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March 28th, 2010

“Tourists flock to ‘Jesus’s tomb’ in Kashmir”

Submitted by Rashid Jahangiri.


Tourists flock to ‘Jesus’s tomb’ in Kashmir
By Sam Miller
Srinagar
BBC Radio 4
March 27, 2010

A belief that Jesus survived the crucifixion and spent his remaining years in Kashmir has led to a run-down shrine in Srinagar making it firmly onto the must-visit-in India tourist trail.

See this link.
By Sam Miller
Srinagar
BBC Radio 4
March 27, 2010

5 Responses to ““Tourists flock to ‘Jesus’s tomb’ in Kashmir””

  1. The movie in the 1970s about the Holy Prophet, entitled The Message, (formally authenticated by Al Azhar University, Egypt in the movie) starts with

    600 years after Jesus Died, Muhammad was born in Arabia

    The narrator  says “died“. this is the Ahmadiyya view since Muslims believe he never died.

    However, the Urdu translation, that has just been released, failed to translate the “died” part. They just say “after Jesus”.

    Both English and Urdu versions are online, on youtube. 

    The relevant English clip can be viewed at:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKFZsAkmbMY&feature=PlayList&p=CC99461EFD3A3841&index=0
    forward to about 5 minutes in this youtube clip.

    The Urdu relevant clip can be viewed at:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEL2ljly4XU
    forward to about 6 minutes in this youtube clip


  2. Honestly, I fail to understand how the death of Jesus helps the muslims in any way..its been over 100 years and the position of muslims has not gotten any better.

    Furthermore, believing that Yus Asaph’s tomb is actually the tomb of ESA is not part of the bait form to be an ahmadi, I think HMBMA wrote the same ideas about the Ismuhu Ahmad philosophy. Also, the AAIIL wrote the same about the birth of jesus. Also, HMGA wrote that believing that ESA was alive was not a part of the faith of Islam!

    So, honestly, why are we spending time even debating these issues…

    In my humble opinion, I fail to understand how the ahamdis (q) havent:

    1. Bought the burial site, if they could buy a vacant city like rabwah, why couldnt they buy a small burial tomb??
    2. Done thorough forensic and geological research on the site
    3. Explained who nasirrudin is and why is the guy buried with ESA

    These are just my personal frustrations on the matter, sorry in advance if I am disrespectful!


  3. Kashmir shrine bars tourists over Jesus burial row
    Dawn Newspaper (Pakistan)
    Thursday, 01 Apr, 2010
    See this link

    SRINAGAR: Foreign tourists have been banned from entering a Muslim shrine in Indian-administered Kashmir due to increasing curiosity about a theory that it contains the body of Jesus Christ.
    The shrine in Srinagar city is the focus of speculation that Christ survived the crucifixion and died later in Kashmir, a belief fanned by popular books such as “Jesus Lived In India” by German author Holger Kersten.
    This Easter, for the first year, travellers to Srinagar will be kept out the shrine – which is conventionally said to hold the remains of medieval Muslim saint Yuz Asaf – after the gates were locked to outsiders several months ago.
    Mohammed Amin Ringshawl, the senior manager in charge of the small green-roofed building, said the attention that it receives was unwelcome and that local people resented the presence of inquisitive foreigners.
    “It is the work of people associated with the tourist trade. They are misleading visitors and making them believe that Jesus was buried here,” he told AFP.
    “Locals ask why Westerners visit this shrine and not other shrines in Kashmir. To avoid any trouble we decided to shut the shrine for Westerners who were offending sentiments.”
    The idea that the Rozabal shrine, as it is known, contains the body of Christ has existed for at least 100 years.
    But the controversy has now been included in the latest India edition of the best-selling international guidebook the Lonely Planet, alerting many of the visitors who travel to the scenic Himalayan region of Kashmir.
    At the wooden-domed shrine, local Muslims stop and pray as they pass, or enter to pray next to the tomb. On the 13th of every Muslim month, special prayers are held inside.
    The shrine, located on a busy street corner in Srinagar’s old town, contains a wooden chamber placed over a tombstone covered with green cloth embroidered with verses from the Koran.
    Holger Kersten’s book, published in 1981, claims there are hidden details at the shrine – such as carved footprints marked with crucifixion wounds – along with other “literary and historical” evidence that make a strong case.
    “It is not only possible that the body of Jesus lies buried here; it is very likely indeed,” he wrote, in a suggestion dismissed by Christian scholars.
    Kersten, who specialises in contentious Christian history, champions the belief that Christ, when a young man, travelled to India and studied Buddhism, and then returned to the country again after surviving the crucifixion.
    The speculation that Christ visited India has been fuelled by a lack of information about his life between the ages of 12 and 30.
    Ringshawl, like all residents in restive Muslim-majority Srinagar, was outraged by suggestions some years ago that the issue could be solved by exhuming the remains for DNA testing, to check for Jewish ancestry and carbon dating.
    “We will never allow that to happen. That will amount to desecrating the shrine,” he said.
    A leading supporter of exhuming the remains, New York-based Suzanne Marie Olsson, was forced to leave Kashmir several years ago after shrine managers filed a police complaint accusing her of “causing hurt to Muslim beliefs.”
    She has repeatedly written to the state government for help, but such requests seem destined to fail.
    “She wanted the locality to be put under curfew so that she could carry out her blasphemous act,” said Ringshawl, who vowed to put up “tough resistance” to any exhumation plans.
    One angry youth confronted an AFP photographer at the shrine this week, shouting: “This shrine is ours and we will spill blood if anyone even tries to prove it otherwise.”


  4. Kashmir shrine bars tourists over Jesus burial claim
    By Izhar Wani, Agence France-Presse
    Calgary Herald
    April 10, 2010
    See this link
     
    News story is similar to Dawn newspaper. But has more photos.


  5. He’s not the Messiah, locals tell Rough Guide ‘Jesus tomb’ tourists
    Jeremy Page, Delhi
    Times On Line
    April 2, 2010
    See this link.