Muslim fundamentalists segregate converts, strip woman in West Bengal

Six Muslim families who converted to Christianity in West Bengal were victimized by Muslim fundamentalists who segregated the Christians from the village and even dared to strip a Christian woman earlier this month.

The incident occurred early this month in Natungram village in West Bengal's Murshidabad district, reported International Christian Concern (ICC).

Nur Islam, the priest of a local mosque in the Muslim–dominated Natungram village, summoned the heads of six families that had converted from Islam, to a village meeting, where hundreds of Muslims had also been called.

In the meeting, the fundamentalists forced the Christians to deny Christ and even warned of dire consequences such as being completely isolated from the village and possibly being killed.

Noticing the Christians not yielding to the requests, the fundamentalists asked the villagers to keep no contact with the Christians, informed the shopkeepers not to sell anything to the Christians and warned them against using any common facility, including water taps and tube wells.

"Later, some fundamentalists went to the house of a convert woman in the same village, and forcibly stripped her, saying they wanted to check if missionaries installed any mark on her body as a sign of conversion," reported the source.

The Christian families attend a house church for weekly worship, led by Khoda–e–Jamat (Gospel of Peace to Muslim Brother), an independent Christian organization.

"Ever since this incident took place no one has been coming to attend the worship service," said the source.

Although the police have been deployed to prevent further tensions, no arrests or complaints have been made.

West Bengal has a population of 80 million, out of which more than 20 million are Muslims and 515,150 being Christians.