Bangladesh: Anti-Christian Rumor Helps Fuel Attacks

Convinced that villagers are being paid to convert, Buddhists and Muslims lash out.

DHAKA, Bangladesh, October 16 (Compass Direct News) – The rumor that evangelists offer people money to convert to Christianity in Bangladesh is the rationale for violence against Christians not just from Muslims, but from Buddhists who make up less than 1 percent of the population. Subash Mondol, a supervisor of the Christian Life Bangladesh (CLB) “Jesus Film” team in Khagrachori district, told Compass that in early September tribal Buddhist villagers decided to kidnap a CLB worker after hearing a rumor that he had received money for converting. Finding no money on Cinku Marma, they instead assaulted him with a jungle knife on September 6, slashing his hand, forehead and ear. In Nilphamari district, where 10 of 42 converts from Islam were brutally beaten in June, Muslim missionaries are helping to spread the conversion-for-pay rumor. And a district official recently summoned pastor Sanjoy Roy, accusing him of offering financial incentives and ordering him stop evangelizing. He also forced Roy to sign a statement that he would not go outside the area without permission.

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