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DATE: March 29,
2005
The Hindu American Foundation
(HAF) expressed shock and outrage over the destruction of
a Hindu temple in Saudi Arabia on March 24, 2005, and rapid
deportation of Hindus found worshipping at the temple by the
Saudi government.
Several news agencies, including
the pan-Arab Al-Hayat, reported on March 26th, 2005 that Saudi
Islamic police, known as the Members of the Commission for
the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or Mutawaa’in,
found the makeshift temple while raiding a number of apartments
in a district populated by Asians. The sudden raid by the
Islamic police, it was announced, came on suspicion of illicit
alcohol manufacturing and distribution of pornographic materials
originating in that area. When the Mutawaa’in forcibly
entered the apartment, of which one room was festooned with
images of Hindu Deities, the police immediately destroyed
the makeshift temple and demanded that worshippers cease their
activities. When the caretaker-priest refused to stop performing
his religious rituals, he and two other worshippers were deported,
Al-Hayat reported. There were no reports of alcohol or pornographic
material being discovered.
“Desecration and destruction
of a place of worship is a gross of violation of human rights,”
said Pawan Deshpande, member of the Hindu American Foundation
Executive Council. “For a so-called ‘religious’
police force, sponsored by the government, to perpetrate such
depravity against a peaceful Hindu community deserves unequivocal
condemnation by the global community.”
All forms of non-Muslim
worship are banned in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, whose
laws conform to Sharia, laws based on teachings of
the Koran, and Wahhabi Islam. Several human rights organizations
have condemned actions by the Saudi government and its religious
police, including extrajudicial punishments for any outward
display of non-Muslim religious symbols. The US Commission
on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last month urged
the US government to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia for
violating religious rights.
“Mutawwa'in (religious
police) continued to intimidate, abuse and detain citizens
and foreigners with impunity. Most trials were closed, and
defendants usually had no legal counsel,” according
to the section on Saudi Arabia in the State Department annual
report on human rights and democracy released on March 28,
2005.
The Hindu American Foundation
expresses deep concern for the blatant violations of religious
freedom in Saudi Arabia against non-Islamic faiths. “The
intolerance in Saudi Arabia is particularly worrisome because
it is enforced and endorsed by the state government itself,”
according to Aseem Shukla, M.D., member of the Hindu American
Foundation Board of Directors. “We call for the U.S.
government to demand that Saudi Arabia implement immediate
reforms with regards to religious freedom in that country.”
HAF is a non-profit, non-partisan
organization promoting the Hindu and American ideals of understanding,
tolerance and pluralism.
For further information: Please
contact HAF.
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