competitive sense of entitlement!! The fact that Indian taxpayers finance Haj is bad as it is... And how do the Hindus get repayed? By getting bombed in their temples and killed on way to the pilgrimage to their holy place of Amarnath in Kashmir.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Srinagar_mob_attacks_pilgrim_family_4_hurt/articleshow/3165932.cms

Posted by: Vikrant_Camberleykar at June 27, 2008 5:32 AM

Christians need no inducements , in fact the omipresence of 'God' makes such demands ...stupid as is Islam.

Posted by: David Xavier at June 27, 2008 6:16 AM

Given how many Hindus have been murdered by Muslims, I find it astonishing they would pay jizya of any kind.

Posted by: aynrandgirl at June 27, 2008 6:23 AM

"Given how many Hindus have been murdered by Muslims, I find it astonishing they would pay jizya of any kind.

Posted by: aynrandgirl"

India is a secular democracy, not a Hindu nation. All religions are regarded as equal, but we JWers know that some are more equal than others. The polits looking for muslim votes (muslims vote en masse for whoever the mullah or imam tells them to) provide these subsidies. If one goes through the link that Mr. Spencer has provided, the last paragraph reads -

"The Centre, in its response, said there was no discrimination as “the Government of India provides financial assistance for the conduct of pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar.”"

There is absolutely no comparison between the pilgrims going to Kailash Mansarovar and those going to mecca. Only the superbly fit can travel to Mansarovar, because of the altitude and the terrain ; the actual number of pilgrims runs into a few thousand. OTOH millions of muhammadans travel to mecca and take advantage of these subsidies.

The haj subsidy is not the only way through which the muhammadans get their jaziya, though it is provided by the Central Government. The state governments, at their level provide other things, like free medicines. Over here in my city, I know of two muslim neighbourhoods that came up on forest land (illegal encroachments) and get free electricity and water supply. On what grounds, one might ask ? Because the Corporater of that area thinks that they are poor and therefore must get these things for free.

Posted by: arjun.sevak at June 27, 2008 10:00 AM

Jerusalem, the birth place of Jesus Christ.

Like in that old Christmas carol, "O Little Town of Jerusalem."

Posted by: Seamus at June 27, 2008 11:15 AM

Logical move by the local Christians. After all, if Mohammedans can get away with it, why not them?

But why Jerusalem, where temple mount is off limits, and Bethlehem is unvisitable, thanks to the Palestinians making it a dangerous area and Christians there fleeing? Also, isn't that something that Indian Jews should be demanding? Oh, scratch that - they just don't have the numbers to make a difference in any constituency.

Instead, if one is a Catholic from Goa, ask for a flight to the Holy See, and use some of the cash saved from travel expenses for tourist purposes in and around the area. If one is an Anglican (as I believe most Indian Christians are), ask for a flight to London for the sake of visiting Canterbury, and use the saved money there for Ferris wheel rides, Trafalgar Square, et al.

Far better deal than if one is a Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain. After all, Sikhs outside Punjab aren't subsidized for visits to the Golden Temple in Amritsar, nor are Buddhists compensated for visiting Buddha's birthplace in Nepal. As for the Hindu example above, apples & oranges. Just as Mecca (and Medina, which Mohammedans get to visit as part of the same package) are the 2 holy cities of Islam, similarly Hindus have 6 holy cities - Varanasi, Hardwar, Mathura, Ayodhya, Ujjain and Kanchipuram (and Dwaraka?) All of them are within India, yet no Hindu gets subsidized for visiting any of these places, even for pilgrimages.

However, in the case above, whether the Christians in question will get it or not depends only on one thing - whether they have enough numbers to adequately affect the outcome in enough constituencies. If they do, then rest assured that the political parties in Tamil Nadu would be jostling for their votes, and that the scenarios I parodied above may actually come to pass.

Posted by: Infidel Pride at June 27, 2008 7:22 PM

Go ahead. Latch on to the mammary glands of the dhimmiwatch welfare state & set yourself up for a turkey shoot by the Hamas, Hizbullah Jihadis. These Christianists must be nuts...

Posted by: karyakarta92 at June 28, 2008 3:49 AM