fabricated report of Evangelists – Islamists fronts, is the most absured exercise in narrative building. It appears to be part of a larger narrative-building efforts- All with the help of fabricated reports with either no Data, no verifiable facts, & using exaggerated numbers. Our report dissects the whole modus operandi, as to how a narrative is built academically, based on reports which in turn add up to listing any country as ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) or under Special Watch-List.

Part I: State IRF Report 2022

Chapter 1:The Documentation and the Documentors

The IRF report published on May 15, 2023 mentions certain organizations, whose reports/ documentation have been taken as a base for concluding ‘atrocities’ on minorities in India, which include IAMC, Open Door, and FIACONA. IAMC has been thoroughly exposed for its fabrication of data as well as for engaging paid lobbyists to target India while collecting money in the name of helping Muslim Community. The other two are Open Door and FIACONA, both Christian Evangelists organization.

Lets have a look at them.

Open Doors USA

Open Doors describes itself as: “Open Doors empowers persecuted Christians by supplying Bibles and Christian literature, training Christian leaders, facilitating social/economic projects and uniting believers in the West in prayer for Christians, who are the most persecuted religious group in the world and are oppressed in at least 70 countries.”

Open Doors USA works closely with IRF and other organizations to promote religious freedom and address issues related to religious persecution, led by David Curry. David Curry holds a bachelor’s degree from Northwest University in Seattle and an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Faith Evangelical College and Seminary in Tacoma, Washington. He is the President and CEO of the US wing of Open Doors International, a global membership organization with 25 national bases that advocates for persecuted Christians worldwide. 

Curry was also appointed in the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in May 2022.

Curry has also attended in the congressional briefings organized by IAMC and Justice For All (JFA) on the issue of christian persecution in India . Besides, David Curry is a contributor to Christianity Today, The Christian Post, Religion News Service, and Huffington Post. From January 1, 2023 (effective), Open Doors USA ended its affiliation with the Open Doors International (ODI) and transformed into Global Christian Relief with David Curry as its CEO.  

From January 1, 2023 (effective), Open Doors USA ended its affiliation with the Open Doors International (ODI) and transformed into Global Christian Relief with David Curry as its CEO.  

Open Doors International Report

Open Doors releases a World Watch List every year in which it enlists the top 50 countries in the world leading in Christian persecution. It has been enlisting India among countries with extreme levels of persecution of Christians. It is worth noting that Open Doors uses a distorted map of India in its report and consistently labels India as a country of ‘special concern’.

Ranking of countries by Open Doors from 2021-23

Methodology:

  • The methodology divides persecution into two categories, “squeeze” and “smash,” and six subcategories: private life, family life, community life, national life, church life, and violence.
  • Data is gathered through a 100-question survey answered by Open Doors partners in each country, which is cross-checked by external experts and independently audited. Each question is scored out of 16 points based on factors such as the number of categories of Christians affected, the proportion of the general population affected intensity and frequency.
  • The final score is calculated out of 100 and is used to determine the level of persecution in a country, with the rankings being extreme, very high, and high.

Discrepancies in the documentation of WWL 2023

Compilation of main documents

The data compilation and ranking methodology of the World Watch List of Open Doors has its own set of discrepancies. For instance, according to their analytic report of 2023, the total Christian population of India is 69,494,000 against the total population of 1,406,632,000 (data given in the report until April 2022 taken from the World Christian Database). Going by their data, it makes the total percentage of the Christian population in India is 4.94%.

Data of population as per the Open Doors analytical data of 2023

But what do facts say? According to the census of 2011 of India, the population of Christians in India was 2.3%. Now, as per population data of India until the first quarter of 2011, the total population of the country was 1210.19 million. This means that the Christian population then was approx. 27,834,370. Considering that this population rose by 50% in 2022, the total number still amounts to no more than 41,751,555. Even the total population of the country hasn’t risen even by 20% (16.23% between March 2011 and April 2022), let alone that of a single community.

This was a basic irregularity in the statistics of population in the context of India. But the document shows many other discrepancies in the methodology of their ranking of countries, even for the ones ranked among the top 3.

For starters, the scores given to countries based on which they are ranked in their list do not match with each other. In other words, if a country is ranked higher, its score allotted is quite lower to justify its ranking. Meaning some countries with more atrocities are ranked lower than the ones with fewer cases of atrocities. To put this point into perspective, we divided the countries based on higher, medium, and lower rankings, and based on this, let’s consider the examples of Pakistan and Sudan.

According to the table, the violence rate in Pakistan is 0.01% while in Sudan it’s 0.012 %. The violence rate in Sudan is more than Pakistan, yet Sudan is ranked lower at the 10th spot and Pakistan at the 7th. Another example to demonstrate this point better in Syria and Myanmar. The violence rate of Syria is 0.058% whereas that of Myanmar is 2.54%. The percentage of Myanmar is way higher than Syria and it still is ranked lower in terms of Christian persecution. The rank of Syria is 12 and Myanmar is 14. This clearly shows how flawed the methodology of data collection and ranking of WWL is as their calculations do not match up.

Another case of vague data representation, which doesn’t justify their ranking is the use of “NN”. Stating security reasons, the WWL doc has clubbed 5 countries- Afghanistan, Maldives, North Korea, Somalia, and Yemen together and indicated them with “NN”. It claims that while they have presented the data on violence in these countries, they have not revealed them individually. Notably, three of these countries, namely North Korea, Somalia, and Yemen are ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in their list respectively, while Afghanistan and Maldives are ranked 9th and 15th, respectively.

Ranking of countries in World Watch List 2023

Now, what is the problem with this representation? While the total pressure score of these countries has been mentioned in their final scoring, there is no way to know how these countries have been scored individually and how many cases of atrocities are found in these regions, and their total scores according to it. Moreover, NN has been repeated 2-4 times in each table but no way to verify which number of violence belongs to which of these countries, whether the NN in that particular table is Somalia or Yemen, one has to guess. Hence, no way to verify the basis of their ranking.

Moreover, if we calculate the total number of cases of violence in these NN countries, the cumulative figure equals 4,495. Against countries where cases of violence exceed 10,000, the combined total doesn’t justify their ranking into the top 3 or even the top 10.

Whether the calculations or criteria match up with their rankings or not, whether transparent data of every country ranked is provided or not, WWL has given its verdict. And the reader simply has to believe it since the report says so.

Some Key Features of the ODI Report:

While some cases of violence are backed by references, many cases mentioned in their reports are based on conjectures and case studies with no references to prove the authenticity of the accusation. For instance, in its report ‘Destructive Lies’, there are eight case studies mentioned but none are backed by any evidence.

For the past four years, Open Doors has been consecutively ranking India as No. 10 in the World Watch List (2019, 2020, 2021,   and 2022). And in 2023, India has been ranked No. 11 in their World Watch List of 2023. And to justify its rating for India, the ODI report cited proof of only a few instances of violence against Christians.

Open Doors also depicts a collaboration of evangelism with the Islamist nexus based in the US. Open Doors has been collaborating with various Islamist and Jamaat fronts including Justice for All (JFA) and Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC). Open Doors International (ODI) was the co-organizer of the webinar on “Reversing The Trend: Minority Rights in India” was held on October 3, 2022, along with Hindus for Human Rights, World Evangelical Alliance, Justice for All, and the International Commission for Dalit Rights.  

Moreover, Isaac Six, Advocacy Director of Open Door USA, was a speaker at IAMC’s Congressional Briefing on “Persecution of Christians in India” on 28 July 2021.  It is to be noted that Isaac Six is also invited by USCIRF to give inputs on Christian persecution around the world.  

It is important to note that Open Door’s data is also used by USCIRF to rank countries, meaning the CEO of Open Door as USCIRF Commissioner decides on its data.

Validation of Evangelism

And to add to the ODI report’s validation, a layer of Evangelist label is put over it. One of the methodologies of the Open Doors report was its auditing by another organization- International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF)

Founded in 2007, IIRF is a network of researchers and academics that aims to advance religious freedom for all religions through an academic lens. IIRF also aims to become a reputable source of information on issues related to religious freedom. It provides credible and impartial data on religious freedom, going beyond mere anecdotal evidence, to support academic research and guide policy-making at various levels.

The organization that validates Open Doors’ reports is itself loaded with a number of active evangelists who ensure that Christians in other countries, including India, are truly persecuted by approving the former’s reports, raising doubts about how impartial IIRF’s auditing could be. As shown in the illustration below, a portion of the IIRF’s members, who make up the organization, have evangelical backgrounds.

How credible are the Open Doors reports and IIRF’s Auditing of the reports?

Open Doors’ report drew on a variety of sources, including reports from multiple organizations and news articles. And how much Open Doors’ report is credible, we found upon studying the key sources of information referred to by Open Doors. Apart from its methodologies, the ODI report referred to a number of sources which in turn has the taint of illegitimacy and one of them referred to was the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI). 

And EFI is somehow connected to the global evangelical network, while its founder is the head of the Open Doors’ branch in India as we uncover its details in the next chapter.

Chapter 2: Evangelical Fellowship of India

The previous section discussed how the Open Doors’ report which had no data was a compilation of various reports and sources from across the globe. It has been enjoying legitimacy by providing arbitrary data presentation, or even no data. And one such organization referred to by ODI is the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI).

Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) claims to be an umbrella organization of more than 65,000 churches in the Indian subcontinent. It is also a charter member of the World Evangelical Alliance. The EFI was established in 1951 and claims to promote cooperation and fellowship among evangelical Christians in India and advance the gospel message.

Open Doors India

The Secretary General of EFI is Rev Vijayesh Lal, who has been associated with a Church and Religious Freedom in the Indian subcontinent for over two decades. As per his own blog, Vijayesh Lal was the institutor of Open Doors International (ODI) in India in 1999. He had the key representative of ODI in the Indian sub-continent and was serving as its Executive Director till December 2013.

To summarize, ODI had been functioning in India since 1999 via Rev Vijayesh Lal, who currently runs one of the largest Christian groups in India that documents ‘atrocities on Christians in India’.

It also explains why EFI finds a key mention in the annual reports of Open Doors as illustrated earlier. EFI has been a key base for seemingly all major global reports that document atrocities of Christians in India. However, the case of EFI gets trickier and more unreliable as we studied and analyzed its reports.

EFI 2021 Report- Inflated Numbers, & Skewed Methodology

EFI reports that one decayed pillar that serves as the source of many other reports that documents Christian persecution in India. Upon studying its report, we found not one but a number of fundamental flaws, which alludes to either of two things: Whether they don’t understand the basics of report-making; or they are driven by an agenda regardless of whether the data/ instances that are being used by the has any verifiable scope.

Or maybe, their reports are driven by both these reasons.

Perhaps, what the EFI report manages to achieve is selling well-written fiction with unverifiable pictures, clubbed with a number of graphs, and data with no reference/ source whatsoever. For sample, we picked its yearly report 2021 titled: “Hate and Targeted Violence Against Christians In India” which had the same fundamental problems which are as follows:

  • The report begins usage of graphs, charts, and statistics, however, it cites no reference for that data, nor methodology as to how they were extracted. And in the name of methodology, they use a help-line number provided by one United Christians Forum (UCF) which will be discussed in a subsequent section.
  • Further, the report uses a collage of several images. But not a single image infers to what incident was it taken from and not even the time and date stamp denoting its origin. Implying, that the usage of those pictures was implying that the usage of these pictures might just be for the sake of giving accessorial touch to the report to give an impression of credibility.
  • The entire report is replete with cases and stories but NONE of them have referred to any source of the news and incident. We also don’t imply that all the cases listed in EFI reports are false, but NONE of them have any source/ reference. To corroborate, we also found that many cases listed in the EFI report could not be verified anywhere online.

Furthermore, in 2022, based on the EFI report, a PIL was filed by Rev. Peter Machado of the National Solidarity Forum, and Rev. Vijayesh Lal in the Supreme Court of India alleging violence against Christians in India. However, on the contrary, the Centre disputed that such claims were part of creating a false picture based on fake data. In its rejoinder, the Centre disputed in Supreme Court with data records of eight states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

 It was further alluded that the incidents quoted in the report were either false or deliberately exaggerated and uncorroborated, and that, the organization was reporting false and self-serving documents on August 17, 2022. 

In April 2023, the cases mentioned in the report referred to in the PIL were proven as false after the crime data against Christians were tallied between the states and the compliance affidavit of the Ministry of Home Affairs. In its rejoinder, the Centre disputed in Supreme Court with data records of eight states including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. The cases tallied with states included land disputes, family disputes, superstitious practices, violation of Covid-19 guidelines, and other trivial issues. While most of the cases were resolved by both parties amicably.

In another instance, in November 2022, EFI Chairman Dr. Ajai Lall was named and accused of forcibly converting a couple in Madhya Pradesh, later flagged by National Commission of Women chairperson Rekha Sharma. 

One can say, that while EFI has been a base resource for most Christian persecution reports, it does not have reliable data. Its report, however, tailed us to a number of organizations that have been engaged in a similar practice. Perhaps, its report became a tracing line for all those fronts which are now taking the forefront in leading this narrative.

Part II: Atrocity Reports and Game of Credits

Chapter 3: EFI 2021 Report and its Application of Mess

The scope of the EFI report has served to be a global base for the documentation of the atrocity of Christians in India. The previous chapter documented how Open Doors International (ODI) bases its report on some of the research and data of organizations that make many unverifiable claims.

As noted in the previous chapter, the EFI Report’s ambit is not limited to just Open Doors International (ODI), but beyond that. EFI is referred by other global Christian advocacy groups including International Christian Council (ICC), also Persecution.org  

International Christian Council (ICC)

ICC is a non-profit organization based in the United States that advocates for the rights of Christians around the world who are facing persecution for their faith. ICC was founded in 1995 with the mission of raising awareness about Christian persecution and providing support and advocacy for those affected by it.

It is important to understand that ICC and USCIRF work closely and the former’s evaluation is used as a basis to further evaluate countries in their annual reports. Likewise, the same ICC reports and publications are used by the USCIRF to show a critical evaluation of India and the life of Christians living in the country.  

However, there is a Catch.

The ICC in turn makes use of the EFI reports and its studies that (as exposed) have no data and news source reference. ICC has referred to EFI a number of times including in 2020 and 2021.  

From Open Doors to the ICC, EFI has remained their key supplier of unverifiable cases and data which then is used by the USCIRF passively to evaluate countries including India – all based on flawed and unsubstantiated numbers.

And while EFI has had so much influence and authority, it has been providing the same services to another Christian advocacy organization and lobbying group- the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA). FIACONA just like all the other Christian advocacy groups publishes its report every year, and of late, it has been able to set the tone and further hype the same narrative of Christian persecution in India via its reports. Therefore, the next chapter discusses the role of FIACONA and how deeply it has been referring to the EFI studies to further push the narrative of ‘Christian persecution’ in India.

Chapter 4: Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations

Apart from the fallacies in the EFI reports, what was intriguing was the involvement of organizations and their people behind the curation of the EFI report. The ‘Acknowledgement’ section of the EFI report thanked a number of individuals who facilitated their desk and field research.

At least two entities engaged in curating the EFI 2021 Report led us to one key organization.

  1. John Dayal and United Christian Forum (UCF)
  2. Persecution Relief

And both these individuals and entities trace to the US-based FIACONA. John Dayal is a Christian activist, journalist, and author. John is the Editor and CEO of the afternoon newspaper Delhi Mid-Day and has been the Treasurer of the Editor’s Guild of India. He is also the national convener of UCF. John Dayal was once on the advisory board of the US-based FIACONA. (Both John Dayal and UCF will be elaborated on in the last section.)

Persecution Relief is a non-profit organization that works to assist and advocate for persecuted Christians in India. The organization was founded by an Indian Christian activist, Shibu Thomas in 2016. He had also been associated with the FIACONA from 2016 until 2021.

FIACONA is a non-profit organization based in the United States that represents the interests of Indian-American Christians and their organizations.

FIACONA was formally launched in 2000 to provide a platform for Indian-American Christians to work together on issues related to their faith and their community. The organization advocates for the rights of Christians in India, particularly those who face persecution and discrimination due to their faith.

EFI’s reports are full of story-telling documentation with no references and data whatsoever, it has also been a key source, while its members including Vijayesh Lal have been suppliers of such atrocity cases to many more organizations including the FIACONA. As noted earlier, the EFI reports had been one of the key sources for Open Doors reports, we investigated and found that EFI’s ambit is far beyond that. So, before looking up to FIACONA’s members, we first studied and analyzed the reports of FIACONA. For the sample, we picked the 2022 Annual Report.

FIACONA’s 2022 Annual Report

FIACONA published its 2022 annual report on July 3, 2022.The 156-page report looked more like the beautiful version of the EFI, with a mix of colorful graphs and data depiction. The 2022 report was edited by a number of individuals including the EFI Secretary General, Vijayesh Lal, and UCF, as well as FIACONA member John Dayal, and Fake expert Pieter Friedrich.

Simply put into perspective, FIACONA referred to EFI 2021 Report in its 2022 annual report which to remind has no verifiable data reference, no story reference/ source, nor the pictures used in their 2021 report have any time & date stamp.

In many a place, the ‘atrocity; is recorded as witness testimony, and in another place, it’s recorded concerning EFI.

And with some appealing and beautiful presentation, the FIACONA report managed to garner significant traction and endorsement from several media portals that helped give the unduly traction and helped set the narrative of Christian atrocity in India.

What drew interest in the FIACONA reports were a number of factors including:

  • Fabricated reports in the name of witness/victim testimony
  • The source of max cases is itself from unverifiable reports like EFI & ICC
  • The duplicity of purported cases (the more the merrier)
  • Discrepancies in numbers  

And while these factors make up the entirety of their report, they also contribute to inflicting a terror of numbers among the audience. Implying, if a layman would read their reports, he/she would come to conclude that Christians are being persecuted in India. On that note, the next chapter highlights and dissects the flaws and discredits the methodology, and in turn discards both 2022 and 2023 reports published by FIACONA which has managed to garner significant interest.

Chapter 5: Documenting Christian Atrocities by FIACONA

It is not known who gave the ill advice to the Christian Missionary Conglomerates to shift from making hue and cry over random atrocities to start ‘documenting’ the atrocities. For, if one were to believe in their data, one would be compelled to conclude that there are no atrocities on Christians for the narrative that is being built from India to the US.

In simple words, the so-called documentation by FIACONA, which started in 2022 (documenting the atrocities of 2021), is full of duplication, fabrications, and in some cases, outright imagination. This part is from the cases where they seem to be arguing that the Christians in India should be above not only the law of the land but somehow, they should be immune from the law of nature! Their belief in the miracle seems to be true.

What they have not allowed themselves to be bothered about is the basic practices of documentation of data including hygiene of data, the structure of data, editing, and believe it or not, basic math. In more than half the ‘documented cases’, the reference is missing, where one is expected to rely on FIACONA– the people who don’t even know how to count. While it is expected that few mistakes would be possible in such large documentation, more than 25% of duplication doesn’t generate confidence. It is obvious that those entrusted with the documentation were poorly paid, as they have replicated the same incidence just one after another, not in one place but multiple.

Based on this utter train wreck of a report, FIACONA Chairman John Prabhudoss concludes that the increasing atrocity of Christians is a grave threat to US National Security Interest (sic).

How much are attacks on Christians increasing? FIACONA’s 2023 report will light your path.

As per the report, the atrocities increased from 1198 + hundred (page 8) to 1198 + thousand (page 9) to 30 million! (Page 19). From the single report.

To better understand the report, we will look into each of the preceding two reports of 2022 & 2023 in detail.

The 2022 report (page 22) concluded 761 documented reports from a state-wise table. Actual cases as per the table are 759 This is only the first of the arithmetic mistake in the report. The report has 29 % of reports with no reference, alluding to the Victim/ Witness report. Another 71 % of reports are attributed to EFI-RLC Report. The EFI is the Evangelical Fellowship of India, which manufactures its report. The EFI report that FIACONA referred to itself has no references.

Having learned the lessons, FIACONA decided to do away with all references altogether in its second and latest report of 2023 ‘documenting’ the atrocities committed in India in 2022. Now they wish to be taken at face value. But it is difficult to believe a report that has duplicated entries more than 100 times in about 1000 instances. Meaning, at least 25% of the report is a case of duplicate entry, inflating the numbers, deliberately or mistakenly.

For example, the FIACONA Report 2023, declares UP and Chhattisgarh as states with some of the highest number of atrocities recorded against Christians. However, if one were to take a look into the report, single cases have been reported multiple times. An arrest of the pastor (Azamgarh) for violating the UP’s law against conversion has been reported in 10 different incidences. Likewise, any disruptions to the congregations have been repeated 4-5 times (Lakhimpur, Roorkey, Amethi, etc.) Similar repetitions have been reported across Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, MP, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu & Karnataka, etc.

Similarly, if an incidence of an atrocity has been reported by three newspapers it has been counted as three atrocities! Following the pattern, every news related to Uttarakhand anti-conversion Bill has been recorded as an instance of atrocity against Christians. The only variation is that once it is recorded as witness testimony and another time it references to EFI with a little bit of tweaking.

Here is a look at the repeated entries (with some tweaking) of cases of violence against Christians in India as reported by FIACONA in their 2022 Report:   

S.NoCaseRepeatedComment
1.Pastor Ram Chandra Azamgarh (UP)3Same story from multiple sources. Even the Court denied the Bail is considered an additional atrocity  
2.Pastor Shyamnand Azamgarh (UP)2Same story from multiple sources
3.Pastor Biswambar West Bengal3Same story from same source (EFI Report 2021) is mentioned thrice.
4.Case of Ms. KanniBarse, Chattisgarh2Same Story from different sources.
5.Case in Temachi/Themachi, Madhya Pradesh2The same story is repeated twice from the same source
6.Suresh and Pastor Lithus, Belsonda, Mahasamud, Chattisgarh2Same Story from different sources.
7.Pastor Prasad Barely Uttar Pradesh2Same Story from the same source.
8.Bajrang Dal members threatened a Christian community in Madhya Pradesh2Same story from the same source.
9.Case of ‘Hindu nationalists’ Attacking Church in Hassan District, Karnataka2Same story from different sources
10.Pastor Marandi Orissa2Same Story from the same source.

Worth highlighting is that one thing they still didn’t rectify is their sloppy arithmetic work in the 2023 report. Starting with the basic calculation of all the cases mentioned state-wise, the total is again mentioned incorrectly. The report states 1198 in total, while the number in their state-wise table sums up to 1,218. The same mistake they made in their previous report.

Makes one wonder what were they trying to emphasize.

Secondly, some stats mentioned in both of their reports don’t even tally with each other. For instance, as per the 2022 report, total cases of atrocities in UP amounted to 161, while in the 2023 edition, the data for the same has been given as 180. And this is the case of a report one needs to put their faith in for ‘documenting’ such cases of atrocities!

Animistic Tribals!

A special mention needs to be made of the situation in Chhattisgarh, where a significant number of cases have been recorded. However, most of these cases are from Tribal areas of CG, thereby indicating tension between the tribal groups and Christian missionaries. Most of the cases in the FIACONA doc are from Bastar (70%); Kondagaon (71%); Dantewada (71%); Narayanpur (60%); Kanker (55%); and so forth. Every instance, where the ‘animistic tribals’ (as called by FIACONA) have objected to a family member converting, has been recorded as an atrocity on Christians, showing scant regard to indigenous practices, where the tribal communities demand equal participation and contribution. The atrocity included tribals punishing a member (converted to Christianity) for not contributing to their social practices.

What Constitutes Atrocity: Internalized Privilege or Perceived Persecution

The most interesting part of the report is the nature of ‘crimes against Christianity’, which gives an insight into how Christian evangelists and missionaries think of themselves in Indian society and portrays their victim-hood mentality. A Christian woman was fired from her job by a private company because she was proselytizing during working hours (Nagpur, Maharashtra). There are dozens of cases where a case has been filed against a pastor for child sexual abuse, including that of a pastor, who was running a children’s orphanage (Maharashtra), but these are all considered atrocities against Christians. Whether the one committing the ‘atrocity’ could be a victim themselves is a non-existing possibility in their reports.

More than 50 cases documented are cases of family dispute in all parts of the country, where the family members object to the conversion of a person. However, this is also recorded as targeted at Christianity. In one instance (Bhilai, CG), a husband had taken recourse to the police, complaining that his wife, under the influence of Missionaries, was forcing him to convert. It was a matter pertaining to personal disputes between family members. But somehow, this is a case of atrocity against Christians.  

Scores of cases of property dispute have also been recorded as cases of atrocity against Christianity, thereby implying a desired impunity from the rule of law. Even the cases where the civic authorities have taken action of unlawful/ illegal encroachment by Christian Missionaries/ pastors (Delhi, Rajasthan, MP, Gujarat & Tamil Nadu) have been recorded as part of religious persecution.

There are multiple cases where Pastors have started religious preaching/ congregation with 20-30 people in a rented house. And if the landlord/ house owner had objected, it was recorded as an atrocity. There are cases where foreigners (Germans, Sweden, and Brazilians in three different instances) have come on tourists visa but were found to be engaged in proselytizing, thereby, held for violation of visa rules.

A pastor in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh state, was accused by a woman of forceful religious conversion by alluring her.

Whether they are forcefully converting people, praying in a Church, or simply existing as Christians, they are all victims of atrocities! The report has labeled people following the Christian faith as victims.

While some cases do have context, others are randomly stated without any reference or context. A pastor in Virudhanagar has been charged with false charges. A Christian woman was beaten by her brother for following Christian face or a family getting expelled from a village for being Christians, vague and baseless cases are what one needs to believe in for believing in the growing ‘atrocities of Christians’ in India.

However, as per FIACONA, all these are atrocities against Christians.

In Summary:

One must however appreciate the documents for providing an insight into the conversion and converted psychology, even if they provide nothing about the status of minority religions in India. The framing of cases is an indicator that those who got converted to Christianity perceive themselves as superior to others in society.

There is an inherent expectation amongst the converted that they are special, the chosen few. It is likely not a case of fabrication that the family dispute over conversion is accounted as an atrocity, completely ignoring the social mile where an amount of domestic violence is present. Simply by becoming Christian, they think that those realities of society don’t apply to them.

Curious Case of Hindu Nationalists

The report is replete with the reference to Hindu Nationalists. Whoever has crossed the path of Christians – whether he is a criminal who stole from a Christian; a neighbor who has a property dispute with a Christian; a woman who has accused a Pastor of ‘luring’ her; a family who objects to a member’s conversion; and a landlord who objects to the tenant using the rented house for evangelical activities – all of them are “Hindu Nationalist of Mr. Modi’s Party”. But the most illustrative example of such ‘Hindu Nationalists’ atrocities is:

All in all:

  1. EFI has no credible methodology, and neither does it use ANY SOURCE for its case studies that can be verified online.
  2. But it acts as a supplier for case studies of Christian persecution documentation in India by the Open Doors International (ODI) International Christian Concern (ICC), and even FIACONA.
  3. And then, all this comes down into application when USCIRF refers them to claim the atrocity of Christians in India via ODI and ICC reports.

Chapter 6: The Luminaries Of FIACONA

The previous sections present a clear understanding of the intricate loop of the report publishing fronts all referring to EFI reports which itself is tainted with flaws and accused of reporting false and self-serving documents. EFI’s report was based not just on reputed US-based organizations which in turn is referred to by USCIRF, but even by the organizations like FIACONA that further proceeds to publish its brand of jargon, exaggerated numbers out of anything that involved a Christian individual in India.

(Chapter 6 deconstructs FIACONA’s 2022 & 2023 reports).

And while its report in its entirety is flawed, we also checked out who were the faces behind approving such reports. Hence, we checked out individuals who are members of FIACONA and found that some of FIACONA’s luminaries have interesting backgrounds which are as follows:

John Prabhudoss

aka P.D John aka J.P Doss, is a Washington-based lobbyist, who serves as the Chairman of FIACONA. As per B. Raman, the former Additional Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, John Prabhudoss wore two which he chooses to sport depending on the occasion. He went by the name P.D John when he visited Gujarat after the 2002 riots and also uses another alias, J.P Doss. Besides, he has been part of several organizations apart from serving in FIACONA.

He became President of FIACONA in March 2014 and later assumed the position of chairman in 2019.Through FIACONA, Prabhudoss “focuses on lobbying in Washington DC on the issue of the violations of religious minorities’ rights and the limitations on Christians’ ability to spread the gospel in India.”

Before FIACONA, Prabhudoss had been active since the early 2000s via another Christian organization- Policy Institute for Religion and State (PIFRAS). And PIFRAS concentrated on supporting the Bush Administration’s initiative to advance democracy and responsible government, particularly in the Islamic world.

However, besides his Christian and human rights advocacy, John Prabhudoss has been engaged with IAMC since its inception and has been part of its annual conventions. He was one of the speakers at the IMC-USA 3rd annual convention. Prabhudoss is currently one of the key partners of IAMC via FIACONA and together, they have created a group that lobbies and try to influence US policies against India on the grounds of human rights and religious freedom in India. (This will be discussed in Chapter 8).

Rev. Peter Cook

Peter Cook is one of the members of the Advisory Board FIACONA. He is the Executive Director of the New York State Council of Churches, an evangelist entity that is an ally of JFA and IAMC.  He is a frequent face at IAMC events and his organization is regularly involved in pushing IAMC’s agenda to get sanctions on India.

Peter Cook was an attendee of the Congressional Briefing on IAMC’s platform on July 28, 2021. New York State Council of Churches was one of the 22 organizations along with ICNA, FIACONA, JFA, and IAMC among others, that wrote a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State on December 9, 2021, to urge them to designate India as a CPC. On 23 February 2022, NYSCC co-hosted a Congressional Briefing on “India Attacks Muslim Women’s Right To Wear The Hijab”, along with 16 organizations including FIACONA, Amnesty International USA, Genocide Watch, 21Wilberforce, Hindus for Human Rights, and IAMC.  

The key takeaway from Peter Cook’s background is how these individuals are essentially linked to the same nexus, putting up numerous auxiliary organizations collaborating and pursuing the same agenda. All this is just to create a delusion of grandeur and amplify the noise they create!

Shibu Thomas

Shibu Thomas is a businessman from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, who has been associated with FIACONA as one of the Members at Large of FIACONA between 2016-2021.  But he is more prominently known as the founder of ‘Persecution Relief’, an organization based in India that claims to bring to light the cases of persecution of Christians in India. As per Persecution Relief’s Twitter profile, they are an “interdenominational initiative, to help the persecuted Church in India. Goal: To freely worship Jesus Christ in India”.

Persecution Relief Debacle

The organization has been accused of carrying out anti-national activities and sharing dubious reports on India with US-based human rights entities, including the USCIRF. In 2020, the Legal Rights Protection Forum, a Hyderabad-based legal activist group, filed a case against Persecution Relief for defaming India by giving communal color to cases regular cases of crime and murder in the country.  Following this, the Jabalpur High Court issued notice to the Government of Madhya Pradesh and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).  

Shibu is also the President of an orphanage in India called Abundant Life, an entity that has been linked to child abuse cases.

All these players of FIACONA have laid their grounds in India to fuel the narrative of Christian persecution, not just through their reports and online events, but also through rallies and protests. A protest by members of the Christian community was held at Jantar Mantar on 19 February 2023. 

Members of the protest included Dr. Michael William, president of the United Christian Forum, and John Dayal. From FIACONA’s report, we identified A.C. Michael, who had contributed to compiling the FIACONA Report of 2022. Upon a cursory look at his Twitter handle, we found the blueprint of the protest organized at the Jantar Mantar.

Persecution or no persecution?

While there are cries of Christian persecution emanating from these evangelical organizations, we came across a webinar video of FIACONA and Persecution Relief while digging Shibu Thomas that tells a completely different story.

The video reposted by Legal Rights Protection Forum indicates a bigger agenda of these organizations than simply peddling this fabricated narrative against India.  The video in question is of a webinar titled ‘FIACONA Webinar November 2020’ held on 17th November 2020. The webinar video hosted by FIACONA members including its President Koshy George, John Prabhudoss, and Shibu Thomas was taken deleted by them after they realized the discussion of the video doesn’t align with the narrative they are trying to peddle.

In the video, the attendees stated their actual motive, which is “fulfill the Great Commission” and also claimed that “the supreme task of the church is to fulfill the Great Commission which is to proclaim Jesus Christ and to disciple all people”. A declaration is done by one Mr. Valson Abraham, who gave the opening remarks.

Interestingly, contrary to their claims that persecution of Christians is on the rise in India, this Valson Abraham goes on to brag about how Christians have seen a 600% increase in their population in one of the northern states of India in the last 10 years. The discussion further reveals the nefarious intent of these players and the modus operandi of these missionaries to boost conversions in India as it is a fertile ground for their activities. Furthermore, the members also applauded each other, particularly FIACONA for its constant efforts of getting India blacklisted on religious grounds.

Revelations like these are alarming, given the impunity with which these organizations make such serious claims of crimes against humanity leveled against an entire nation.

Chapter 7: The Concert Master- John Dayal

Another important name associated with FIACONA is that of John Dayal. John Dayal is a Christian activist, journalist, and author. John is the Editor and CEO of the afternoon newspaper Delhi Mid-Day and has been the Treasurer of the Editor’s Guild of India.

He was on the advisory board of FIACONA and continues to serve the organization as a curator of their reports.  He is also the co-founder and Secretary-General of the All Indian Christian Council (AICC), a nationwide alliance of Christian organizations, institutions, and federations formed in 1998.

AICC also has a US arm in the form of Dalit Freedom Network (DFN) which grew out of the former to expand its work for the Dalit cause in the US. AICC has been able to interact with and influence the former US Congressman of the Republican party, Joseph Russell Pitts, who has spoken against India on anti-conversion laws and the situation of Dalits and minorities in India.

As noted in previous sections, John Dayal was the common person behind the curation of both EFI and FIACONA’s reports. Dayal remains a key figure behind all these reports that pop up with unsubstantiated documents of Christian atrocities in India.

More importantly, EFI report curation was facilitated by a helpline number provided by a New Delhi-based NGO, United Christian Forum for Human Rights (UCFHR). It is to be duly noted that Dayal was also behind the formation of UCFHR and currently serves as its National Convener.

Dalitstan, UCFHR & Breaking India

UCFHR is a coalition of Christian organizations in India that claims to promote and protect the rights of religious minorities, particularly Christians. The UCFHR was formed in 1998 and is based in New Delhi. It was founded by Alan Basil de Lastic, the former Archbishop of Delhi.

As recorded by Disinfolab earlier, UCFHR was one of the websites promoted by a dubious-sounding website Dalitstan. And incidentally, Dalitstan was launched by US-based individuals, who advocated for the balkanization of India into several separate nations including a Dalit homeland. The founders of Dalitstan were all Church-going Whites from the US including Kermit Northcutt, Debra Schwartz, George Schwartz, Helen Eklund, and Andy Moore.

It is important to note that Dalitstan was one such project started by the US-based Missionaries, aimed at the balkanization of India in the name of advocating for religious minorities and ethnicities.

The website for the Dalitstan project was registered by Helen Eklund who was one of the co-founders of Dalitstan.

Additionally, Dalitstan’s President, Kermit Northcutt is a devout Christian. He is a member of Antioch Christian Academy and an active member. Antioch Christian Academy comes under Antioch Network, which was founded in 1987 as an international multicultural fellowship that spans the globe and runs its missionary in the US. Antioch Christian Academy is a ministry of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Lucedale, MS. ACA is a private Christian school and was established on June 14, 2008.

The key highlight of the whole project was the control of narratives in the hands of missionaries in the early 2000s. John Dayal’s UCFHR was the only Christian organization endorsed by the Dalitstan website while its objective remained the same i.e., balkanization of India.

And today, the Evangelists, along with the Islamist fronts these Christian-advocacy fronts such as FIACONA (which John Dayal had been part of) collaborating with the likes of IAMC, JFA, and HfHR and preparing reports of Christian atrocities in India, which is then promoted further to influence the likes of USCIRF to sanction India.

Part III: Evangelists & Islamists come together

Chapter 8: The Same Core: IAMC-FIACONA-HfHR

On the face of it, it would seem that so many advocacy groups are concerned about human rights and religious freedom in India. And this concern comes from these US-based entities who have been exposed for their lobbying activities against India in Disinfolab reports numerous times.

The Jamaat nexus comprising Justice For All (JFA), Burma Task Force (BTF), along with UAPA-slapped IAMC have been in conjunction for years now. This is not the first time FIACONA has come into this equation to voice Christian concerns. As noted in Chapter 6, FIACONA lobbies the US congressman and even engages with them directly for influencing their policy-making. The same method was applied by the likes of the Islamist fronts to exercise its influence on the USCIRF and further on the IRF to get India blacklisted and further implicate India on the pretext of stringent religious freedom in the country. These groups now have a face for all faiths that co-exist in India. For Christians- FIACONA; For Hindus- Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR); for Muslims- IAMC and a plethora of Islamist organizations. All dancing from the same hymn sheet.

And for years, these groups seem to follow the same modus operandi as they seek to achieve their ambitions including targeting India through US Federal Commissions like USCIRF. It is worth noting that these groups have been working together since the early 2000s and were part of a Coalition Against Genocide (CAG), an umbrella org co-founded by Dr. Shaik Ubaid, of ICNA/ IAMC & Angana Chatterji (the close aide of convicted ISI puppet, Ghulam Nabi Fai).

Shaik Ubaid himself is the pivot of most of the prominent Islamist organizations operating in the US including the IAMC, and BTF, and was Secretary General of ICNA. More about him in the Disinfolab report “Operation Tupac – Decoding The Longest War.”

FIACONA and IAMC

Prabhudoss’ PIFRAS as well as FIACONA were both members of CAG which had been working with the USCIRF closely ever since its inception. Prabhudoss has been the coordinator and moderator of IAMC events and congressional briefings. In return, IAMC would help launch FIACONA’s reports that claim to monitor violence against Christians in India. On April 6, 2022, IAMC co-organized a congressional briefing to launch the 2022 Annual Report of FIACONA. Several guests attended the event including Bryan Nerren (Mayor), Peter Cook, HfHR’s Polic Director Ria Chakrabarty, Koshy George, Pieter Friedrich (fake expert), and John Prabhudoss himself.

John Prabhudoss on IAMC’s platform

India Working Group (IRF Round Table)

Presently, HfHR, IAMC, and FIACONA members comprise the India Working Group (IWG), which is one of the 12 constituents of the IRF Roundtable. IRF Roundtable is an independent, non-governmental organization where NGOs, individuals, and government officials from all faiths work together to influence the US State Department ahead of its annual reports. IWG has many working groups including for the Middle East, Justice & Accountability Working Group, Iran Working Group, China Coalition, Africa Working Group, Central Asia Working Group, etc.,

And for India, IWG is chaired by the IAMC Advocacy Director, Ajit Sahi, John Prabhudoss (Indian American Christian Organization), and Nikhil Mandalaparthy, Deputy Executive Director of Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR). 

The influence of these groups is such that they can be found in almost every place that has a role in USCIRF’s annual reports. In another such instance, Open Doors works with the USCIRF while its reports are used by the latter in evaluating countries including India. Open Doors in turn is also influenced by this Islamist and CAG members’ nexus including IAMC, HfHR, and JFA. 

Snippet from Open Doors World Watch List 2023

IRF Secretariat and IRF Summit 2023

IRF Roundtable also constitutes IRF Secretariat which in turn is an NGO & a social convener of the global network of Roundtables which is the premier space for practical policy discussions and inclusive coordination of actions between faith communities, civil society and governments.

Life comes full circle!

Now, former USCIRF Chair and IAMC ally Nadine Maenza is the President of IRF Secretariat since June 2022. It is to be noted that Nadine’s tenure with USCIRF culminated last year. Now she bridges the gap between these advocacy groups such and the US State Department and in turn tend to control the narrative flow.

These groups organize summits and events together and engage with the US State Department officials, US federal commissions including USCIRF officials, IRF officials, journalists, and human rights activits.

IRF Summit 2023 was held on January 31-February 1 2023. The speakers’ list included Nadine Maenza, IRF Ambassador-At-Large Rashad Hussain, Journalist Raqib Hamid Naik, Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s Gregory Stanton among many other luminaries.

This is where all these groups and the US State Department meet and greet and produce reports on all the countries including India.

Conclusion

By now the farce has become unbearable.

It is increasingly becoming difficult to identify whether the US govt agencies are utterly incompetent or are colluders. The IRF report says that they can’t independently verify the reports of these organizations they utilize. But this is a sham. One look at the atrocity documentation will give away how the data has been fabricated. Does it mean that the IRF and even State Department is not examining the data but are too eager to castigate India.

Not to mention the lapdog media. The US-based Christian orgs and their Indian affiliates present a report based on the fabricated data, which is then lapped by media – ‘Western’ and ‘Indian’ to build a narrative of atrocities on minorities – which is then used by the US Govt religious watchdog to target India, which is again picked up as an evidence of such atrocities. All the fabrications and faulty data must not interfere with the narrative building, where the mainstream media is happily following the lead.

Expect the same narrative to continue.