KOCHI: Syro-Malabar Church has issued a statement against the backdrop of the ‘narcotic jihad’ controversy, saying that certain political leaders, media and organizations portrayed the statement of bishop Joseph Kallarangatt as a problem between two religions and this wrongful portrayal led to controversies and fruitless discussions around it.
The statement said that everyone who are deliberately attacking the bishop by wrongly accusing that his speech at Kuravilangadu church disrupted communal harmony should put an end to it. “It is a fact that has been clear to all that bishop Kallarangatt did not speak in a defamatory way against any community or religion. At the same time, he gave a warning against certain organized anti-social activities,” the statement issued by the Syro Malabar Church said.
The term narco jihad was used in 2017 in a thesis published by the European Foundation for South Asian Studies in connection with sales of drugs in Afghanistan. This report establishes with the support of factual evidence that terrorist organizations are indulging in drug trade.
“All religious communities and organizations in the state consider these anti-social activities as an evil and keeps it away. However, it is true that this dangerous trade is happening in Kerala as well. Mar Joseph Kallarangatt was giving a warning against this,” the statement said, justifying Kallarangatt.
The statement said that the Church realizes that the uproar seeking action against the bishop was a planned move. “Such moves would only lead to the losing of communal harmony existing in the state. We make it clear that we would stand together with Mar Kallarangatt to fight moves to criticize the bishop by giving into various kinds of pressures, no matter who it is coming from,” said the statement.
The statement was issued after an online meeting which was presided over by its chairman archbishop Andrews Thazhath.
