KERALA, India — Tensions between Christians and Muslims in India’s Kerala state have reached the boiling point over allegations of widespread coerced conversions to Islam.
Kerala’s Communist chief minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, accused an Islamist opposition party of conspiring to turn Kerala into a Muslim-dominated state. “Youngsters are being given money and are being lured to convert to Islam,” he told reporters at a news conference. Opposition parties accused the government of playing the “Hindu card” ahead of local elections.
Muslims and Christian minorities in India generally enjoy good relations and see each other as fellow victims of alleged persecution by right-wing Hindu groups. Kerala’s population of 31.8 million is 56 percent Hindu, 24 percent Muslim and 19 percent Christian.
The chief minister’s statement came after alleged members of the Islamist party Popular Front of India (PFI) cut off a Christian professor’s hand July 4 in the central district of Kottayam. India’s National Investigation Agency is investigating the role of PFI in terrorism.
According to Mangalam Daily, a PFI-backed “Taliban-styled” Shariah court — one of 14 reported Islamic courts in Kerala — had ordered the punishment against Professor T.J. Joseph for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a paper.
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