The American College - A victim of religious atrocity

I came across a blog site "THE RICHARD DAWKINS FOUNDATION" a discussion group for reason and science. By the way Richard Dawkins is a British Scientist who has written many interesting books in the field of evolution (http://richarddawkins.net/).

With an aim of exposing the recent happenings at The American College to international audience, a former student of our college Mr. Nirmal Rajah has started a discussion in the above mentioned blogsite.

The following are the contents of his message:

The American College, Madurai - a victim of religious atrocity

This is a pathetic story of a magnificent, world class, hundred and thirty year old college – The American College, standing in the center of Madurai (Tamil Nadu,India). The college is considered an asset to the city – the country, even - providing very low-cost or sometimes even free education for people of all classes.

And now it faces a serious threat. From religion. A greedy, money-hungry, power-hungry bishop of the Churches of South India (CSI), who has already minted lots of money from the church and ignorant believing Christians, has turned his eyes on the American College. A year ago, with the help of hooligans and third rate politicians, the bishop stormed into the college, overthrew the principal and took over the power. He publicly stated that the college no longer belongs to the people but to the church, and that the church’s main aim is to turn the college into an institution which can get them more profit by imposing heavy fees for courses. And finally he announced his plan to sell the college for about 3 billion Indian rupees and fill his pocket!

When the students protested against this atrocity they were beaten up by police whom he bought with his money, and were brutally attacked by ruffians, kicked, stabbed, cut with blades, locked up in jails and tortured. The peace-loving, god- and sin-fearing pastors watched all this with their mouths closed. Though the Indian court rejected the bishop's claim to the college, the bishop and his supporters are reluctant to give up such a big sum of money, and have remained in the college and ruined the lives of many students.

I’ve been a victim myself, having once been beaten up by ruffians and police for raising my voice against religion and the bishop for committing such atrocities in the name of religion and the church.

I’m writing this to bring this issue to international attention and richarddawkins.net is the perfect stage to let the world see this example of how religion can ruin almost everything.