GO TO SOURCE ASTANA, KAZAKSTAN, September 25, 2001: According to this Associated Press report, Pope John Paul II said Monday that the Catholic Church respects “authentic Islam,” making the distinction between it and the fanaticism that some fear will stigmatize the religion in the wake of the U.S. attacks. The report says the pope traveled to the country “to strengthen…
Source: Religion News Service WASHINGTON, D.C., September 21, 2001: Just before giving his speech to the joint session of the US Congress yesterday, President Bush met with an unprecedented array of leaders from across the religious spectrum in the Oval Office on Thursday and prayed for peace, wisdom and strength as America prepares for a war against terrorism. More than…
GO TO SOURCE NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 20, 2001: The tiny Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan face an uncertain future as the U.S. appears ready to launch military strikes in that country. According to representatives of the Afghan Sikh refugee community in the Indian capital, most of their relatives in Afghanistan had left their home and were living in…
GO TO SOURCE RAJASTHAN, INDIA, September 21, 2001: Over 1,000 lower caste Hindus, known as Dalits, have broken an age-old taboo banning their entry into Indian temples. The Dalit members went into a temple in the western Indian state of Rajasthan. The lower caste villagers say this was the first time they dared to enter the temple freely and it…
Source: India West SACRAMENTO, USA, September 21, 2001: Senator Deborah Ortiz, Democrat for Sacramento, drafted a measure that would allow the sale of “bidis” only in bars and other businesses that do not allow minors to enter. Bidis, made from the flakes and dust of dark tobacco, are hand rolled, filterless cigarettes that often come in a variety of candy-like…
GO TO SOURCE KAUAI, HAWAII, September 21, 2001: Hindu Press International requests its readers to send to us at “source” above any statements made about the September 11 attacks on America by Hindu religious leaders. We are collecting these as well as forwarding them on to world news organizations, in an effort to get the Hindu response to these events…
Source: UNI NEW DELHI, INDIA, September 19, 2001: With India virtually confirming the death of about 250 of its citizens and people of Indian origin, in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the government today announced that Air India will provide free transportation of their ashes or mortal remains to Delhi and Mumbai. Similarly, the Indian Airlines…
GO TO SOURCE ATTARI, PUNJAB, INDIA, September 19, 2001: The only land route between India and Pakistan, the Attari-Wagah border check-point, has become a place of frenzied activity. The train and the bus plying between Delhi and Lahore, about 20 kilometers away from here, are the only means of surface transport between the two countries and pass through Attar-Wagah check-point.…
Source: Hinduism Today USA, September 20, 2001: Hindus who are harassed in America as a result of the recent terrorist attacks should immediately report the incident to the local police by dialing 911. They should also call the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights hotline for reports of hate crimes following the hijacking attacks on September 11, at 1-800-552-6843.
GO TO SOURCE BANGALORE, INDIA, Sept. 18, 2001: Nineteen-year-old Vinod Shastry, a second-generation Indian American, on his second visit to India, at the Jana Seva Vidya Kendra, a residential boys school 20 kilometers from Bangalore, is reciting from Tulsidas’s epic “Ram Charitra Manas.” Sixteen-year-old Mihir Pitodia, a Kenyan citizen of Indian origin on his first visit here, is attempting a…