Tag Archives: Topic: Hinduism

Oye Times: Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed’s request to Folketing Speaker Mogens Lykketoft to read Hindu invocation as a part of the “divine service” at the next opening of Folketing has ended in a denial with the response—“Parliament of Denmark must respectfully decline your kind offer”—from Speaker’s PA Marianne Treumer Ammitzboll. No reason of denial was given.

Catholic Culture: Five Christian churches, three Hindu temples, and one mosque of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were attacked in Pakistan in 2012, according to a report prepared by the Pakistani Bishops Conference’s Justice and Peace Commission.

Fides Service: A court of first instance in Orissa sentenced to six years in jail 12 persons guilty of violence against Christian communities, during the campaign of indiscriminate violence which occurred in the district of Kandhamal (Orissa) in 2008. “It is the first step toward justice. P

Religion Clause Blog: Yesterday’s Huffington Post reports that Tulsi Gabbard, the first Hindu elected to the U.S. Congress, will take her oath of office in January using the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu text.

Religion Clause Blog: In BK v. Toumpas, (D NH, Nov. 14, 2012), a New Hampshire federal district court rejected a Hindu father’s claim for damages against state child welfare officials for placing his 3 minor children in temporary foster care with families that disrespected the children’s religious upbringing by serving them beef and taking them to Christian religious services.

Google News (AP): They came after dusk and chanted into the night sky “Kill the Hindus, kill the children of the Hindus,” as they smashed religious icons, ripped golden bangles off women’s arms and flashed pistols. It wasn’t the first time that the Hindu temple on the outskirts of Pakistan’s largest city was attacked, and residents here fear it will not be the last.

Huffington Post: Tuesday’s elections brought two historic firsts for religion in American politics: A Buddhist senator and a Hindu representative — both from Hawaii — will join Congress. Democrat Mazie Hirono beat former Gov. Linda Lingle (R), making Hirono the first Buddhist in the Senate.

NY Times: When it was over, the men threatened to kill her if she told anyone, and for days the girl said nothing. Speaking out would have been difficult, anyway, given the hierarchy of caste. She was poor and a Dalit, the low-caste group once known as untouchables, while most of the attackers were from a higher caste that dominated land and power in the village.

AP: Indian police have arrested three Muslim militants suspected of planning terror attacks in New Delhi during a major Hindu festival season that starts later this month . . .

Religion Clause Blog: Time reports that last Friday, in the Indian state of Gujarat a special court sentenced Maya Kodnani, the former state minister for women and child development, to 28 years in prison for her role in the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre during which Hindus killed 96 Muslims as part of widespread Hindu-Muslim violence following the firebombing of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims.

Washington Post: More than 250 Pakistani Hindus have arrived in India over the past two weeks bearing tales of religious persecution, according to Indian border officials, fueling perceptions of growing discrimination against minorities in Pakistan.

The Hindu: India has sought strengthening of security around places of worship in the United States and urged Washington to come out with a strong message of reassurance to the Indian community following the Wisconsin gurdwara shooting that left six dead.

Christian Today: For months, a group of Hindu extremists in southern India had been blasting high-volume movie music at the prayer meetings of a local Christian ministry.

AP: An Indian court on Monday sentenced 21 Hindus to life imprisonment in the deaths of 11 members of a Muslim family during some of the country’s worst sectarian violence 10 years ago.

Wall Street Journal (via Google): India’s Supreme Court is this week reviewing whether Muslims deserve affirmative action, and this has once again ignited a debate on how the world’s largest democracy treats its biggest minority.

AP: Police say a communal clash between Muslims observing the holy month of Ramadan and Hindus offering alms to one of their gods left one man dead and 20 injured, including policemen, in northern India.

Catholic Culture: Some 50 Hindu extremists attacked a tiny Christian village in the eastern Indian state of Orissa on June 15, beating a Protestant pastor and 20 residents.

Religion Clause Blog: Last December, the government of India announced the creation of a 4.5% sub-quota for economically and socially disadvantaged non-Hindu minorities– Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians– within the existing 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) set-asides for government jobs and education.

One News Now: The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) has made progress in defending the rights of Christians in India. . . . “No one should be targeted for violence, inhuman treatment and religious discrimination simply because of their Christian faith,” [Benjamin] Bull contends. “The legal efforts of ADF in India are all designed to ensure that the religious freedoms protected in India’s constitution are upheld. Aggressors should not be allowed to get away with persecution by either disregarding the law or by attempting to pass laws that conflict with the constitution.” [more]

Successes in challenge to anti-conversion law, convictions against persecutors of Christians

Choudhury, Cyra Akila, Between Tradition and Progress: A Comparative Perspective on Polygamy in the United States and India (May 3, 2012). University of Colorado Law Review, Vol. 83, No. 4, 2012. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2050671

LA Times: The girls are forced to convert to Islam, rights groups say. In court, a few wives have chosen to stay with their husbands, but families say they were coerced.

NY Times: The Supreme Court had intervened in the three cases in recent weeks, “sequestering the women from their parents and their new husbands to consider their future without pressure,” Mr. Masood writes. “The court ruled on Wednesday that all three had freely chosen to remain Muslim.”

AP reports.

Religion Clause Blog: Gulf Times reports that a court in the Indian state of Gujarat yesterday convicted 23 people in connection with the Ode village massacre that took place in 2002 as part of broader Hindu-Muslim religious riots set off after a train carrying 60 Hindu pilgrims was set on fire by a mob

News.va: Allegations of conversions and then violent beatings: is what the Hindu extremists of the movement RSS (“Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh”, “National Volunteer Organization”) did against the Christian Protestant Pastor Mallikarjun Sangalada, 37, and other four Christians of his community.

Catholic Culture: Rinkel Kumari, who is a Hindu, begged the court not to return her to an Islamic school where she has been detained. “Kill me here, now, in court. But do not send me back,” she pleaded.

NY Times: Hours later, she resurfaced 12 miles away, at the home of a prominent Muslim cleric who phoned her parents with news that distressed them: Their daughter wished to convert to Islam, he said.

Religion Clause Blog: According to The Hindu, earlier this week a Russian court for a second time rejected attempts by prosecutors to ban the Russian translation of the book, Bhagavad Gita As It Is . . .

BosNewsLife: Suspected Hindu militants broke up a Christian prayer meeting and forced two women leading the gathering to stop evangelizing in India’s southwestern state of Karnataka, as part of several attacks against devoted believers across the country, Christians told BosNewsLife Monday, March 12.

Religion Clause Blog: In the Indian city of Rajkot, a number of Hindu organizations, supported by both the Congress and BJP parties, have launched demonstrations to protest the arrest by local police of 37 people who displayed swords in a procession last week celebrating the Hindu festival of Maha Shivratri (The Night of Shiva).

Asia News: The attack on the colleges of St. Joseph Anegal (40 km south of Bangalore) occurred on January 27. Reason for the assault, failure to display the Indian flag during celebrations for the national holiday.

Hindustan Times: Cases of Christians being attacked have more than doubled in the past three years in India with Karnataka and Orissa being the worst according to a report released by a Christian organisation on Wednesday. Maharashtra is among the ten worst states . . .

UCANEWS.com: Unidentified assailants burned nativity crib, pelted prayer hall with stones

Religion Clause: The Times of India on Saturday reported on a case in which parents in Ahmedabad (in Gujarat state in India), unhappy with their daughter’s choice of husbands, are attempting to use Gujarat’s Freedom of Religion Act that aims at coerced conversions to undo or undercut the marriage.

Religion Clause: Over the last ten days, the press in India has been filled with commentary on the Indian government’s December 22 decision (CNN) to create a 4.5% sub-quota for economically and socially disadvantaged non-Hindu minorities– Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians– within the existing 27% Other Backward Classes (OBC) quota.

Catholic Culture: Catholics in India’s troubled state of Orissa have been encouraged to celebrate Christmas “with prudence and vigilance,” and a local prelate has asked police for protection, because of new threats.

Religion Clause Blog: CNN reports that in the Russian city of Tomsk, a court has  postponed until Dec. 28 its decision on an attempt by the prosecutor to ban the Bhagavad Gita as an extremist book that sows social discord.

Pamela Geller at Human Events: Harvard University has dropped courses on economics taught by a Hindu professor, Subramanian Swamy, president of the Janata Party of India and a former Union Cabinet minister—not because they were poorly taught, or because Swamy advocated discredited economic theories (such as, say, socialism), but because he wrote an editorial last summer that Muslims find offensive.

Boston.com: Hare Krishna members on Tuesday protested outside Hungary’s Parliament against a new law that could strip them of their status as a recognized church.

WSJ.com: Decades ago, Siraj Gazi’s grandfather changed his last name of Chowduli to the higher-caste Gazi. He hoped it would erase the social stigma of his low-caste roots.

Asia News: Activists of the Bajrang Dal (Hindu ultra-nationalist movement) have attacked members of two different Christian communities, engaged in a prayer service, accusing them of practicing forced conversions.

News from The Associated Press: Text books in Pakistani schools foster prejudice and intolerance of Hindus and other religious minorities, while most teachers view non-Muslims as “enemies of Islam,” according to a study by a U.S. government commission released Wednesday.

News from The Associated Press: A court sentenced 31 Hindus to life imprisonment Wednesday for killing dozens of Muslims by setting a building on fire during one of India’s worst rounds of communal violence nine years ago.

Catholic Culture: An annual Vatican message to the world’s Hindus emphasizes the importance of religious freedom—perhaps reflecting concern in Rome about the continued violence against the Christian minority in India.

The Express Tribune: The government and the Hindu community were unable to break their deadlock on Tuesday over the divorce clause in the Hindu Marriage Act. The clause has proved contentious since the bill was drafted in 2008, with the government defying Hindu leaders who believe divorce is not part of their religion’s culture.

Catholic Culture: Religious fundamentalists raised a Hindu flag over the site where a ruined Catholic church is being rebuilt in the troubled Kandhamal district of India’s eastern Orissa state.

Asia News: A petition of the Global Council of Indian Christians in the National Commission for Human Rights draws up a long list of crimes, injustices and complicity of local and state authorities to the detriment of the victims of anti-Christian pogroms of 2008. The Hindu radicals continue to persecute Catholics and Pentecostals, aided by the police.

The Washington Post: With a cross on his lapel, it’s easy to spot a military chaplain in uniform. But the same might not be true if the chaplain’s badge displays a prayer wheel, a crescent moon or tiny Torah scrolls. And when the sole, newly commissioned Hindu chaplain starts wearing her symbol — which is still in the design stage — how many will recognize it as the sign of a chaplain?

Catholic Culture: Twenty masked men destroyed the altar, confessionals, and vestments in a parish in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala on the evening of September 4.

Catholic Culture: A Bapist minister has been murdered in Orissa, the eastern Indian state that was the site of massive anti-Christian persecution in 2008.

Asia News: According to the police they were proselytizing among the Dalits and poor Hindus. Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians: “The situation is alarming. The Dalits are empowered by Christian prayer and Hindus are afraid of this.

Catholic Culture: Three years after an anti-Christian rampage left an estimated 100 dead and 50,000 homeless, the government of the Kandhamal district in the eastern Indian state of Orissa is forbidding the construction of new churches and the rebuilding of churches that had been destroyed.

The Hindu: In a case of how the Indian caste system has been imported into Britain, a young Hindu-Sikh couple have sued their British employers of Indian origin for alleged discrimination on the basis of caste.

Fox News: A group of Hindus can sue a New Jersey restaurant that served them meat even though they are vegetarians.

Asia News: Hennur police have arrested three men on false charges of forced conversions in Karnataka, reported by 20 Hindu activists.

Religion Clause: Huffington Post yesterday reported that the U.S. military has appointed its first Hindu chaplain and has developed a new badge for Hindu chaplains. It features the symbol “Om.”

India Times: Child marriages are rampant in the rural areas of Rajasthan. Before the Akshya Tritiya (a day considered auspicious for marriages) observed on May 5 this year, the state government had threatened to take action against anybody involved in organising child marriages, including priests, catering firms and photographers.

Christian Science Monitor: “Lawyers welcomed ruling by India’s Supreme Court Monday that suspended a ruling on the Ayodhya holy site. The ruling last year had divided the disputed site between Muslims and Hindus.”

Catholic Culture: Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh beat a Protestant pastor until he was unconscious; radicals in Maharashtra prevented tribal Christians from holding services; and extremists in Kerala beat Christians who were distributing copies of the Gospel.

AP: Mukhtar Mai was assaulted after the council in her village in Punjab province ordered she be raped as punishment for her 13-year-old brother’s suspected affair with a woman of a higher caste.

Religion Clause Blog: World Radio Switzerland and Swissinfo.ch reported yesterday that a judge has acquitted three Hindu men who were arrested when they announced last year that they planned to burn the Bible and the Qur’an outside the federal parliament building in Bern’s Parliament Square . . .

AP: “Christians complain there are only a handful of places where they can bury their dead in the predominantly Hindu nation, where most corpses are cremated.”

Cathlic Culture: “In a related story, another Christian man has been accused of blasphemy, and gone into hiding, fearing for his life. Masih Gill insists that he did not insult Islam, but merely defended his own Christian faith in an argument.”

HinduStanTimes: “The police on Tuesday arrested 14 persons, mostly tribals, in Mayurbhanj district of Orissa on the charge of unlawful religious conversion.”

http://www.christianpost.com/news/yet-another-delay-in-dalit-christian-affirmative-action-case-49129/

Religion Clause Blog: “In Goradia v. Union of India, (India Sup. Ct., Jan. 28, 2011), India’s Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to India’s Haj Committee Act of 2002 under which the government provides air fare subsidies for Haj pilgrims.”

Religion Clause: “In India yesterday, a two-judge panel of the Gujarat High Court heard arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of a Hindu ceremony in which the Gujarat governor, the chief justice of the High Court and other judges had all taken part last year.”

Catholic Culture: “A week ahead of Christmas, half a dozen brutal attacks on Christian targets by Hindu fundamentalists have been reported from different parts of India.”

DNA India: “Three weeks ago in Mumbai, opponents of the legislation formed the Maharashtra Temple and Religious Institution Federation (Mandir ani Dharmik Sanstha Mahasangh) which, among other things, will oppose plans to give the state more control over the management and finances of the state’s Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhists shrines.”

Reuters: “Rahul Gandhi, seen as an India prime minister in waiting, told the U.S. ambassador radical Hindu groups could posed a bigger threat to the country than the Islamists who attacked Mumbai in 2008, a leaked cable showed. The comments made to Timothy Roemer last year were immediately criticised by the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), adding to political sparring that has deadlocked parliament and pushed policymaking into limbo.”

Washington Post: “Police fired tear gas and swung batons to disperse hundreds of Muslims participating in religious processions in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Wednesday. At least six people were injured, police said.”

AFP: “A Muslim group in India on Tuesday filed a petition with the Supreme Court challenging a ruling that divided a bitterly-contested religious site between Hindus and Muslims.”

Christian Today: “Organised by the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI), the consultation will bring together leaders cutting across religious lines to study the outcome of anti-conversion laws that have been implemented in at least six states.”

Sydney Morning Herald: “An Islamist militant group, the Indian Mujahideen, has circulated an email claiming responsibility. It said the attack was to ‘avenge’ the 1992 destruction of the 16th-century Babri mosque by Hindu mobs in the Uttar Pradesh town of Ayodhya.”