America
US concern over diminishing religious freedom in India is justified says IAMC
Attacks on churches, forced conversions to Hinduism and
glorification of Gandhi's assassin are manifestations of a divisive and hateful
ideology
The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC - www.iamc.com), an
advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India's pluralist and tolerant ethos
has called President Obama's expressions of concern over religious intolerance
in India as justified, given the alarming escalation of violence and rhetoric
against minorities.
Besides the President's statements, the US Commission for International Religious Freedom has highlighted the rapidly constricted landscape for religious freedom in India in a press release earlier this week. US expressions of concern come in the wake of forced conversions of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism, the demonization of minorities and the glorification of Mahatma Gandhi's assassin since the new administration in India came to power.
IAMC had written to the President before he left
for India to be the Chief
Guest at India's Republic
Day celebrations, urging him to communicate the international community's
concerns over attacks on minorities in India. On the final day of his
visit to India, President
Obama addressed a town hall event at the Siri Fort auditorium in which he
called on India
to uphold religious freedom. "Every person has the right to practice his
faith without any persecution, fear or discrimination. India will
succeed so long it is not splintered on religious lines,"the President stated.
He followed this up with remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, stating that Mahatma
Gandhi would have been shocked at the "acts of intolerance" in India.
The USCIRF press release made explicit references to these
acts of intolerance. "In just the last three months, five churches were
attacked in Delhi; Hindu nationalists reportedly
forcibly converted Christians and Muslims; and a mob of more than 5,000 people
attacked the majority-Muslim village
of Azizpur, Bihar,
killing three Muslims and setting about 25 houses on fire," USCIRF stated.
"In addition, on February 5, police detained hundreds of Christians
demonstrating against attacks on churches in New Delhi, including John Dayal, a
human rights activist, who testified on April 4, 2014 before the Tom Lantos
Commission on "The Plight of Religious Minorities in India,"" added
USCIRF in the recent press release.
President Obama's reference to Mahatma Gandhi must be seen
in the light of attempts by Hindu supremacist organizations affiliated with the
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to glorify the Mahatma's assassin, Nathuram
Godse. The RSS affiliated Hindu Mahasabha plans to install the assassin's
statue in temples across India. A bridge in the town of Alwar in the state of
Rajasthan was going to be named after the man who killed Gandhi, but
the plan was later shelved over fears of sectarian tensions. These brazen
attempts to vilify the great champion of non-violence is rightly
being seen as a sign of worse things to come for India's beleaguered minorities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence in the
wake of such disturbing developments, lends credence to the belief that his
administration professes a commitment to development, but looks the other way
when RSS and its affiliates go about subverting India's secular polity. A recent
advertisement issued by the government on the occasion of India's Republic Day omitted the words
"secular, socialist" from the Preamble to India's
Constitution.
"The US
should follow up its expressions of concern with concrete action, such as
inclusion of human rights and religious freedom in the US-India Strategic
Dialogue," stated Mr. Umar Malick, President of IAMC. "A broad-based
partnership between US and India
must necessarily include a shared commitment to uphold our common values of
pluralism and religious freedom," added Mr. Malick.
Indian American Muslim Council is the largest advocacy
organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with chapters across
the nation.
For more information, please visit http://www.iamc.com
see video of Obama speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8HxZVhCcWI