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SRINAGAR, INDIA, April 5, 2003: Kashmir is witnessing an increase in conversion from Islam to Christianity. Christian groups are putting the number of new converts at over 10,000 and a Sunday Express investigation confirms that conversions have been taking place regularly across the Valley. At least a dozen Christian missions and churches based in the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have sent evangelists to the Valley and are sending in money through intermediaries based in New Delhi. Missionaries are getting immediate attention because they reach out to the poor, needy and those affected by violence. Also, they bring in a lot of money. Though conversions have not met any resistance from Muslim organizations, it has led to tensions between Kashmir’s native Christians — a minuscule community of 650 — and the enthusiastic evangelists. The native Christians are increasingly getting vocal against the outsiders. “This type of conversions aren’t good for local Christians who had shared a cordial relationship with Muslims here for centuries. The conversions they are doing are Biblically wrong. There are umpteen cases in which one person has been baptized thrice within a few months. These so-called evangelists have set up businesses in the garb of church and social work,” says Pastor Leslie Richards, a native protestant living in Braen, Srinagar. “The converts here do it for monetary reasons and the people who convert them too do it for the same reasons,” he adds.



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