www.ddinews.gov.in PURI, INDIA, July 14, 2007: The seaside temple town of Puri in Orissa is getting ready to greet over a million visitors who will be part of the annual Rath Yatra, starting July 16th. The construction of the three chariots, Deva, Dalan, Taladhwaj and Nandighosh is nearing completion and by Sunday afternoon all three chariots will be parked outside…
www.newkerala.com AHMEDABAD, INDIA, July 17, 2007: Special precaution has been taken by the Gujarat government on the eve of the annual Rath Yatra of Lord Jagannath, which will be taken out from the century-old historical Jagannath Temple in the minority dominated Jamalpur area tomorrow on the auspicious occasion of Ashadi Bij. The old city area has already turned into a…
www.telegraph.co.uk CARMARTHENSHIRE, WALES, July 17, 2007: Farmers have condenmed a “ludicrous” High Court decision to reprieve a bull infected with TB because it was worshipped by a religious community. Shambo, a six-year-old Friesian, was to be destroyed in line with agricultural safeguards after testing positive for bovine tuberculosis. The decision was overturned by a High Court judge who said that…
www.washingtonpost.com WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2007: At the Sri Siva Vishnu temple in Lanham, 11 Hindu priests recite mantras before intricately chiseled altars to Deities carved by expert temple stonemasons. They offer the Deities lentils and rice prepared in a small kitchen by Haridas Padithaya, 38, who looks like a line cook in his stained T-shirt but who was trained…
Prof. Arvind Sharma, McGill University MONTREAL, CANADA, July 15, 2007: (HPI note: Dr. Sharma submitted this article in response to the outburst of Christian fundamentalists in the US Senate protesting the Hindu prayer as polytheistic.) One distinct and very visible feature of Hinduism is the presence of numerous deities and divinities within it. These are both male and female and…
www.azcentral.com CHANDLER CITY, ARIZONA, USA, June 30, 2007 The Chandler City Council approved the construction of a Hindu temple in the central part of town, but only after listening for more than an hour to 25 speakers divided on the issue. James Mowbray expressed the views of many of the neighborhood residents during Thursday night’s meeting. “It will be detrimental…
HPI WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2007: In HPI of July 12, the 7th item, “Hindu-American Foundation Comments on Senate Prayer” misidentified the American Family Association as the American Family Institute, which is a different organization. The American Family Association condemned the protest, as reported above.
www.hafsite.org WASHINGTON, D.C., July 11, 2007: (HPI note: Following is a press release.) The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), the leading U.S.-based Hindu human rights group, released its third annual report today on the discrimination against Hindus in countries across the world. The report was released today at the foundation’s Washington, D.C., area offices. The expansive, two-hundred page report documenting abuses…
RNS WASHINGTON, D.C., July 13, 2007: (HPI note: We include here excerpts from a few more reports on the disrupted Hindu prayer in the US Senate. The only other non-Christian or non-Jew to give a Senate prayer was Wallace Mohammed, a Muslim who recited a prayer in 1992.) Conservative Christian groups protested the first appearance of a guest Hindu chaplain…
electioncentral.tpmcafe.com USA, July 12, 2007: (HPI note: electioncentral.tpmcafe.com is a wide-ranging blog site which posted the following item by Eric Kleefeld.) As we reported earlier today, a religious and political milestone of sorts took place early today when a Hindu delivered the morning invocation in the Senate chamber — only to find the ceremony disrupted by three activists from the…