Five days of fighting between Hindus and Muslims in rural western India has left more than 500 people dead, and thousands more too frightened to return to their homes. Violence broke out in the town of Godhra, in Gujarat state, February 27. Muslims set fire to a train carriage carrying Hindus home from a religious gathering in Ayodhya, where Hindus plan to build a temple on the site of a 16th century mosque they demolished in 1992. Fifty-eight people died in the blaze.

Seventh-day Adventist leaders in India will send letters to India’s Home Minister and Prime Minister expressing the church’s concerns for protecting minority communities, and for protecting our institutions and churches, reports J. Tito Arattukulam, communication director for the Adventist Church in India. “We feel that a global concern is needed regarding this situation,” he says. “Let us wholeheartedly pray that the government machinery will be effective in restoring normalcy, peace and tranquility.”

“What is happening in India demonstrates the natural outcome of intolerance,” says John Graz, public affairs and religious liberty director for the Adventist world church. “Where governments do not send a clear message to their citizens and are not able to control extremists, the result is destruction and murder.”

It is important to remember that no one religion has a monopoly on religious intolerance, says Graz. “Muslims are the victims in India, as Christians have been in the past. But Hindus and Christians are also victims of intolerance in many Muslim countries.

“Intolerance has no borders,” he adds, “and what happens today in India and in Indonesia, in Pakistan, and in Nigeria, may happen in many other countries. We hope the government of India will act to protect religious peace and religious freedom, just as we hope that authorities in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Nigeria will understand that the role of the state is to protect its citizens and their freedom.”