How Terry Jones’ Koran Burning Stunt Killed Peace In The Punjab And Blackburn
TERRY Jones’s media-aggrandised threat to burn the Koran has resulted in the destruction of a church built with cash donated by the good people of Blackburn, Lancashire. Or not?
The church in Malerkotla, in the Punjab, was built after Pleckgate local Raj Bilas started a campaign to raise money for place of Christian worship in the place of his birth.
Says he in the Lancashire Telegraph, which states that the Church was burnt down:
“There were rumours that the Koran burning in Florida had happened. There was a mob that got together and they took their anger out on the church… The town is mainly Muslim and Christian and both religions have always got on well. There have never been tensions.”
Perhaps not, but it didn’t take all that much for the Church to be destroyed. The nearby Christian Society Mission School was also set on fire.
The Times of India reports:
After setting the church on fire, they damaged a police motorcycle and prevented fire tenders from dousing the fire.
Although the same paper also reported one day earlier:
Before the police could react, they pulled out the furniture and set it on fire.
The Asian Age has its version of events:
Curfew was imposed in Punjab’s only Muslim-majority town, Malerkotla, after angry mobs, infuriated by rumours about the desecration of the Quran in the US, attacked a local church, setting fire to furniture and damaging sections of the religious premises late on Sunday night.
The Tribune says:
A 200-strong mob set ablaze one of the town’s three churches late last night.
But only the Cath News has a photo of the destroyed Church (see above) and it’s own news:
“Some 150 ‘hooligans’ opened the church, collected all the pews and burned them completely,” said Father Kavumpuram.
Then:
“The Muslim community themselves came and whitewashed the church, repairing everything that was burned,” says an official of the Catholic Church in Punjab.
The Church was not set on fire, just the furniture. Still, we can at least agree that rumours of a fire were met with fire and more rumours
Spotter: Anorakaren
Posted: 16th, September 2010 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
