Washington: A group of American Hindus here
has slammed a US panel on global religious freedom for placing
India on its "watch list" for religious intolerance, saying
that it shows the body`s "innate bias, lack of insight".
Putting a question mark on the credibility of US
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF),
the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) in a statement said, a
closer look at the India designation shows the Commission`s
absence of understanding and loss of credibility.
Reacting to the HAF statement, USCIRF chair Leonard Leo,
said, "If people want a detached and balanced assessment of
the facts, they should read the report for themselves and draw
their own conclusions."
HAF charged USCIRF of indulging in personal vendetta as
its members were denied visa by India early this year.
"Hindu Americans are wondering today if there is quid pro
quo at work. The USCIRF was denied a visa this month to travel
to India for a "fact-finding" trip," HAF said.
"But the Commission was clear that it would not visit
Kashmir (because of threats by Muslim terrorists) nor the
Northeast of India where militant Christian terrorists are
displacing Hindus and fighting for separatism. It would not
look into Hindu temple desecrations in Goa and other attacks,"
HAF charged.
"It only wanted to visit Gujarat and Orissa. The
Government of India said, "thanks, but no thanks." The USCIRF
was outraged at the denial, and we can only ponder whether
this was payback," HAF said.
Questioning its composition, HAF said, "Examine the
makeup of the USCIRF, six members are Christian, one is Jewish
and one Muslim. Not a single non-Abrahamic faith is
represented. The chair is Vice President of the far-right
Federalist Society, and another commissioner is an executive
at the evangelical Southern Baptist Convention, which
publishes material which calls Hinduism`s grand festival of
Diwali "devil worship."
"Putting India on the watch list will be perceived as a
self-defeating and egregious act that needlessly complicates
relations between two diverse, pluralistic and secular
democracies," it said.
HAF charged that in its 11 pages, USCIRF details two
specific episodes to justify slamming India, riots between
Hindus and Muslims in the state of Gujarat that broke out in
2002 and between Hindus and Christians that left 40 dead in
the state of Orissa in 2008 after a Hindu priest was murdered.
"These episodes in a country of a billion condemn an
entire nation. Incredibly, the Commission`s India chapter
paints a portrait of minority religions on the run in India,
pursued by a rabid Hindu majority!" HAF said.
"This in a country whose last President was a Muslim,
whose leader of the largest political party is Christian and
whose Prime Minister is Sikh. In contrast, behold the shrill
outcry when our own President Obama was alleged to be Muslim!"
it argued.
A terrible riot that left hundreds of Muslims and Hindus
dead and occurred closer to a decade ago mandates an entire
section, but the ongoing attacks by jihadis in India`s Kashmir
targeting Hindus, several recent bombings in Hindu temples
carried out by Islamists and an analysis into the incendiary
results of attempts to convert Hindus by coercive means fail
any mention at all, HAF said.
"But a land that gave birth to Hinduism and Buddhism, a
Mahatma Gandhi and Muslim emperor like an Akbar centuries
before, were both defined by these traditions, offered a
unique experiment that sought to replicate what our own
Founding Fathers did here, create a secular, inclusive
democracy," it said.
"That experiment is put to a singularly arduous trial by
the machinations of Pakistan that sees its identity as an
Islamic nation threatened by India`s pluralism its adventures
in Mumbai in 2008 and Kashmir massacres are examples," HAF
said.
Bringing out the issue of conversions in India, HAF said,
"Today, the largest aid donor to India is not the government
of any country. Nearly half a billion dollars are sent to
India under the auspices of Christian missionary
organizations."
Some of these groups, HAF said, are involved in truly
uplifting work amongst the poorest, but the underlying subtext
for some churches is a bargain, convert and we will help.
Bureau Report
