The Kerala Blast At Jehovah’s Witnesses Meet An Attack On Jews? Key Facts Differ

In the light of a massive pro-Palestine rally conducted in Kerala on Saturday, the blasts at a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation on Sunday are being painted as an antisemitic attack by radical Muslims. Social media is already full of hate-speech accusing the Muslim community of targeting Jews in Kalamassery where the attacks took place. A series of blasts rocked a Jehovah’s Witnesses prayer meet early Sunday morning, at Zamra International Convention and Exhibition Centre in Kalamassery, likely caused by an IED, taking the lives of three individuals, including a 12-year-old child and injuring almost 52 people.

Misinformation is running rampant, even after a man named Dominic Martin has claimed full responsibility for the blasts immediately after they had taken place. Social media spared no time in corelating the blasts with a Pro-Palestine rally in Kerala that was addressed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in an online speech. Some key facts are being grossly ignored though in this campaign of malignance.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses is a faction of the Christian community that does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity which says God exists as three; the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. They believe in one God as the creator of ‘Abraham, Moses and Jesus’. They do not observe Christmas, Easter, birthdays, or other holidays and customs they consider to have pagan origins incompatible with Christianity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are not supporters of Zionism as being clearly stated in their official magazine ‘The Watchtower’.

That having been said, it is also important to consider the number of Jews that reside in Kerala. In a report submitted by The New Indian Express in August 2022, only 20 Jews remain in Kerala, mostly in Ernakulam. In Kalamassery however, where the attacks took place, Hindus, Muslims and Christians make up for 99.71 percent of the population, with no Jews residing there currently. Manjusha Emmanuel, a member of the Jewish community in Ernakulam told The Quint that there are no Jews settled in Kalamassery while adding that people from the Jewish community lived in Ernakulam City and Kochi. Claims of an attack on Jews on Sunday are deliberately fabricated and only add to the confusion that is already mounting in many states as the 2024 General Elections loom round the corner.

Forty-eight-year-old Dominic Martin, who has claimed responsibility for the serial blasts in a Facebook live on the evening of Sunday, has surrendered at the Kodakara Police Station in Thrissur. In his statement he has said, “I am recording this video to explain my reasons behind this act. I had been a part of this organization for 16 years, but I didn’t view certain issues seriously then, I saw them as a joke. However, in the last six years, I realized that this organization is wrong and engages in anti-national activities.” “I realized they were propagating and teaching a highly problematic concept. They would instruct a four-year-old nursery student not to accept the candy their classmate would offer them … Their parents are injecting such poison into the child’s brain at such a young age.” Martin claims he learnt to make an IED from YouTube tutorial videos.

Martin’s relatives including his mother-in-law and other family members too are believed to have been attendees of the congregation on Sunday.