WASHINGTON D.C. (Nov. 27, 2006) – The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) strongly condemned the destruction of five homes and a temple belonging to members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) by Kazakh government authorities. On November 21, 2006, sixty policemen assembled at the ashram in Karasai District and bulldozed the property, leaving devotees homeless in the middle of the winter.

Prior to the razing, ISKCON leaders reported being continually harassed by local government officials seeking to seize their property. The government has repeatedly filed lawsuits, confiscated land, barns and cows, and subjected devotees to frequent police, fire protection service, sanitary agency, environment protection agency, and land committee inspections. In May 2006, HAF protested against an earlier attempt to raze the homes of ISKCON members on behest of the local governor.

The destruction has drawn condemnation from Hindu and human rights organizations around the globe. In addition, British Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed the persecution of Hindus with Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev in London on November 22.

Following the destruction, Kazakh ISKCON devotee Rati Manjari said: “I have no roof over my head in this winter time. It's not only me, there were mothers with children. Where will they go?"

Kazakhstan, the largest republic in Central Asia with a population of over 15 million, is comprised of over 130 ethnic groups who practice 40 religions. Ethnic Russians, who typically are traditionally members of the Russian Orthodox Church, constitute around a third of the population while ethnic Kazakhs, who are Sunni Muslims, make up half. There is also a small Jewish minority. Though not demographically significant, followers of ISKCON, a Hindu Vaishnavite sect, have been registered in Karasai district since May 2002.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN (November 21, 2006) – Hindu Americans, still reeling from an election season that saw high profile Republican Party candidates scorn adherents of minority faiths in the United States, were treated to another attack on pluralism from a state senate candidate in Minnesota. Republican Rae Hart Anderson, who was defeated by a margin of nearly 40% in her bid to unseat Sen. Satveer Chaudhary of District 50, wrote a rambling concession email over a week after the election in which she called on the senator to convert to her Christian faith as she said he needed to be “forgiven.” Sen. Chaudhary is a practicing Hindu.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), which has a full-time staffed office in Washington, D.C. to promote human rights and religious liberty issues in government, contacted the Minnesota Republican Party office Monday. The foundation demanded that the GOP in Minnesota repudiate Anderson’s correspondence as she was the GOP’s chosen candidate to represent the northern suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul. At the time of this press release, no response had been received from the GOP office.

“The race of your life is more important than this one--and it is my sincere wish that you'll get to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” wrote Anderson in her email. “Jesus is the way, the truth and offers His life to you and each human being. Pay attention...this is very important, Satveer. Have you noticed Jesus for yourself...at some moment in time, yet???”

Anderson continued on the same message for another five paragraphs beseeching Sen. Chaudhary to convert without discussing the electoral race they had just completed. Local print and broadcast media picked up the story of the conversion call and the email was roundly derided in the blogosphere. In response to an inquiry from the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, Anderson’s campaign manager said, “Chaudhary is not Christian. He needs to find his soul.”

“Hindu Americans are active participants in the political process, and over a dozen Hindus were candidates in national and regional races throughout the country this year,” said Suhag Shukla, Esq., legal counsel of HAF and a resident of St. Paul. “Anderson obviously hid her overt bigotry until after the election, and Hindus can only wonder how they would have fared had the election results been different and their senator considered their faith inferior at best, and outright evil, at worst.”

HAF had already condemned similar ultraconservative and exclusivist remarks made by other candidates this year. Congresswoman Katherine Harris (R-FL) stated in late August that "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," and Republican Governor Rick Perry of Texas publicly agreed with a pastor onstage after he asserted that non-Christians are going “straight to hell with a non-stop ticket.”

“Republicans have been among the strongest voices backing HAF on Capitol Hill on their issues, and many Hindu Americans are loyal supporters of the GOP,” said Ishani Chowdhury, the Executive Director of HAF who is not related to Sen. Chaudhary. “But at HAF, we are distressed by the intolerance and disrespect for Hinduism and other minority faiths displayed by a few prominent Republican candidates this year in pandering to the right wing Christian conservative vote—a clear and present danger to the pluralistic ethos our founding fathers valued so much.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 9, 2006) – The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) strongly condemned the egregious and bigoted remarks by Texas Governor Rick Perry wherein he said that non-Christians are doomed and condemned to go to hell.

According to The Dallas Morning News (November 6, 2006), Gov. Rick Perry, after attending a sermon with nearly 60 Republican candidates on Sunday, November 5, 2006 said that he concurred with the Rev. John Hagee’s comment during the sermon, in which Rev. Hagee said, “If you live your life and don’t confess your sins to God almighty through the authority of Christ and his blood, I’m going to say this very plainly, you’re going straight to hell with a nonstop ticket.” The Governor told reporters that, “In my faith, that’s what it says, and I’m a believer of that.”

He is later said to have remarked, “Before we get into Buddha and all the others, I get a little confused there. But the fact is that we live in a pluralistic world but our faith is real personal. And my Christian faith teaches that the way is through Jesus Christ.”

“Such remarks are not only divisive but silly,” said Ramesh Rao, HAF Executive Council Member. “In times when interracial and interfaith dialogue are imperative, it's shocking that a high-level elected government official should abuse the state's podium by using it as a pulpit to spread contempt for non-Christians.”

The Governor's remarks are not the first to be considered an affront to religious minorities under his governance. In 2005, the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) spearheaded the filing of an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief with the United States Supreme Court in Van Orden v. Gov. Perry, a case involving the State of Texas defending its placement and management of a permanent monument of the Ten Commandments on government property.

HAF also expressed deep concern at the Governor’s efforts in organizing the Texas Restoration Project, in which ministers are encouraged to get their congregants politically involved in their communities. “It is unfortunate that Governor Perry has not learned from the mistake of his predecessor governor, George W. Bush, who was roundly criticized for his 1993 statement that ‘those who do not accept Jesus as their personal savior cannot get to heaven’,” said Aseem Shukla, member of the HAF Board of Directors. “We hope now that the mid-term elections are over, and the results are in, better sense will prevail among religious fundamentalists in the United States. We are a multi-faith, diverse nation, and we believe that people will not countenance such bigotry, especially from those who hold high office.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 18, 2006) – The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) affirmed its focus on the grave human rights abuses faced by adherents of non-Islamic religions in Bangladesh last week in yet another forum. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), created by the federal government to provide policy recommendations to the U.S. State Department and White House on global human rights issues, invited HAF to be a respondent at their forum on the upcoming Bangladesh elections. The forum was held at the Gold Room in the Rayburn House Office Building on October 17 in Washington, D.C.

Prior to the discussions at the forum, the USCIRF had released a policy brief on Bangladesh.

That policy brief, ahead of the January 2007 General Elections set in Bangladesh, was welcomed publicly by HAF as it reached similar conclusions to those found in the foundation’s annual Hindu human rights report. The USCIRF recommended that the Bangladesh government take “urgent measures to prevent anti-minority violence in the upcoming elections”; “urgent measures to protect those threatened by religious extremism”; “long term measures to protect universal human rights”; and, that the U.S. provide “assistance to promote human rights, including freedom of religion or belief” in Bangladesh.

"We are pleased to see the Commission taking a proactive role in bringing to attention and outlining recommendations in light of Bangladesh's upcoming elections,” said Ishani Chowdhury, Executive Director of HAF. “As our annual Hindu Human Rights report notes, the low scale religious cleansing of the already shrinking minority Hindu population in Bangladesh, is of grave concern to not only the Hindu American Foundation, but also to those who share the ethos of pluralism and tolerance."

At the forum, among other issues raised, HAF urged that international monitoring of upcoming elections in Bangladesh must be implemented, that minority candidates must be nominated by political parties, that attacks on Hindu temples and properties must cease immediately and that a human rights commission be established in Bangladesh to ensure due process and minority rights and representation. Many of these recommendations were corroborated by the Chair of the Forum, Commissioner Felice Gaer, her fellow USCIRF commissioners Preeta Bansal and Michael Cromartie, who all demanded international monitoring of the January 2007 elections, and safety and security for the minority population.

Distinguished invitees like Ambassador Tariq Karim and Mr. Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy also demanded from the Bangladesh Government the promise of free and fair elections and warned that the homogeneous Bangladesh population, ninety-six percent of whom are ethnic Bengali speaking, are now deeply polarized and divided because of the Islamization of the polity enabled and encouraged by the present Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) government.

Cynthia Bunton of the International Republican Institute (IRI) and Patrick Merloe of the National Democratic Institute also weighed in with strong criticisms of the weak institutions and severely flawed democratic process in Bangladesh.

"The recommendations of the USCIRF and the comments by the commissioners and the distinguished speakers go a long way in affirming HAF's stand on the situation of minorities in general, and Hindus in particular in Bangladesh,” said Ramesh Rao, PhD., member of the HAF Executive Council who addressed the forum. “We hope that this is the first step towards protecting the minorities and ensuring freedom to practice one's faith without fear."