Recently (Sept 2021), in a northern suburb of Atlanta, GA, a series of roadside signs were erected against a proposed development with homes and a Hindu temple. These signs have ‘NO’ with a huge red dot depicting the dot Hindus put on their forehead as a mostly religious tradition. Otherwise, a peaceful suburb that is rapidly developing saw 10s of communities come up in the last few years. Large numbers of American families from different parts of the USA as well as sizable numbers of immigrant families made this suburb their new home. This incident was covered widely on local social media and by news outlets. Local representatives strongly condemned the incident and were echoed by a lot of residents.

Many speculated this was the work of a few Americans not in favor of a Hindu Temple in the neighborhood. After this incident, the developer held a hearing about the development and many of the concerned families (mainly White Americans) showed up to get answers. What is striking in this incident is some people have spent hours making up signs and putting up targeting a religion and showing their hatred publicly. This area has close to 10 Churches within a 1 mile radius and no other religious places. It is not hard to guess who these individuals are.

With the recent presidential elections, Atlanta metro area saw a huge swing towards liberal Democrats. Many across the country, especially immigrants, surprised to learn about this incident that happened in Atlanta and expressed serious concerns.

Hindu religion is the ONLY major religion that accepts there are many paths for self-realization/salvation/moksha/nirvana and all paths are equal. The fundamental basis of Hinduism is defined in a sentence from its ancient scripture Vedas “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” meaning “The Whole world one family”. For Hindus, Vedas are like Bible to Christians. These are the oldest written works in the world dating back to at least 3500 to 5000 years from Sindhu civilization that is currently located in India and Pakistan. Just to give you an idea, this is 1500 years before Christ and Christianity. Hindu scriptures outline the most scientific view of the universe, life and goals of humans, timelines, and touch almost everything you can imagine in this 21st century. These scriptures always addressed entire humanity and not a particular civilization/group/sect/area of people. How can some people have opposition to such wonderful religion and wisdom? In contrary, Christianity took advantage of these very fundamentals of Hinduism for its own benefit. Christian missionaries are being sent to India with billions of dollars to establish Churches and convert Hindus into Christianity. It is widely estimated that a new Church comes up in India every couple of hours. How do these people feel if Hindus in India go against Churches? Fortunately, the majority of Christians are peace loving and these isolated but increasing hatred incidents are the handy work of a few ignorant people. But at the same time, the majority of Christians donate money to Churches and evangelists without much attention to where this money ends up and the consequences. Most of this excess money ends up in Southeast Asia. Islamic countries and the people there don’t allow Churches/missionaries in the name of blasphemy. Africa and South America are already converted to Christianity and Churches do not have much interest in helping the poor on these continents. In southeast Asia, mainly in India, in the name of helping tribal Hindus in remote corners of the country, innocent people are lured with the money/goods and being converted in thousands every single day. This is happening just like animal poaching that we see in some parts of the world. Once converted their beautiful traditions, cultural heritage, clothing and even language are wiped out by the next generation. It happened throughout the history from South America to Africa to South Asia. It is time for every American to realize that every path, God and beliefs are as equal as yours. Please do not endanger these wonderful cultural heritage. If you say Jesus is the ONLY way to the truth, it is simply Religious Racism, exactly like Color Racism, no different. This is even worse because there is no physical attribute in this view. This is a judgement and hatred based on one’s beliefs. This is totally against the teachings of Bible and the constitution of the United States of America.

Ref:

No Dots: Racist signs in Atlanta suburb bring back memories of Dotbusters

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/racism-among-white-christians-higher-among-nonreligious-s-no-coincidence-ncna1235045

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