{"id":19621,"date":"2017-01-05T13:01:17","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T13:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=19621"},"modified":"2017-01-05T13:01:17","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T13:01:17","slug":"india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/","title":{"rendered":"INDIA Churches warned not to celebrate Christmas &#8211; ACN Malta"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><strong>INDIA<br \/> <\/strong><strong>Churches were warned <\/strong><strong>not<\/strong><strong> to celebrate Christmas<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As tensions escalated between Christians and Hindus last December, churches in some parts of India received a last minute warning not to celebrate Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>In a desperate bid to quash the violence, the regional authorities put Manipur on lockdown and banned churches from celebrating Christmas.\u00a0They also cut off internet access to the region and imposed a curfew on the town until Christmas Day.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The ban on Christmas services and drastic security measures were imposed in response to violent clashes between the Hindu-majority Meitei community and Christian-majority hill tribes, including the Naga community.<\/p>\n<p>At the beginning of December three security guards were killed by Naga insurgents over the formation of a new district in Lokchow, near Tengnoupal. The Meitei community hit back, throwing stones at the Manipur Baptist Church Centre, smashing glass and destroying the building.\u00a0The attackers left a chilling warning: &#8220;No one is allowed to worship and celebrate Christmas without prior permission.&#8221; The same mob also threatened nearby Tangkhul Baptist Church Imphal that if they conducted religious services, the church would be burnt down.<\/p>\n<p>A local pastor said: &#8220;This might just seem to be a communal issue, but this is all planned to create problems for the Christians as even the government has announced a curfew till Christmas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are an estimated 63 million Christians in India with 80 per cent of the country\u2019s 1.3billion population identifying as Hindu.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Attacks on Christians in India have been increasing since 2013 and it is against the law to convert to Christianity in five states. Persecution against Christians is becoming extremely violent.<\/p>\n<p>In the past year more than 350 Christians were physically attacked by Hindu extremists, nine Christians were killed for their faith and at least three women were raped.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>ACN Malta<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INDIA Churches were warned not to celebrate Christmas &nbsp; As tensions escalated between Christians and Hindus last December, churches in some parts of India received a last minute warning not to celebrate Christmas. In a desperate bid to quash the violence, the regional authorities put Manipur on lockdown and banned churches from celebrating Christmas.\u00a0They also&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>INDIA Churches warned not to celebrate Christmas - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INDIA Churches warned not to celebrate Christmas - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"INDIA Churches were warned not to celebrate Christmas &nbsp; As tensions escalated between Christians and Hindus last December, churches in some parts of India received a last minute warning not to celebrate Christmas. In a desperate bid to quash the violence, the regional authorities put Manipur on lockdown and banned churches from celebrating Christmas.\u00a0They also...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-05T13:01:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Madhya-Pradesh-small-Christian-community-in-village-of-Sagar-diocesev2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"513\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"342\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/\",\"name\":\"INDIA Churches warned not to celebrate Christmas - ACN Malta - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Madhya-Pradesh-small-Christian-community-in-village-of-Sagar-diocesev2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-05T13:01:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-05T13:01:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Madhya-Pradesh-small-Christian-community-in-village-of-Sagar-diocesev2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Madhya-Pradesh-small-Christian-community-in-village-of-Sagar-diocesev2.jpg\",\"width\":513,\"height\":342},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/01\/05\/india-churches-warned-not-to-celebrate-christmas-acn-malta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"INDIA Churches warned not to celebrate Christmas &#8211; 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