In a Region in Strife, India’s Moral High Ground Erodes

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The hard-line attitude of Narendra Modi’s ruling party toward Muslims has undermined the nation’s reputation as a voice for tolerance in South Asia.

Hindus in Bangladesh protesting the violent attacks against them in Dhaka last month. | Munir Uz Zaman/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
NEW DELHI — The mob rampaged for days, burning homes, breaking into temples and clashing with police, leaving several dead.

The victims were minority Hindus living in Bangladesh, a majority-Muslim nation grappling with increasing extremism, and the violence drew an outcry from politicians in neighboring India. As the region’s traditional center of gravity, India has a history of promoting tolerance. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also positioned himself as the champion of Hindus against a history of victimhood.

But the erosion of human rights in India has weakened its moral high ground in a region where ethnic and sectarian tensions are worsening. Sheikh Hasina — Bangladesh’s prime minister and a close ally, who had just sent Mr. Modi 71 red roses on his birthday — had pointed words for India, even as she promised to hunt the culprits.

“We expect that nothing happens there,” Ms. Hasina said, “which could influence any situation in Bangladesh affecting our Hindu community here.” » | Mujib Mashal | Saturday, November 6, 2021

Poor and Desperate, Pakistani Hindus Accept Islam to Get By

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Drawn by jobs or land offered by Muslim groups, some Hindus, facing discrimination and a virus-ravaged economy, are essentially converting to survive.

The Hindus performed the prayer rituals awkwardly in supplication to their new, single god, as they prepared to leave their many deities behind them. Their lips stumbled over Arabic phrases that, once recited, would seal their conversion to Islam. The last words uttered, the men and boys were then circumcised.

Dozens of Hindu families converted in June in the Badin district of Sindh Province in southern Pakistan. Video clips of the ceremony went viral across the country, delighting hard-line Muslims and weighing on Pakistan’s dwindling Hindu minority.

The mass ceremony was the latest in what is a growing number of such conversions to Pakistan’s majority Muslim faith in recent years — although precise data is scarce. Some of these conversions are voluntary, some not. » | Maria Abi-Habib and Zia ur-Rehman | Tuesday, August 4, 2020

It's Time to Stop Using the Word 'Asians'
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: In the wake of the Rochdale grooming convictions, it's time to stop lumping Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus together as 'Asians', argues Hardeep Singh.

Is it time to stop using the word "Asian"? In recent weeks Britain's Sikh and Hindu communities have complained angrily about the use of the misleading term in reporting of the Rochdale grooming convictions of men of Muslim Pakistani descent. Headlines like “Asian grooming – why we need to talk about sex crime”, “Child sex grooming: the Asian question”, and “Grooming offences committed mostly by Asian men, says ex-Barnardo's chief” show the problem.

Obviously Sikhs and Hindus and other "Asian" non-Muslims, including Jains, Zoroastrians, Christians and Buddhists, don’t want to be associated with sexual grooming of vulnerable white girls. The vast majority of Muslims don’t want to either. The girls targeted in Rochdale, Derby and now in Luton are all non-Muslim. This is nothing new for British Hindus and Sikhs, who have complained about targeting of their girls for decades; Indians refer to the practice as "love-jihad". » | Hardeep Singh | Friday, June 08, 2012

Pakistan Supreme Court to Decide Fate of Hindu Woman in Muslim Marriage Row

THE GUARDIAN: Rinkle Kumari, 19, claims she was kidnapped, converted to Islam and married against her will

The fate of a Pakistani Hindu woman who claims she was kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married against her will is to be decided this week, after weeks of campaigning by the country's Hindu minority.

The case of 19-year-old Rinkle Kumari has outraged Hindus from her small town in the south of the country, where community leaders accuse Muslims of preying on Hindu girls of marriageable age.

Some claim similar cases are helping to fuel a steady outflow of Pakistan's tiny Hindu community as families choose to move to Hindu-majority India instead.

In a hearing beginning on Monday, the supreme court in Islamabad will try to get to the bottom of the hotly contested versions of events. » | Jon Boone in Islamabad | Sunday, March 25, 2012

Canada: A Hindu Converts to Islam

ON ISLAM: A Young Canadian Hindu Reverts to Islam » | Reading Islam Staff | Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Hindus Risk Attack to Make Annual Pilgrimage

Hindous et musulmans s'affrontent en Inde
TRIBUNE DE GENÈVE: BLE | Ces violentes émeutes ont fait plus de 75 blessés.

Ces affrontements entre communautés religieuses ont éclaté samedi à Hyderabad, capitale de l’Andhra Pradesh (sud de l’Inde), où environ 1.600 gendarmes et policiers ont été déployés, a précisé le commissaire de police de la ville, A.K. Khan.

Hyderabad, capitale indienne des technologies de l’information, où sont basées Google, Microsoft, IBM et d’innombrables centrales d’appel, compte huit millions d’habitants, dont près de 40% de musulmans. Les derniers affrontements de grande ampleur entre communautés religieuses dans la ville remontent à 1990, et avaient à l’époque fait 200 morts. La ville a été plutôt calme depuis.

La situation a dégénéré en deux temps, les musulmans n’ayant jamais retiré les drapeaux verts couleur de l’islam avec lesquels ils avaient pavoisé il y a un mois, à l’occasion de l’anniversaire de la naissance du prophète Mahomet. Des affrontements ont débuté samedi lorsque des hindous ont essayé de remplacer les drapeaux verts par des bannières safran, à l’occasion d’une fête de leur propre religion.

Depuis samedi, les violences continuent, des dizaines de véhicules ont été incendiés, une demi-douzaines de mosquées et temples endommagés, et plus de 75 personnes blessées, a précisé A.K. Khan. >>> AFP | Lundi 29 Mars 2010

Stampede for Free Clothes at Hindu Temple in India Kills At Least 63
TIMES ONLINE: A stampede at a Hindu temple in northern India killed at least 63 people today – mostly women and children – as thousands of devotees rushed to receive free clothes and food.

Local officials said another 44 people were injured in the crush at a temple compound in Kunda, a small town 110 miles (177km) southeast of Lucknow, the capital of the poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

Thousands of farmers and villagers had gathered at the temple at noon to mark the anniversary of the death of the wife of Kripalu Maharaj, a local religious leader, according to local police.

They appeared to have panicked after the temple’s wooden gate collapsed. >>> Jeremy Page, Delhi | Thursday, March 04, 2010

Nick Griffin: Sikhs and Hindus Support BNP
THE TELEGRAPH: Nick Griffin has claimed that his Question Time invitation marks the BNP's arrival "in the British political system", as he argued that some Sikhs and Hindus now support the far-right party.

The BNP leader, who is due appear on BBC One's flagship political debate programme this week, said that many ethnic minority Britons agreed with the party's hard-line opposition to immigration.

Amid increasing public scrutiny of the BNP's racist policies, Mr Griffin contrasted "civically British" minority communities who lived here "legally and legitimately", with Islamic "colonists" who wanted to impose their views on the rest of society. >>> Matthew Moore | Sunday, October 18, 2009

Chicken Injected with Beef Waste Sold in UK
Image: Google Images
THE INDEPENDENT: Muslims and Jews conned into eating meat bulked out with cow and pig products

Cafes and restaurants across Britain have been selling chicken secretly injected with beef and pork waste, The Independent can reveal today.

In a hi-tech fraud run by firms in three EU states, food manufacturers are making bulking agents out of porcine and bovine gristle and bones that help inflate chicken breasts, so that they fetch a higher price.

The swindle was only detected by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) using new scientific techniques because the non-chicken material had been so highly processed it passed standard DNA tests.

Thousands of restaurateurs and cafe owners are likely to have been conned into buying chicken containing the powder – which binds water into chicken breasts – while diners have been unwittingly consuming traces of other animals when eating out.

Britain's two million Muslims, Jews and Hindus are forbidden from eating either pork or beef. Muslims would ordinarily eat halal chicken and Jews kosher chicken sold through approved caterers and butchers. >>> By Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent | Thursday, June 04, 2009

Hindus in Valentine's Day Attack on Lovers
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD: Valentine's Day in India has been marred by a spate of attacks on young couples as Hindu radicals battle what they claim are foreign influences corrupting Indian culture.

Six men from the Hindu group, Shiv Sena, were arrested in Agra, the home to the Taj Mahal, after they cut the hair of overtly romantic couples in a park on Valentine's Day.

In Pune, western India, two couples were stopped by activists from the same group and forced to "marry" on the spot by exchanging flower garlands. Five more members of Shiv Sena were arrested in Delhi for threatening couples.

In the central Indian city of Ujjain, a mob of Hindu fanatics beat a brother and sister they mistook for a couple displaying affection. Meanwhile activists blackened the faces of many couples they said were behaving inappropriately in the cities of Aurangabad and Bijnaur.

Valentine's Day has recently become hugely popular in India but public shows of affection are still considered taboo by many.
Hindu mobs were not the only ones targeting couples on Valentine's Day. A policeman in the northern state of Haryana was caught on camera attacking a female college student accused of being "involved in immoral activities". The graphic video showed the officer, Molla Ram, repeatedly spinning a woman around by the hair. He was later suspended.

The Valentine's Day violence comes amid a "culture wars" debate over the influence of foreign culture in India. >>> Matt Wade in New Delhi | Monday, February 16, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – Australia) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback – Australia) >>>

Sikhs and Hindus Accuse the BBC of Pro-Muslim Bias
THE INDEPENDENT: Hindu and Sikh leaders have accused the BBC of pandering to Britain's Muslim community by making a disproportionate number of programmes on Islam at the expense of covering other Asian religions.

A breakdown of programming from the BBC's Religion and Ethics department, seen by The Independent, reveals that since 2001, the BBC made 41 faith programmes on Islam, compared with just five on Hinduism and one on Sikhism.

Critics say the disproportionate amount of programming is part of an apparent bias within the BBC towards Islam since the attacks of 11 September 2001, which has placed an often uncomfortable media spotlight on Britain's Muslims.

Ashish Joshi, the chairman of the Network of Sikh Organisation's (NSO) media monitoring group, which obtained the numbers, said many Hindu and Sikh licence-fee payers felt cheated. "People in our communities are shocked," he said. "We are licence-fee payers and we want to know why this has happened. The bias towards Islam at the expense of Hindus and particularly Sikhs is overwhelming and appears to be a part of BBC policy." Sikhs and Hindus Accuse the BBC of Pro-Muslim Bias >>> By Jerome Taylor | September 8, 2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
BBC Favours Muslims, Complain Hindus and Sikhs: The BBC has been accused of pandering to Britain's Muslims in its religious programming and ignoring other faiths >>> By Ben Farmer | September 8, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>

The Streets of Britain Today
Photo courtesy of the BBC
BBC: A leading British Asian organisation is warning that men, women and children are being abused, attacked and spat at, because they are low caste Hindus regarded as impure and untouchable.

They are the victims of the 2,000-year-old Indian caste system which activists say is flourishing on the streets of Britain, even though it is banned in India.

It is a form of social hierarchy and divided Hindus into four main categories; priests, warriors or ruling class, the merchants and then the unskilled labourers.

Below them were the untouchables, those people deemed so low that they could not be included in the system.

Two thousand years on, caste is an integral part of the Asian community, according to activists.

The country's first ever support group has been set up in Southall in West London to help victims of caste discrimination. British Hindus divided by caste >>> By Naresh Puri

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)