Tampa, FL (April 10, 2006) - The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) applauded the U.S. State Government for comprehensively documenting the condition of human rights in the 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices (CRHRP) which was released on March 8, 2006. Deeply concerned with the status of Hindus around the world, HAF highlighted some of the findings by the State Department of conditions affecting the Hindu Diaspora.
In July of 2005, HAF released its first annual human rights report entitled “Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Kashmir: A Survey of Human Rights 2004” documenting human rights violations perpetrated against Hindus in South Asia. The second annual report will be released by HAF later this year.
HAF once again noted with concern the condition of Hindus in Afghanistan. As reported in the State Department report, “human rights record remained poor due to weak central institutions, a deadly insurgency, and the country’s ongoing recovery from two decades of war” in Afghanistan. Many regions in Afghanistan, outside of Kabul, the capital, continue to be under the control of regional commanders, who do not subscribe to the laws of the land.
Deeply troubling is the fact that Afghan law proclaims Islam as the “religion of the state,” declaring that no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam. The government “required” all citizens to profess a religious affiliation thereby forcing self-identification which in times of crises could be effectively used to cleanse Afghanistan of “non-Muslims”. Disturbing too is the fact that public school curricula included religious subjects. This leads to the official and formal indoctrination of Islam in school children. Religious leaders conducted detailed religious study in schools. While non-Muslims are not required to study Islam, HAF believes there is very little are few alternative options for non-Muslim children attending public schools to escape the forced learning of Islam. The State Department report notes that non-Muslim children faced discrimination in schools, and that there were numerous instances of Sikh and Hindu students stop attending schools due to harassment from both teachers and students.
Though HAF has expressed concern in the past regarding concerted proselytization campaigns by Christian missionaries, the organization felt that the Afghan law which makes conversion from Islam punishable by death, blatantly violated an individual’s freedom of belief.
HAF expressed deep concern for the fate of Sikhs and Hindus returning to Afghanistan after years of exile. They faced difficulties in obtaining housing and land in Kabul and other provinces, according to the CRHRP, and also encountered various other acts of discrimination. The government had to provide Sikhs and Hindus land on which to cremate their dead because such land that had once belonged to them had been usurped or destroyed in the past by Muslims.
With regard to Bangladesh, the CRHRP states, “The government's human rights record remained poor, and the government continued to commit numerous serious abuses.” It also states that “The law establishes Islam as the state religion.” HAF disagreed with the report’s assertion that “the government is secular”, and instead agreed that “religion exert(s) a powerful influence on politics”. HAF also noted with dismay the report’s conclusion that, “Discrimination against members of religious minorities existed at both the governmental and societal level, and religious minorities were disadvantaged in practice in such areas as access to government jobs, political office, and access to justice.” What the CRHRP fails to note explicitly is that Hindus, as the largest minority (nine percent of the total population) faced the worst discrimination in Bangladesh. HAF’s forthcoming Hindu human rights report compiled at least 480 cases of murder, rape, kidnapping, attacks on temples, and confiscation of land and property of Hindus between December 2004 and November 2005 in Bangladesh.
Hindus continued to suffer and be discriminated against, officially and otherwise. Despite promises, the government did not take any measures to implement the 2001 Vested Property (Return) Act. The reversal of the hateful Vested Property Act, under which Hindus had their property seized by the government after the 1965 India-Pakistan war, would signify significant steps towards pluralism in Bangladesh. The inability of Hindus to reclaim their entitled property due to the failure of the government to publish a list of vested property, has only caused us to conclude that Hindus are officially discriminated in Bangladesh.
With reference to Pakistan, the CRHRP states, “The government's human rights record was poor, and serious problems remained.” As the state religion is Islam, the government officially limits freedom of religion, “and the constitution requires that laws be consistent with Islam”. The CRHRP notes that all “citizens were subject to certain provisions of Shari’a, such as the blasphemy laws. Reprisals and threats of reprisals against suspected converts from Islam occurred. Members of religious minorities were subject to violence and harassment, and police at times refused to prevent such actions or charge persons who committed them.”
The president and the prime minister of Pakistan must be Muslim, and all elected members, including non-Muslims, must take an oath to “strive to preserve the Islamic ideology, which is the basis for the creation of Pakistan,” thus marginalizing and effectively hindering Hindus from freely practicing and professing their religious beliefs. The report notes that, “The Hindu community faced harassment and demands for bribes from security forces, particularly during tense periods in the relationship between Pakistan and India.” The CRHRP fails to note that the Hindu population in Pakistan has been reduced from about 15-24 percent in 1947 to less than two percent now. It also fails to note that Hindu girls are routinely kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam. HAF has highlighted one such egregious case of conversion, of three Hindu girls, in a press release in December 2005.
In Bhutan, the CRHRP notes that while the law provides for freedom of religion, the government restricted this right in practice, as Buddhism was the state religion. It notes that one major Hindu festival was declared a national holiday, but that there was only one Hindu temple in Thimphu, and the government did not grant permission to build Hindu temples, with the last reported Hindu temple constructed in the early 1990s.
There is a large Hindu minority in the Republic of Fiji. The CRHRP notes that while the government “generally respected the human rights of its citizens”, “deep divisions between indigenous Fijians (54 percent of the population) and Indo-Fijians (38 percent) continued to influence all aspects of the nation's politics”. The report notes that “racial polarization was reflected in religious differences, which were largely along ethnic lines”. While most ethnic Fijians are Christians, most Indo Fijians are Hindu, and that “break-ins, vandalism, attempted arson, and thefts directed at houses of worship, predominantly Hindu temples, continued to increase”.
Ramesh Rao, Executive Council Member of HAF, said that the State Department’s annual reports are a useful resource for all those concerned with human rights and religious freedom. “HAF looks forward to the annual reports as they supplement our own annual Hindu human rights reports”, he said.