USA, August 30, 2005: Hindu Human Rights are pleased to announce that following our protest to the French government, Minelli have apologized to the whole Hindu community for the offence they have caused by representing Hindu deities on their shoes. They have recently sent us all remaining shoes in order to ensure that they are destroyed in a manner consistent with Hindu traditions and sensibilities. Hindu Human Rights would like to take this opportunity to once again thank all Hindus and Hindu organizations who came together to join us in this successful campaign.
This is the letter received from Minelli Shoes France (translated from French):
“Further to our discussions, we are sending you back the shoes which we had already removed from the shops after your protests. We would like to confirm to you that we had never had any intention to offend your beliefs and we ask you to excuse us for having unknowingly/unwillingly offended you. We are a small company and we work exclusively on French territory in France where your community never alerted us in regard to the misuse of symbols and images of your religion. We have taken a good note of your position and we assure you that this error will not be repeated. We won’t make the same mistake twice and we beg you to accept our most distinguished greetings.”
Yours Sincerely, Remy Choque.