The Hindu American Foundation said Monday (March 21) it will launch a campaign to educate the nation's 2 million Hindus about risks posed by "a small minority ... in the House of Representatives, Islamist groups and radical communist groups."
In particular, the group is objecting to two initiatives targeting a Hindu-led province in India that has experienced religious violence.
On March 15, Reps. Joseph Pitts, R-Pa., and John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced a resolution condemning the conduct of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi "for condoning or inciting bigotry and intolerance against any religious group in India, including people of the Christian and Islamic faiths." Three days later, the U.S. State Department revoked Modi's visa on the eve of a visit to the United States, labeling him a foreign official "believed to have responsibility for serious violations of religious freedom."
About 2,500 Muslims were killed in the Gujarat riots of 2002 after several dozen Hindus died in a train disaster, which some blamed on a Muslim crowd.
"Mr. Modi has attacked Muslims and Christians with vile venom, and according to both India's highest court and many international human rights groups, has condoned terrible, violent religious hate crimes, all the while shielding those said to have committed them," Conyers said last week. "Such actions by high-ranking government officials of any religion are unacceptable and must not be tolerated."
Some American Hindus, however, see a pattern of selective condemnation in which their faith is unfairly singled out.
"The heinous tragedy that befell Gujarati Muslims in riots after the murder of 58 Hindus burned alive on a train by terrorists must be denounced," said Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American Foundation.
Meghani alleged that congressmen targeting Hindus are ignoring violations of religious freedom in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, where "thousands have been massacred, and where religio-ethnic cleansing by Islamist extremists supported by Pakistan has resulted in an exodus of 400,000 Hindus, Sikhs and Indian Muslims from their ancestral homes."
