|
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.
|
