Professor Anantanand Rambachan’s recent column in the Huffington Post reveals a stunning practice that I had never heard of before: strangers sending condolence letters upon the death of a loved one to try and convert grieving family members to Christianity. It is wholly inappropriate, as Prof. Rambachan writes, to try and exploit “an occasion for emotional vulnerability.”
We at HAF consider the above to be an instance of “predatory ...
Yesterday, the presidential inaugural ceremonies finished up with one of the final events, the National Prayer Service, held at the Washington National Cathedral. The service is billed as an interfaith gathering meant to “celebrate the values and diversity” that make our country strong. The Washington Post noted that the service “included national clergy from the Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Sikh traditions.” What’s also notable is who ...
Thursday, it became official: Tulsi Gabbard became the first Hindu member of Congress. Last summer, while her campaign gathered momentum, I asked a number of Hindu American high school students what it would mean to them if a Hindu was elected to Congress. Instead of writing my own thoughts, I’m going to quote what a few of them wrote:
“It would be important to me because then there would ...
The news out of Washington, D.C. indicates no real progress has been made toward striking a deal that would avoid the mix of sequestration and expiring tax cuts that’s been termed the “fiscal cliff.” Observing the partisan bickering, I can’t help but consider what a Hindu perspective might be on the whole situation. The principle of dharma, commonly translated as “duty” in English, though it has a ...
Tulsi Gabbard’s victory in Hawaii’s 2nd District means that she will be the first Hindu American ever elected to Congress. The Hindu American Foundation congratulates her on her victory, and looks forward to seeing her be a voice for Hawaii and 2 million Hindu Americans.
Another important victory for all those believing in religious pluralism happened last night in Florida, where voters soundly defeated the proposed Amendment 8 ...
Apparently a pastor in Texas thinks it perfectly okay to blatantly disregard the law and put a political endorsement on his church’s marquee. Is it too hard to ask for a 501(c)(3) nonprofit receiving a tax exemption from the government (which is a fairly big government subsidy, considering their donors get to deduct the donations from their taxes) to recognize that it has a responsibility to not ...
The shooting of Malala Yousafzai in the Swat region of Pakistan is only the latest event that showcases the danger of Islamic extremists in the country. Following on the heels of the abduction and forced marriage of Rinkle Kumari and other Hindu girls as well as the blasphemy case of a 14 year old Christian girlbased on false evidence, it’s clear that unless the Pakistani government moves decisively to ...
Reading these articles about Indian business owners deciding to use the name Hitler for their brand (and offending anyone with a sense of history in the process), I can’t help but see it as a reverse illustration of the cultural collision Hindus have experienced in their migration to the Western world. The swastika has long been an auspicious symbol for Hindus, and it was only after the Nazis adopted ...
Until I read this article, I would have never guessed that any hint of a vegetarian lifestyle was so threatening to certain interests. Apparently, promoting the idea of eating vegetarian meals once a week was enough to get the US Department of Agriculture in hot water with the beef industry and politicians. Here’s a suggestion: maybe these political leaders could spend their time on trying to figure out whether ...
Our prayers and thoughts are with the victims and their families of the theater shooting in the Aurora, Colorado. While there are certainly conversations we as a nation need to have on various policy issues in the wake of this shooting, today is a day for our nation to set aside differences and come together as we provide solace to those who are needlessly suffering. We at HAF hope all ...
On the 236th birthday of the United States, we at the Hindu American Foundation want to wish all of our fellow Americans a happy Fourth of July! As yesterday also marked the celebration of Guru Purnima in the Hindu lunar calendar, we wanted to share this article by Philip Goldberg that reflects on this year’s juxtaposition of these two important celebrations. It’s something definitely worth reading today.
A couple of weeks back, the New York Times published an article about Air India’s internal problems regarding the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner airplanes that are soon to be delivered to them. Reading the story, it seemed to me to be a standard labor dispute that happens when two airlines merge and the two pilot groups don’t choose to get along on the main issue of seniority, which ...
This week, the American Jewish Committee and the First Amendment Center released a helpful guide for school administrators in regards to bullying and harassment titled “Harassment, Bullying, and Free Expression: Guidelines to Safe and Free Public Schools.” The Hindu American Foundation, along with 16 other organizations, endorsed the guide, which attempts to give “clarity to school administrators under pressure to curb bullying and harassment,” according to Education Week. While the ...
It has become increasingly obvious that every government institution in Pakistan is paying only lip service to the plight of Hindus and other minorities in the country, as seen in the recent “resolution” of the Rinkle Kumari case. What is more disturbing is that the Indian government seems to have taken no notice of the fact that Hindu, Sikh, and other minority refugees are fleeing to India from Pakistan to ...
This recent article from the New York Times about divisions in the Muslim community in Queens about the practice of yoga was notable to me, though not for the obvious reasons. What I found interesting was that this was the first article I had seen in a long time that laid out in a straightforward manner the basic facts about Yoga’s Hindu roots - the foundation of HAF’s Take ...
As detailed in HAF’s latest Human Rights Report, Hindus in Pakistan have faced “discrimination and widespread violence,” and there has been an “abject failure of government authorities and law enforcement to protect them,” leading to an estimated amount of 350,000 Hindus having migrated from Pakistan’s Sindh province to India in recent years. Now, one case in Pakistan appears to have captured world media attention, as there have ...
When I ran across this article about Christian Yoga from last week, all I could do was pretty much sigh in exasperation. The first reason was because the lack of self-awareness amongst these “Christian Yoga” teachers was mind-boggling (though perhaps to be expected with their attempts to strip out the yogic practices that help generate that self-awareness). The second reason was that no Hindu was quoted in the article for ...
The disposition of the gold found in the vaults of the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala is still unclear, due to the lawsuit that forced open the vaults for an inventory in the first place. Although it appears the lawsuit is frivolous in nature, the consequences are real, and no one knows what the court will decide what to do with the offerings that have been placed in the vaults for ...
For those who haven’t heard of this news, it has been a Mormon practice for some time now to do proxy baptisms for people of other faiths who have passed away, in order to offer them a chance at “salvation.” I myself heard of this only last week via an NPR interview that talked about how Mormons were doing proxy baptisms of Jews, including those who died in the ...
One of the more disturbing trends in American politics these days is the use of religion as a divisive tool in order to rally political supporters. That’s why HAF joined 13 other American religious organizations this week in issuing an “interfaith statement of principles” regarding religion in political campaigns. We believe that divisive appeals to voters along religious lines are inappropriate in a diverse society like ours, and we ...
The destruction of Hindu and Buddhist antiquities at the Maldives National Museum is highly distressing and provides a further indicator that the political turmoil in the island nation is unleashing extremist elements in the country. What’s truly sad about the attack is that the wing of the museum that was vandalized was intended to showcase the ancient history of the Maldives in order to educate native Maldivians about their ...
Many Hindus (including myself) find a philosophical and religious basis in Hinduism that orients us to doing what we can in the name of environmental protection. So when I come across stores like this one from the New York Times, it’s a bit mind-boggling to me to see people claiming that measures to encourage sustainable development will lead to a United Nations takeover of the United States. It’s ...
Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana announced on Tuesday that he was retiring from Congress. While Rep. Burton is infamous in American politics for various things he said and did during the Clinton administration, he’s also well known in the South Asian community for his unyielding defense of the Pakistani government and of virtually anything related to it. Even last year, when HAF met with aides in his office regarding ...