Rise of Hindu ‘extremist’ spooks 40 million Muslim minority in India’s heartland
by Michael Safi in Gorakhpur from World news | The Guardian on (#2H2ZA)
In Gorakhpur, the power base of a firebrand monk, religious tension grows
Pastor Ritesh Joshua had just called a tea break when he saw the men in the saffron scarves. More than a hundred, some wielding sticks, had massed outside his white stucco church on the outskirts of Gorakhpur, a temple town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous state. It was three days after Christmas.
"They started shouting, 'You are converting people. We will not allow any conversions here'," he says. "They shoved people, turned over furniture, and told me, 'You are the main culprit'."
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