India Center Must Disinvite Anti-India and Anti-Hindu Groups

As a concerned Indian American living in the Bay Area, I am appalled and worried that an institution such as the India Community Center (ICC) would host an event, titled, “Manufacturing Statelessness; What’s next for India’s Citizenship Laws?” this upcoming Saturday, November 12th featuring groups and personalities that are well known for their anti-India stance and anti-Hindu stances and work.

I request the ICC to cancel this event and disinvite Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), as this event and the activities of these groups go against the very mission that ICC stands for. A few important examples are given below.

ICC proudly affirms that your mission is to unite-serve-celebrate. Yet, the event is antithetical to the organization’s mission and what it stands for. The ICC welcomes Indian Americans of all backgrounds‘ - Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Muslims, Christians, etc. These individuals and groups have spun a humanitarian law into a “anti-Muslim” and “anti-Dalit” law, resulting in significant misinformation, confusion and outright Hinduphobia in the mainstream. Rather than lauding the efforts of helping religiously persecuted minorities, such individuals and groups have completely ignored the human rights of these minorities and relegated them to the fringes of social justice and equity in India’s immediate neighborhood of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. In July 2020, twenty US senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo¹, expressing serious concerns around the existential threat faced by Hindu and Sikh religious minorities in Afghanistan. The letter is a clear testament to the growing human rights violations and existential threat religious minorities face in these countries and why laws are needed to ensure that these minorities are given a home away from religious persecution and genocide.

The outcome of this event is to divide the Indian American community along religious and communal lines in the Bay Area.

What’s more, both Hindus for Human Rights (HFHR) and the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) have a long history of anti-Hindu and anti-India activities. To illustrate a few examples:

• Recently, IAMC was one of the main forces behind an extremely bigoted and anti-Hindu resolution² passed by the Teaneck Democratic Municial Commitee. The resolution targets Hindus and Hindu organizations in New Jersey, accusing them of being supporters of Nazism, fascism and violence. The resolution also accuses them of promoting terrorism and hatred without any proof or discussions with those being accused, and demonizes those who have served our fellow Americans of all religions, races, ethnicities, etc. during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been condemned by several top New Jersey public officials such as Assemblyman Raj Mukherji³, State Senator Vin Gopal⁴, Congressman Josh Gottheimer⁵, as well as the New Jersey Democratic State Committee⁶. The anti-Hindu sentiments created by the resolution have also been condemned by Senator Cory Booker⁷ and Senator Bob Menendez⁸.
• IAMC and HFHR also works very closely with Pieter Friedrich, who has been under fire for his racist and Hinduphobic attacks against Indian American politicians such as Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi as well as various Hindu organizations and individuals. This type of violent rhetoric was denounced by none other than civil rights leader Reverend Jesse Jackson⁹, alongwith top Democrats such as Illinois State Secretary Jesse White¹⁰. In June 2022, IAMC also attacked Congressman Krishnamoorthi and accused him of being a "Hindu nationalist."
• Friedrich is known for supporting the destruction of Mahatma Gandhi statues all over the US¹¹. Friedrich’s bigotry against Hinduism can also be seen in a 2018 protest in Milpitas, where he held a sign saying “I called my MaMa a cow & she slapped me!”¹² As someone who is familiar with Hinduism and the fact that many Hindus hold the cow in reverence, such messaging advances bigotry against the Hindu community and desecrates what many Hindus hold sacred.
• In 2014, IAMC’s Advocacy Director, Ajit Sahi¹³, called ISIS and Hamas as “freedom fighters” and “people movements [who] had no choice but to take up arms,” and stated that the Taliban and ISIS were simply “shooting the invader” who was trespassing their lands.
• Both IAMC and HFHR also supported “Holi Against Hindutva,”¹⁴ a movement started by students that hijacked the sacred and uniting festival of Holi in an attempt to spread misinformation about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). But, what’s more disturbing is the fact that “Holi Against Hindutva” twisted the message of love, unity and auspiciousness of Holi and called it a “casteist” festival that celebrates the burning of a Bahujan woman.
• In 2021, The Times of India exposed IAMC¹⁵ for falsely claiming that all 53 people killed in the Delhi Riots were Muslims. However, this is not new for IAMC. In 2002, IAMC’s Indian Muslim Alert Network produced a brochure falsely claiming¹⁶ that 5000 people had been killed during the Godhra riots, including 2000 women and girls.

These are just some examples of the type of Hinduphobic and anti-India propaganda being peddled by IAMC and HFHR. 

As a resident of the Bay Area, I request the ICC to cancel this event and disinvite HFHR and IAMC, as this event and the activities of these groups go against the very mission that ICC stands for. For future events, I ask that ICC consider all aspects of the groups’ reputation and activities before offering them your facility. It will help avoid such divisive and vitriolic campaigns which enable hatred and target the Hindu and the Indian American community.

REFERENCES:

1. https://cohna.org/cohna-applauds-us-senators/
2. https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/teaneck-democrats-under-fire-for-anti-hindu-resolution/
3. https://thesouthasiantimes.info/teanecks-anti-hindu-resolution-can-incite-more-hate-against-american-hindus-assemblyman-mukherji/
4. https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/teaneck-democrats-under-fire-for-anti-hindu-resolution/
5. https://gottheimer.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3770
6. https://www.njdems.org/njdsc-condemns-anti-hindu-bigotry/
7. https://www.booker.senate.gov/news/press/booker-statement-condemning-anti-hinduism
8. https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/dem/release/chairman-menendez-statement-condemning-anti-hinduism-and-other-forms-of-religious-and-ethnic-discrimination
9. https://twitter.com/RevJJackson/status/1532746223177826304?s=20&t=2psUJmhuMg7tierjalU_TA
10. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/house/religious-attacks-krishnamoorthi-raise-concerns-democrats
11. https://www.theweek.in/wire-updates/international/2021/02/02/fgn10-us-gandhi-vigil.html
12. https://hindupost.in/society-culture/iamc-member-wants-american-muslims-not-to-shop-from-patel-owned-shops/
13. https://www.ahouseofcards.net/islamists-and-the-bulldozing-of-american-hindus/
14. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JuaBf8lpQAzPK2D1eU0IRMI7LchkYZSYw9q68O3truQ/edit
15. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/times-fact-check/news/fake-alert-indian-american-muslim-council-falsely-claims-that-all-dead-during-delhi-riots-were-muslims/articleshow/85213121.cms
16. https://web.archive.org/web/20040626135029/http:/imannet.com/action/iman0602.pdf