The Syro Malabar Church is one of the Eastern Churches in communion with the Pope of Rome, and its identity as a Catholic Church makes its revolting actions in this incident understandable. Pope Francis has claimed risibly that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” This has become a superdogma in the Catholic Church: if you don’t believe that Islam is a Religion of Peace, you will be ruthlessly harassed and silenced by the bishops of the Catholic Church, who are much more concerned that you believe that Islam is a religion of peace than that you believe in, say, the Nicene Creed. This man had his hand severed by Islamic jihadis? Sure, but he offended Islam! The Pope of Islam would want nothing less than his excommunication! Joseph is just lucky that the Catholics didn’t sever his other hand!
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
“Islamist Fundamentalists Severed His Hand, But Kerala Prof. Says His Church Did Worse,” by K.A. Shaji, Huffington Post India, February 12, 2020:
Thodupuzha, KERALA — On July 4, 2010, T.J. Joseph was returning home from Sunday mass with his family in Kerala’s Idukki district when a group of seven men stopped his car, dragged him out and chopped off his right hand at the wrist. The attackers accused Joseph, a Catholic and the head of the department of Malayalam at Newman College in Thodupuzha, of blasphemy and of insulting Prophet Mohammed in a question paper he had set. The gory incident made national and international headlines and was widely condemned.
According to the National Investigation Agency, the men who attacked Joseph “with deadly weapons and explosive materials” were members of the Popular Front of India (PFI). This organisation calls itself a social movement for the empowerment of minority communities, but is often labelled a radical outfit suspected of political killings and links with the Islamic State militant group. Most recently, in December 2019, several of its activists were arrested for allegedly instigating violence against the Citizenship Amendment Act in multiple states….
“Islamic fanatics attacked me once,” Joseph told HuffPost India in an interview shortly after his book’s release. “The Christian denomination to which I belong ruined my life by excommunicating me and terminating me from my job without giving any valid reason. Unable to withstand the isolation and financial crisis caused by the loss of my job, my wife died by suicide.”
Calling himself a “living martyr of Christian fanaticism”, the 63-year-old accused the church of making him a scapegoat to avoid a direct confrontation with the Muslim groups that attacked him….
“In the beginning, when the question paper controversy erupted, the Syro Malabar Church and the college management under it gave me their full support, vouching for my integrity,” Joseph recalled. “However, a high-level meeting of church authorities in Kerala was held and thereafter, everybody changed their stands. At the meeting, a decision was taken to not antagonise the PFI and other radical Islamic outfits. Thereafter, I was all alone.”
The meeting, Joseph said, was held in the second week of March 2010.
“It was the stand of the church supporting Islamic fundamentalism and the canard against me that resulted in the PFI attack and the loss of my hand.”…
According to academic and writer Shaji Jacob, the attack on Joseph was a wake-up call to Kerala on religious intolerance. “After Joseph’s hand was chopped off and his wife died by suicide, Kerala society started treating religious fundamentalism as a matter of utmost concern,” he said. “Now, his autobiography proves beyond doubt that no religious group is free from intolerance and obscurantism. The Catholic Church has treated him badly even after the courts exonerated him from the blasphemy charge.”
somehistory says
Better that he is out of the “church” if they are so un-Christian and cowardly that they pull the rug from under him.
owensgate says
“Excommunicated” by the Catholic church? Ho-Hum, not to worry – only Jesus Christ Himself can “excommunicate” anyone, and for the “pope” to assert any authority is blasphemous, totally.
somehistory says
100% correct.
keith says
Excommunicated by the Roman Empire? The lucky bastard.
Given the track record of this cult his being tossed out is probably the best thing that has happened to him.
After all, look at the amount of support, compassion, understanding and protection the church gave him and his family.
Great examples of Christian behavior!!!!
Darklight says
this wouldn’t be happening if india was a hindu rashtra
gravenimage says
Is the aptly named “Darklight” sneering at the victim here? Sure looks like it. *Ugh*.
James Lincoln says
According to the feature article:
“Pope Francis has claimed risibly that “authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.””
And so, this is the reason that I am a Catholic “in recovery…”
I just wish that Pope Francis would pull out all the stops and declare that he is, in fact, a muslim. That would remove all doubt about what religion he is aligned with. As it stands now, he is a total fraud – all the while “leading” the Roman Catholic Church.
How I miss Pope Benedict XVI…
concerned citizen says
+1
Wellington says
Yes, James, Pope Benedict was a sterling Pope. Popes should be sterling. Better for the Catholic Church. Better for all of mankind. And here Francis fails most terribly.
GreekEmpress says
As an Eastern Rite Catholic, I am absolutely horrified. This “excommunication” is totally bogus!
Excommunication is only used in extreme situations—not for writing something that might offend a Muslim!
There is something terribly wrong in Kerala—dhimmitude and pandering.
PS—I miss Pope Benedict as well.
gravenimage says
+1
Peter WF says
Agreed.
It is time the pope lead by example and settled “refugees” in the vatican.
abad says
I left the Roman Catholic church many years ago and do not miss it.
Pope Francis is Islam’s First Pope(TM Pending)
Ric says
If anyone should face excommunication it is ‘you can call me Francis’ and many of his tagalong acolytes.
elee says
Islam: the thug of religions is the religion of thugs.
Wellington says
This cowardice, stupidity and ignorance is much larger than “a Catholic Church problem.” Large elements of the other two major divisions of Christianity, i.e., Protestantism and Orthodoxy, have also pathetically sucked up to Islam in our time and on countless occasions.
So, any non-Catholic Christian “crowing” over this “incident” is foolish in the extreme because ALL of Christianity is now replete with craven, silly, stupid and ignorant people making excuse after excuse for Islam. There are still many stalwart, informed Christians from all three major divisions of Christianity but, at this point, it remains only probable, not a given, that Christianity can still save itself from itself (and please spare me any statement to the effect that Christianity will win out in the end because it is the true faith—most every religion asserts this and, besides, any possible existent deity helps those who help themselves, which includes being well informed and thereafter acting accordingly).
A good start, a great start, would be for the Christian world en masse to publicly assert that Islam is inimical to Christianity (e.g., Islam denies the Crucifixion and has the Muslim Jesus {Isa} throwing Christians into Hell at the end of the world for deifying Him). This completely understandable “take on Islam” is certainly what the Christian world did until the past half century or so when the West went into stupid mode due to the voluminous rot which the 1960’s spewed and which rot, now exponentially rotten, still adversely affects the remnant of free peoples in the West (in addition to exculpating the totalitarian creed which is Islam the modern West has given birth to the newest totalitarian ideology, i.e., Leftism, which is a distortion of traditional Western liberalism).
Christians should ban together, whatever their sect, and make alliances with other non-Muslims like Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, agnostics (count me in here), atheists, et al. against the one major religion which means to dominate us all by way of its proclivity for violence and intolerance and which “proclivity” is to be found in Islam’s very theological blueprint, whether in the Koran itself or in the hadiths and sira.
Together, mankind stands an excellent chance of prevailing against the worst religion of all time. Divided it gives Islam a shot at ruining virtually all of the human race. A good beginning would be for ALL Christians, whatever their denomination, to band together against the longest-lived mortal enemy of Christianity ever—Islam. This doesn’t mean that all Muslims should be hated by Christians. Quite the contrary. But it does mean that the Muslim belief system should be hated. Once again can be seen that one can hate the sin without necessarily hating the sinner. No better example to be found in our era than how Christians react to Islam and its horribly deluded followers. Time is way overdue for this to occur.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
100% correct – and this is coming from a devout Christian.
abad says
Wellington:
Excellent post and yes the Christian community in the western world does indeed need to band together against Islam. As well as band together with other faiths, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Wicca, atheists and agnostics. Islam is a very real threat to us all.
gravenimage says
Grimly true, Wellington, James, and Abad.
Wilfred says
Chop their heads off. Simple. We’ve had too much patience with this religion of piece. If it weren’t for the American forces, most of the world would have been run over by these so called religion of peace advocates. Today the US is the only country that has been maintaining the balance of power with these islamic jihadist swines.
FYI says
Poor man:stuck between the Scylla of islamic fascism and the Charybdis* of Imam Bergoglio’s pro-islam,pro-Nwo novus ordo “catholic” church
He is most certainly a MARTYR and he is in good company if he has been excommunicated:Mr Bergoglio,sorry.”pope ” francis and his henchmen are already doing that to catholics{these are faithful Catholics and clergy who do not conform to Smiley Jorge’s Lefty marxist jesuit ideology}
{catholics should look up… Scottish Hermits excommunicated}
And so we see how a pope ,the politician and smiley showman,has now crossed a line in his pursuit of authoritarianism.
dear muslims I wish to tell you something shocking.
It’s about muhammed.You may find it insulting..
Did you know that according to YOUR koran {k45:16} allah insists that ALL prophets must be from the Children of Israel?
“And Verily WE gave the children of Israel the Scripture and the Prophethood”
All the Biblical Prophets,Moses,Elijah,Jesus,The Apostles,John the Baptist,by virtue of being JEWISH satisfy allah’s criterion of having the right to be prophets.
Can you guess who does NOT qualify according to allah’s criterion of koran 45:16?
Can you guess who claimed to be the greatest of all prophets and yet was not from the Children of Israel and so was not ENTITLED to the prophethood?
Can you guess who it is?
I’ll give you a clue:he had a 9 year old “wife”,admitted to being a fraud{al tabari 6:111} had a magical flying horse with a woman’s face and was killed,not in battle,but after being poisoned by an enslaved Jewish woman who outsmarted him and exposed him as a false prophet?
Your “prophet” muhammed
{pbuh,(the gift of)prophecy be unknown to him}
*That’s between a rock and a hard place for any muslims reading this.
Jim says
This is absolutely shocking. I’m not surprised that those who are blinded by Satan would chop off his hand; but for those who claim to be the official church of Jesus Christ on earth to fire him and excommunicate him is beyond belief.
Just curious: How exactly did the bishop of Rome become the alleged head of all Christian churches everywhere? A bishop is over only those churches in his own city or region, not over every church in the world.
Just like others in the gospel ministry have gone off the track, so has the bishop of Rome, the alleged “vicar of Christ on earth”.
bernie says
Just out of curiosity, what exactly was the question on the test which was alleged to have been blasphemous? However, that’s not to say that that mob was entitled to sever that guy’s hand, even if the test question had been really offensive towards Muslims. Personally, I feel offended by that Brazilian comedy group that produced the comedy film “The First Temptation of Christ,” but I don’t want to vadndalize, assault or kill them for that; I’ll just protest peacefully and boycott Netflix over it, unless and until they remove it from their repertoire.
Jim says
He used the name “Muhammad” in his paper, because the paper was based on a book written by a guy named Muhammad. But loonie tune Muslim fanatics got all bent out of shape because they thought he was referring to the “prophet” Muhammad.
He presented the paper to his school before distributing it to his students, and the school approved it. They knew he wasn’t referring to the “prophet” Muhammad at the time they approved it; even still, they made him the scapegoat, undoubtedly to try to appease the loonie tune Muslim fanatics.
somehistory says
Thank you for the added info.
Kepha says
This is truly shameful. But it isn’t the first time that an ostensibly “Christian” leadership has pandered to the enemies of God’s Anointed.
So, I will say it here, that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate. He worked righteousness while here on earth. He laid down his life for his sheep (Jn. 10) on the cross. He rose again from the dead on the third day. He now reigns from Heaven, breaking nations that do not obey him with his rod of iron. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. He sits, body and soul, in Heaven, while Muhammad lies in the dust of Medina along with all the rest of the dead waiting to be judged by Jesus Christ, the final and ultimate prophet, priest, and king.
Let King Jesus reign and all his enemies (including Pope Francis) be scattered!
May God protect, care for, and relieve Dr. Joseph quickly.
Lydia Church says
These church officials are all JUDAS’s!
wow
gravenimage says
India: Catholic Church excommunicates, fires prof after Muslims accuse him of blasphemy and sever his hand
……………….
How *sick is this*? This poor man.
mortimer says
Very sick. The views of T.J. Joseph will prevail because truth doesn’t depend on the whimsical or opportunistic fancy of fashionable ideas.
In future, T.J. Joseph will be the hero and the Christian clerics and pope that attacked him will be considered villains.
mortimer says
T.J. Joseph was persecuted by Muslims and now his church persecutes after he defended his church against the false claims of Islam.
The RC hierarchy are not aware of Islam’s supremacism.