Is Hindu-American Community Coming into its Own?

There are not that many more Muslims than Hindus in the United States:  2.454 million Muslims compared to 1.478 million Hindus, according to Pew Research, the US State Department, and others.  You would not know that judging by the tremendous imbalance in attention given the former over the latter; or the power and influence imbalance between the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).  During the height of Taliban expansion in 2009, for example, HAF failed to get Congress to pass even a non-binding resolution to condemn the Taliban for atrocities against Pakistani Hindus.  If you cannot get Americans to condemn the Taliban, you better take another look at the reality of your position. Read more

Op Ed Calling India Pariah State odd Choice for Israeli Publication

On September 19, 2010, the Jerusalem Post ran an Op Ed by Rob Brown, entitled “Why Isn’t India a Pariah State?”  The piece, in essence told Israelis that the Indian “occupation” of Kashmir was characterized by human rights abuses and is responsible for 70,000 deaths.  Read more

Deganga Intifada?

For three days in September, anti-Hindu violence wracked the Deganga area in North 24 Parganas, only 40 kilometers from the West Bengal capital of Kolkata.  Though the violence has subsided, Hindu residents fear renewed attacks, which could have been the attackers’ intention all along.  West Bengal BJP member Tathagata Roy visited the area twice since the violence began and noted, “What struck me about the pogrom (not riot, because no Hindu hit a Muslim) is that no Hindu was physically hurt, and no Hindu woman was molested, a regular feature in all Muslim attacks.  But destruction of property and threats were both rampant.”  From that Roy concludes that “this was a well-thought-out, well-executed pogrom whose objective was to terrorize the Hindus no end without committing any major crime beyond arson. The ultimate intention can only be to cleanse the area of Hindus with a view to totally Islamize the area.”  That the matter is now fodder for political bickering instead of effective counter action only furthers the attackers’ objectives.

Bimal Pramanik, Director of the Kolkata-based Centre for Research in Indo-Bangladesh Relations, has noted a steady and deliberate effort to change Hindu-Muslim demographics in West Bengal.  Since the emergence of Bangladesh (East Bengal) as an independent nation in 1971, Hindus in that country have fallen from a little less than one in five to between seven and eight percent today.  At the same time, the Muslim proportion of West Bengal’s population has risen by 25 percent compared to an almost nine percent decline in the proportion of its Hindu population.  Between 1981 and 1991, moreover, Muslim population growth in West Bengal was nearly 35 percent compared to only 25 percent in Bangladesh.  “How can there be such a wide difference in growth rates between the two countries?”  Pramanik asked South Asia Forum’s Amitabh Tripathi and me in his Kolkata office.  His conclusion:  “Illegal immigration from across the border.”

The current political infighting is reminiscent of similar wrangling in the United States.  America reacted to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks by radical Muslims with a wave of patriotism and unity, bringing with it a collective will to defeat those who attacked America.  Over time, however, the initial fervor died down and the same sort of political bickering now taking place in India replaced it.  Democrats blamed the attacks on Republican President George Bush; Republicans blamed his Democrat predecessor, President Bill Clinton.  That the widely praised “9/11 Commission” found largely equal fault with both did not stop the charges and counter charges.  As a result, support for resolutely fighting the Islamists has been plagued by disunity and political jockeying; which also muddies the signal Americans get about their enemies and their intention.  Is this happening in India?

Almost 2000 years ago, ancient Israel was at war with its Roman occupiers.  With most of the country in enemy hands and Roman legions approaching the gates of the Hebrew capital, Jerusalem; defenders holed up in the Jewish Temple, located on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.  But instead of forming a united front against the enemy, they fell into three factions and spent more time attacking one another than the Romans.  When they eventually united, it was too late and Jerusalem fell.  The Jewish state was destroyed, not to be re-established until 1948.  Is this happening in India?

While the victims of yesterday and today expend their resources fighting one another, their Islamist enemies proceed in a united, strategic, and resolute manner.  The Deganga pogrom makes sense when viewed in parallel with another planned, jihadist event with similar goals:  the 2000 Palestinian intifada.  It also helps to note that Muslims today are given a free pass to express their individual or collective anger however they wish.  If Hindus do it, they are Hindu fanatics; Jews, Zionist oppressors; Christians, Islamaphobic.  If any of these groups attack Muslims, it is their fault.  If Muslims attack them, it is still their fault.  Arab terror attacks on Israel murdered over 1000 Israelis in the first few years of this century but were justified as anger over the so-called occupation.  The September 11th attacks on the United States were deemed expressions of Muslim anger for which Americans must atone.  When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad recently accused the United States of being the real 9/11 killers, many at the UN applauded enthusiastically.  Finally, virtually every international body and media outlet has determined that the 26/11 terror in Mumbai is insufficient cause to bring anyone to justice.  As American author and analyst Michelle Malkin wrote, “The eternal flame of Muslim outrage was lit a long, long time ago.”  Woe to any people it burns because the world’s elites will blame them for it.  The pattern is tediously familiar.

   Deganga Pogrom   Arab Intifada

The Pretext  Hindus stopped Muslim activists Then private citizen Ariel Sharon
   from tunneling between the   visited Jerusalem’s Temple Mount
   Deganga Mosque and a nearby
   Hindu Temple.

Background  As the area’s Muslim population Although it is the site of Judaism’s
   has grown, they have tried to stop Ancient Temple, Muslims claim that
   Durga Puja there and claim the  the Temple did not exist and that
   land for their mosque.  the Mount is a holy site for Muslims
        only.

What happened Angry Muslims gathered at the  Angry Muslims gathered on the
   Mosque after Iftar (giving it  Temple Mount by al Aqsa mosque
   religious significance) and began (giving it religious significance) and
   attacking Hindus, their temples, began attacking Jewish worshippers
   homes and shops.  When troops below.  When troops responded to
   arrived to restore calm, they  restore calm, they launched a terror
   moved against defenseless Hindu war against Israel that included
   villages in the interior.  suicide bombings and other terror.

Government  While it stopped the immediate While it defeated the uprising, it     violence, it has not made any  allowed the enemy’s claims to be    arrests, defended Hindu religious given legitimacy.   It has not pressed    sentiments, or defined the    the case for Jewish rights and even     actions or claims as illegitimate. released arrested terrorists as
“goodwill gestures.”

Media   Events have been under reported Media took the case of the Muslim    domestically and blacked out  attackers as a cause célèbre and did    internationally.  No media has mentioned the rights of the Jewish    discussed the rights of the Hindu victims.
   victims.

The Result  The Muslim attackers and their Arab claims to Jewish land are seen
   instigators see that they can   as more legitimate than before the     attack Hindus in India without terror; i.e., terror works.  Their
   consequences.  Their claim to false claim that the ancient Jewish
   Hindu lands remains active and Temples did not exist and that Jews
   stronger, and they can press it have no title to the Temple Mount
   Further.    remains; and both are ongoing
        Arab demands for a cessation of
        violence.

The attackers and their backers frequently object that identifying the pogromists as Muslim and the victims as Hindu violates principles of secularism and unfairly smears an entire faith.  To the extent that religion should not be an important issue, they are correct.  But to the extent that the attackers have made religion important, it needs to be identified.  As noted above, there was a deliberate effort to give the Deganga and Palestinian violence a religious overtone.  It was also on full view in 2004 when Yassir Arafat personally apologized to the father of a 20 year old murdered in a terror attack as a case of “mistaken identity.”  The terrorists were gunning for Jews, and the victim was Christian.  In 2006, there were deadly riots worldwide over cartoons that depicted the prophet Mohammed.  The rioters were not Hindus, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, or anyone else—but Muslims who called the cartoons blasphemous; that is, Muslims, not Jews or Hindus, have made this a religious fight.  More frightening, the rioters were not Al Qaeda; neither were the Deganga pogromists.  They were just Muslims.  Draw what conclusions you may, but the religious component injected by Muslims is a fact.

The Deganga riots might appear to be a blip on the radar screen of life in India; but they are far more than that.

Islamization of Northeast India no Coincidence

On February 15, 2010, I sat in a cab while it made its way through a traffic-clogged Kolkata to the office of Bimal Pramanik director of the Kolkata-based Centre for Research in Indo-Bangladesh Relations. Pramanik expressed serious concerns about the decades-long pattern of demographic changes in West Bengal (and Assam), and we discussed the context in which we can better understand them. Amitabh Tripathi, founder of the South Asia forum and a tireless activist in the fight against radical Islam, arranged the meeting and was a key participant in it. Read more

America’s Future is with Asia, not Europe

Passage of President Barack Obama’s health care bill has not lessened Americans’ opposition to it. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, fully 56 percent not only oppose it but also want it repealed, and only 41 percent oppose repeal.  Pundits have given a multitude of reasons for American opposition:  it is unconstitutional; it will be disastrous for the US economy; its re-distributive nature is contrary to American values of free enterprise and individual responsibility; its deliberately depressive effect on profits will hamper new medical research and innovation that have benefitted people worldwide; and that is only the beginning of the criticism.  Conservatives frequently accuse Obama of trying to re-make the United States along the lines of European socialism through the health care bill and the rest of his domestic and foreign agenda; and polls indicate that the charge rings true among most Americans.  As columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote, “Just as the Depression created the political and psychological conditions for Franklin Roosevelt’s transformation of America from laissez-faireism to the beginnings of the welfare state, the current crisis gives Obama the political space to move the still (relatively) modest American welfare state toward European-style social democracy.”  Read more

Practical Jewish-Hindu Cooperation

On Sunday, April 25, 2010, there was a large rally held in front of the Israeli embassy in New York. Its purpose was to show support for the State of Israel and protest the current US administration’s policies that demonize the Jewish State. The day before, I was among three recipients of the Vishwa Hindu Ratna award at the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago. The rally, organized largely by Jewish groups, was notable for the significant presence of Hindu and Sikh groups. The award was given to me, a Jew, for my principled and ongoing defense of Hindus, especially in Bangladesh. Participants at both events recognize that radical Islam and its passive tolerance threaten the very existence of Jews and Hindus respectively. (And for the record, all of us are Americans, too, another favorite target of Islamists.) Read more

Israeli Diplomatic Offensive a No-Brainer

In late March, according to the AP, “Britain took the extraordinary step Tuesday of expelling an Israeli diplomat for the first time in more than 20 years, after concluding there was compelling evidence that Israel was responsible for the use of forged British passports in the plot to slay a senior Hamas operative in Dubai.” Ironically, the man behind the move, UK Foreign Minister David Milliband, justified the move by saying that the high-quality fakes were “almost certainly made by a state intelligence service.” After taking such strong action, he also “insisted Britain has drawn no conclusions over who is responsible for the killing. Is there any question that Britain’s move was political and nothing else? Read more

Bangladeshi Hindu Abducted, Forced to Convert to Islam

The Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) recently reported the abduction and forced conversion of a Bangladeshi Hindu girl to Islam; two human rights organizations, Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) and Bangladesh Minority Watch (BDMW) also investigated it. At 12:45am on 13 June, Koli Goswami was asleep in her bed when five Muslims broke into the family home in Ghosai Chandura, located in northern Bangladesh. They vandalized the home and grabbed the 21-year old the college student. She cried out, but the men easily overpowered her and covered her head to muffle the screams. When others in the house came to her aid, the perpetrators drew their guns, started shooting, and carried off the girl even as she struggled to break free. Her family has not seen her since that night three months ago. Westerners believe that forced conversion belongs to a bygone age, which is why when presenting these incidents in Washington, it is critical to provide more than horrific allegations—which, by the way, the Bangladeshis routinely deny. Read more

Islamists Gaining under Awami Leage in Bangladesh

Ever since the Awami League’s ascension to power in Bangladesh, there has been a regular cottage industry of apologists claiming that the left-center government will navigate the country away from patronizing Islamists and oppression minorities. If anything, things have worsened under Sheikh Hasina and her cronies. Violence against minorities is not only increasing but becoming more severe–and open–day by day. I have vetted numerous allegations and have established a severe anti-minority action in Bangladesh at the rate of about one per week and a half. The real figures probably are higher. Read more

Why this silence on organised anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh?

Reports began trickling out of Bangladesh this spring about an anti-Hindu violence in the heart of its capital carried out in three stages: March 30, April 17, and April 29. A community of approximately 400 Hindus was reportedly going about its business when “hundreds of Muslims” suddenly descended on them and demanded they quit the homes where they and their families had lived for the past 150 years. Witnesses also report that police watched passively while attackers beat residents and destroyed a Hindu temple. Read more

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