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HAF SUMMER 2005 INTERNSHIP POSITIONS

HAF CONDEMNS PAKISTAN FOR RELIGIOUS BIAS IN PASSPORTS

HAF OBJECTS TO WASHINGTON POST COVERAGE OF DOWRY AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

HAF ADDRESSES SCARCE COVERAGE OF HINDU HUMAN RIGHTS IN NY TIMES ARTICLE ON BANGLADESHI ISLAMISM
 

HAF Summer 2005 Internship Positions

Organization Description:

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) is a human rights group whose purpose is to provide a voice for the 2 million strong Hindu American community.  HAF interacts with and educates government, media, think tanks, academia and public fora about Hinduism and issues of concern to Hindus locally and globally.  Promoting the Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism, HAF stands strong against hate, discrimination, defamation and terror.  The Hindu American Foundation is not affiliated with any religious or political organizations or entities.  HAF seeks to serve Hindu Americans across all sampradayas (Hindu religious traditions).  Further information on the Hindu American Foundation can be found at www.hinduamericanfoundation.org

Duties & Responsibilities:

Motivated interns will work with members of the Hindu American Foundation Executive Council to complete self-contained projects over the course of the summer.  Internships are designed for 20 hours of work per week and will last for 4-12 weeks during the summer of 2005.  Possible summer projects include web marketing, website development, drafting of press releases and position papers, preparation of Hindu educations materials, graphic design and various research projects.  Possible research projects include, but are not limited to, the study of Hindu human rights, Hinduphobic websites, media coverage of Hinduism, textbook portrayal of Hinduism and pluralism.

Requirements:

Interns should be in high school or college, will work from home, and must have access to a personal computer with internet connection.  They should have strong computer skills included but not limited to conducting web searches and using Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  Programming, writing and graphic design skills are not required, but are preferred.  Research ability, enthusiasm, and creativity are necessary.

Stipend & Benefits:

Interns will be able to contribute to a nationally recognized organization representing Hindu Americans and will receive a scholarship starting at $500, depending on the length of the work.

Applications:

To apply for an internship, please send a 300 word essay of interest, a resume and contact information of two references to internships@hinduamericanfoundation.org.  All other inquiries regarding the information internship program can be sent to the above email address as well.  Internship offers will be made on a rolling basis.  However, applications received before May 1^st, 2005 will receive a higher priority.

For further information: Please contact HAF.
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HAF Condemns Pakistan for Religious Bias in Passports

Press Release
DATE: April 2, 2005

TAMPA, FL: The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) strongly condemns the Pakistani Government's restoration of the religious column in future passports. On March 24, the Pakistani federal cabinet, with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in chair, directed the Ministry of Interior to reintroduce the controversial column on all new passports issued by the government of Pakistan that specifies the religious affiliation of the passport holder. The column had been repealed repeal under the Zafaraullah Khan Jamali government. The move is widely seen as a concession to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a coalition of hardline religious parties.

A number of prominent Pakistani leaders have voiced their concern. Taj Hyder, Secretary of Information for the Pakistan People's Party, exclaimed, "The mentioning of one's religion in passport columns creates a feeling of discrimination and exclusion from the national mainstream in the minds of religious minorities and is thus in conflict with national objectives, human values and the living spirit of our belief in Tauheed. Lip service to our faith is no service to our faith and adhering in action to its true spirit is no great sacrifice." National Commission for Justice and Peace Chairperson Bishop Lawrence J Saldhana lamented that religious minorities were neither consulted or taken into confidence. Altaf Hussain of the Muttahida Quami Movement expressed his concern that such bigotry did not reflect the values of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

"Jinnah himself had envisioned a Pakistan that was politically blind to the religious identity of its citizens, yet Hindu identity in Pakistan has been a burden inviting official persecution for too long," said Neil Krishan Aggarwal, M.D., a member of the Hindu American Foundation. "HAF hopes that all pluralistically-minded people, of all religions and creeds, will join together to oppose this move."

HAF took the position that nothing less than the repeal of the column was acceptable. Such a move would not be unprecedented in Pakistan. In an opinion column for the Washington Post dated June 1, 2004, President Pervez Musharraf called for "enlightened moderation" among the Muslim world to counter the tendency of "people to link Islam to fundamentalism; fundamentalism to extremism, and extremism to terrorism."

"If President Musharraf truly subscribes to his own assertions for enlightened moderation in the Islamic world, HAF urges President Musharraf to set an example and first take convincing steps at home," Dr. Aggarwal added.

For further information: Please contact HAF.
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HAF Objects to Washington Post Coverage of Dowry and Violence Against Women

Dear Editor,

In calling dowry an ‘age-old Hindu tradition’ in “For Bride, Dowry Is Deal Breaker”, Sunday, March 27, 2005, John Lancaster displays ignorance of both Hinduism and the origins of dowry. Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Professor of History at the City Univesity of New York, shows in her book "Dowry Murder: The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime", that these killings are neither about dowry nor reflective of an Indian culture or caste system that encourages violence against women. Rather, such killings can be traced directly to the influences of the British colonial era. In the precolonial period, dowry was an institution managed by women, for women, to enable them to establish their status and have recourse in an emergency. As a consequence of the massive economic and societal upheaval brought on by British rule, womens' entitlements to the precious resources obtained from land were erased and their control of the system diminished, ultimately resulting in a devaluing of their very lives.'

Two things ought to be clear. First, the extreme devaluation of women reflected in abhorrent practices such as dowry, female infanticide and female foeticide can be traced directly to colonial policies that in fact reflect the poorer social status of women in Victorian England than in then contemporary India, where did have property rights. Second, much depends upon how problems get defined intellectually and these crimes are properly judged today as individual crimes rather than ‘hindu crimes’, much the same way as spousal-killings in America are not analyzed as a religious/cultural crime despite that fact that statistically the percentage of American women victims of spousal killings are at least as high as the percentage of Indian women victimized by dowry-deaths.

See “Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions and Third World Feminism”; Routledge, 1997; by Uma Narayan, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Vassar College.

Sincerely,

Swaminathan Venkataraman
Member, Executive Council
Hindu American Foundation

For further information: Please contact HAF.
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HAF Addresses Scarce Coverage of Hindu Human Rights in NY Times Article

Dear Editor,

Grizwold's article ("The Next Islamist Revolution?" NYT Magazine, January 23, 2005) accurately articulated the dangerous reality of Bangladesh becoming a haven for Salafi Islamism and other fundamentalist Islamic groups. But the perfunctory coverage given to the gross injustices suffered by the Hindu minority is, however, very disappointing.

Since independence from the British in 1947, Bangladesh's minority population has been steadily diminishing as repressive policies and violence have forced many Hindus to leave. While Hindus constituted 25 per cent of Bangladesh's (then East Pakistan) population at the time of the partition of India in 1947, the Hindu population had thinned to about 10 per cent in 1991. The global database of Internally Displaced Persons, established by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) in 1998, records that 200,000 Hindus and other minorities were forced from their homes in the aftermath of the October 2001 election victory of the Bangladesh National Party. Fasan Chowdhury, journalist and activist, calculated that by 1991 the "missing" Hindu population in Bangladesh was 20 million, and characterized the "low intensity" violence against the Hindu minority a "silent disaster".

This violence against Hindus, and the assassination attempt in 2004 on the more moderate Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League Party, should be cause for worry to all who value freedom of religion and expression.

Sincerely,

Ramesh N. Rao, Ph.D.
Member, Executive Council
Hindu American Foundation

For further information: Please contact HAF.
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