Kochi: Despite widespread outrage over the barbaric act, the church in Kerala has refused to back Professor T J Joseph, the man whose hand was hacked off for allegedly insulting the Prophet.
The Kerala Syro Malabar Church has rejected Joseph's appeal, saying it has to maintain its secular credentials. Joseph was sacked by the Newman College for preparing a controversial question paper that led to the brutal attack on him.
The church talks about secular values yet it also says Joseph must be punished or must be forgiven by another community. But is it not about the law and secularism?
"That is why the bishop wrote the pastoral letter and said we are ready to take him back provided the government or the judiciary department tells us, but we could not do it," Father Paul Thelakkattu, church's spokesperson, said.
Joseph is a professor and the attack has left him crippled and he has no other way of earning a living. Rather than supporting Joseph at such a time, the church decided to come out and punish him.
"If we support him that means we are part of the offence, an accomplice in the act of the professor. We had nothing to do with it. It was a personal decision of the professor and therefore he is liable to that kind of punishment. It is an unpleasant thing I know and also painful, but in our situation we had no other option," Thelakkattu said.
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