Some religious groups are looking at the tragedy as a opportunity to gain a foothold in a battered community, for example this christian group wants to adopt orphans for the main purpose of raising them christian. Everything and everyone seems to have a selfish motive nowadays.
An evangelical Christian charity has dropped plans to settle 50 Muslim children orphaned by the Asian tsunami in a Christian-run home after the Indonesian government blocked the move, the group said on Thursday.
Virginia-based World Help has raised $70,000 to place Muslim children in a Christian orphanage near Jakarta. But the group’s president, the Rev. Vernon Brewer said it suspended fund-raising on Wednesday after Indonesia said Muslim children could not be raised in a non-Muslim home.
“Once we realized that the government was not going to grant permission yesterday we took that fund-raising appeal off of our Web site,” Brewer said in a telephone interview with Reuters.
The plan drew criticism from Muslim groups which said it would take advantage of people in a position of need. Many religious charities prohibit mixing relief efforts with proselytizing.
“This confirms some of our worst fears that certain missionary groups would exploit the tragedy and the earthquake to enter into these areas and convert people through use of a disproportionate power relationship,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“How many incidents of this type are taking place that we don’t hear about?” Hooper said.
WorldHelp raises money for charity efforts and also seeks to win converts to Christianity by building churches and distributing Bibles, according to the group’s Web site.
Members of the group “will travel to the country of India, where God is overcoming hundreds of years of false religions and idol worship,” a message on the Web site said.
Extremists, black heart for prroselytizing? How did Islam spread to almost ALL the poorer nations? It was either through preaching or war so don't be so haughty. Their faith is as strong and "truth"to them as yours is to you.
Its a well known fact that these xtian orgs sell salvation for a bowl of soup. There is no doubt in that and they have had this philosophy for years, but you know what, Islam is still the fastest growing religion in the world today - subhanallah.
converting people by guile is the worst kinda crime.. it happens a lot in india.. some xtian missionaries come up with copycat rituals that mimic hindu customs a lot and they use that to slyly convert poor people who dunno much abt religion.. for ex. there is a place in south india where hindus go around a hill as it is the site of a major temple.. ppl have been doing that for several centuries.. recently, the xtian bishops there came up with something similar.. they built a virgin mary shrine on another hillock and created a ritual that had a similar name and had the same aspects as the hindu one... papers report lot of poor dalits deceived by this fake ritual started doing it thinking it was also part of the hindu ritual.. one fine day bishops told them u have been practising an xtian ritual u mite as well become xtians.. and believe me they did.. read this article years ago... will try to search for it on the net.
It has become quite the norm these days. After the Bosnia crisis, many Muslim kids were adopted by Christian families and are being raised as Christians. But many Muslims (not as many as Christians I'm sure) adopted the Bosnians as well and they are being raised as Muslims.
I have quite a few friends who are serving as 'teachers' in Muslim countries with the organization having a hidden agenda to convert people. Sad but true.
Rage and fury has gripped this tsunami-hit tiny Hindu village in India’s southern Tamil Nadu after a group of Christian missionaries allegedly refused them aid for not agreeing to follow their religion.
Jubilant at seeing the relief trucks loaded with food, clothes and the much-needed medicines the villagers, many of who have not had a square meal in days, were shocked when the nuns asked them to convert before distributing biscuits and water.
^ I am not sure how reliable this news is, but if this is true and happened the way they say it did, its absolutely despicable. Hopefully this is more an exception than the norm.
On what basis do you doubt this news and why not apply the same standard for all news reports then. Anyways here is more.
Dozens of religious groups have moved in to Aceh, looking to help tsunami victims - and convert them and others, creating tensions in the disaster area.
The arrival of Western Christian groups with records of aggressive preaching risks confrontation with local Muslim leaders which could jeopardise the provision of aid to the 600,000 local people made homeless by the disaster. The death toll in Aceh stands at around 110,000 and is expected to rise.