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UK to take up Russian Hindu cause
HindustanTimes.com ^ | December 29, 2005 | Nabanita Sircar

Posted on 12/29/2005 4:24:45 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe

The campaign against the alleged harassment of Hindus in Russia by the Orthodox Church and the Mayor of Moscow is getting more intense in Britain.

Ashok Kumar, MP is launching the "Defend Russian Hindus Campaign" at the House of Commons in January.

There was umbrage here when it was learnt that Archbishop Nikon wrote a letter to the Mayor of Moscow urging him not to allow the construction of a Hindu temple in Moscow because according to him, Lord Krishna who is worshipped by the Hindu community was an "evil demon".

"Such untenable words in an age where interfaith harmony is the need of the day are nothing but an attempt to malign and persecute a faith community that teaches respect and freedom for every other faith community, " commented Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General Hindu Forum of Britain, an umbrella organisation of most community groups in Britain.

The Defend Russian Hindus Campaign, launched by the Hindu Forum of Britain, Hindu Council UK, National Council of Hindu Temples UK, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK, Hindu Council of Australia, Hindu American Foundation and many other worldwide Hindu organisations, aims to build awareness about the alleged persecution and discrimination against Russian Hindus by a corpus of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Mayor of Moscow, despite support from the Central Government.

There are over 100,000 Hindus in Russia. In Moscow alone, there are 5,000 Hindus of Indian origin and over 10,000 Hindus of Russian origin.

Two years ago the Mayor of Russia asked Hindus to vacate their temple in exchange for a piece of land on which they could build a bigger temple. After land was allocated to the Hindu temple, the original temple was demolished. The Russian Orthodox Church orchestrated mass protests against the allocation of land and started a misinformation campaign against Hindus in the media.

On October 30, 2005, after bowing down to pressure from the Orthodox Church, the Mayor of Moscow cancelled the land order and took away the piece of land given for the construction of the Hindu temple. Now, the 15,000 Hindus in Moscow have no place to worship. The consecrated Deities of Radha and Krishna will have no home, say the Hindu leaders.

Kallidai said around the time of India Prime Minister's state visit to Moscow to meet Russian President Putin, Archbishop Nikon, a leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, called the Hindu God, Lord Krishna an "evil demon, the personified power of hell opposing God", and "a livid lascivious youth".


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: greatbritain; hindus; india; luzhkov; russia; uk; unitedkingdom
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To: Lukasz

I personally have MANY Roman Catholics in my family. I believe that Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy could in fact heal their schism one day, but my problems with Latins are strictly from a doctrinal standpoint. I have met some VERY devoted RC Priests, etc. I try to defend your church when possible, (Mariology, Basic Beliefs, etc.) but when push comes to shove, I call the Western viewpoint what it is: a departure from the ancient faith of our forefathers. Until the issues are resolved that caused the schism, I see no other way. You may not agree with me, but surely you can respect my viewpoint......


261 posted on 12/31/2005 10:06:13 AM PST by TexConfederate1861
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To: A. Pole

TGJ troll....why tell me it isn't soooooo.


262 posted on 12/31/2005 11:54:56 AM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: jb6
TGJ troll....why tell me it isn't soooooo.

I try be tactful and not name concrete persons. You behave like elephant in china store :)

263 posted on 12/31/2005 11:59:41 AM PST by A. Pole (If the lettuce cutters were paid $10 more per hour, the lettuce head would cost FIVE CENTS more!)
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To: Lukasz; Timedrifter; Alex-DV; ValenB4; truemiester; anonymoussierra; zagor-te-nej; ...
Beside the Turks weren’t that bad if Polokonez, the Polish village near Istanbul remained Catholic (with Catholic church) since XVIII century.

Ahh, our EU troll is back shilling for islamics again. Just like he has done numerously for the Bosniaks and Albanians.

Yes, I'm sure the 500,000 Armenians, 500,000 Assyrians, 2 million Iotolan Greeks and 100,000 Cypriot Greeks (these were in 1973) killed by your friends the "secular post Ottoman" Turks had it coming to them, after all they were nothing but filthy Eastern Orthodox Christians, nothing for you to worry about. Just like your Balkan buddies were killing.

But then again, the Turks have also butchered 58,000 Kurds in the last 20 years, so who's surprised?

Let the hate flow, we know it's filled your heart.

264 posted on 12/31/2005 12:06:48 PM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: Ukiapah Heep

Funny, tell that to the 100,000+ Jews who've returned from Israel or to the Manohra standing on Red Square right now.


265 posted on 12/31/2005 12:09:38 PM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: TexConfederate1861; Lukasz
I have deep respect to the Orthodox people who deserve for it

What Lukasz means of course are either those who convert or know their "place". Our "friend" here has just gotten finished defending Turkish genocides against various Orthodox Christians, just like he sides with the Balkan muslims. Shilling for Islam is a short career on FR.

And after the Turkish betrayal of America in 2003 and their subsequent efforts to disrupt northern Iraq, it's not a wise move.

266 posted on 12/31/2005 12:12:14 PM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: A. Pole

Some times what it takes is a nice stampede to get the point driven in. :0) Happy New Year.


267 posted on 12/31/2005 12:13:18 PM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: TexConfederate1861

"Thanks! Good to see another conservative Christian on board!"

:)

I'm glad to see you too.


268 posted on 12/31/2005 3:50:41 PM PST by Hill of Tara
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To: SECRET ASIAN MAN

Jews worship the true God, Yahweh. Judaism is similar to Christianity in many ways, although the Jews don't believe in Jesus as the Son of God, like we do.

I am proud to be a Christian.


269 posted on 12/31/2005 3:54:39 PM PST by Hill of Tara
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To: SECRET ASIAN MAN

Hindus, however do not worship the True God.


270 posted on 12/31/2005 3:55:28 PM PST by Hill of Tara
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To: SECRET ASIAN MAN

"You idiotically spewed"

You seem to be using that phrase an awful lot on various threads.

Diversify your vocabulary. A multi-lingual dictionary might help.


271 posted on 12/31/2005 3:57:54 PM PST by Hill of Tara
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To: jb6; All; Lukasz; GarySpFc; Romanov; sergey1973; lizol; Polak z Polski

Drodzy Przyjaciele

Z okazji Nowego Roku zycze Wam:

Blogoslawienstwa Bozego, szczescia w zyciu osobistym, sukcesów w pracy, dobrego zdrowia.

Pozdrowka

Happy New Year


272 posted on 12/31/2005 7:45:32 PM PST by anonymoussierra (Happy New Year "His Majesty blesses you.")
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To: Admin Moderator

Thank you "Admin Moderator" Happy New Year


273 posted on 12/31/2005 7:48:21 PM PST by anonymoussierra (Happy New Year "His Majesty blesses you.")
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To: Kolokotronis
Like x5452, it seems to me that those Russian Hindus ought to be able to build a temple in some convenient location. But GK, as an Orthodox Christian I do agree with what the bishop said and believe he has as a religious leader every right to say it.
 
Whether the Hindus get to built a Temple or not is a trivial issue. I will defend the Archbishop's right to free speech even if he wishes to slander my religion, I will defend his right to be extremely stupid and ignorant. I hope you and (others here) will do the same if a Hindu religious leader chooses to make similar statements against Christians. In that case you and (others here) will grant him his right to free speech and free stupdity.

274 posted on 12/31/2005 9:48:53 PM PST by Gengis Khan
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To: Kolokotronis

Happy New Year!


275 posted on 12/31/2005 9:50:00 PM PST by Gengis Khan
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To: Gengis Khan

"Whether the Hindus get to built a Temple or not is a trivial issue."

I don't believe I said it was, GK.

"I will defend the Archbishop's right to free speech even if he wishes to slander my religion, I will defend his right to be extremely stupid and ignorant. I hope you and (others here) will do the same if a Hindu religious leader chooses to make similar statements against Christians. In that case you and (others here) will grant him his right to free speech and free stupdity."

GK, I've learned a lot in 30 years of practicing law. One of them is that people, even intelligent people, say stupid, hurtful and divisive thing all the time, unfortunately. But nowadays in most places they have the right to do that. So yes, I'd grant your hypothetical religious leader the same opportunity to shoot his mouth off as this Russian hierarch took.

On a less serious note, Happy New Year to you too!



276 posted on 01/01/2006 4:48:33 AM PST by Kolokotronis (Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!)
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To: Hill of Tara
I am proud to be a Christian.

Honored is the proper word. Pride is a cardinal sin.

277 posted on 01/01/2006 6:06:40 PM PST by jb6 (The Atheist/Pagan mind, a quandary wrapped in egoism and served with a side order of self importance)
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To: x5452; CarrotAndStick; jb6
The commandment is no God's before the Lord. If there's no other God's exactly what would you call dieties which are not the Christian God?

As per Christianity and Judaiism, there is only One God, there is no other God or god, other "gods" do not exist.

By that definition, there are no other deities.

Hence, a Christian would refer to gods of other religions as God/gods. The Archbishop can refer to Krishna as a Hindu God. He should NOT refer to Krishna as a "demon" -- he could refer to Krishna as a false god (his own opinion -- it's insulting enough) but a "demon" is too insulting.

For us to live in a world with many, many religions, we should respect each other's religion -- or else we become like the Muslimes.

I'm not Hindu, but I can respect a Hindu's religion and his/her fervor as long as he respects my right. And Hindu's generally DO respect that right (since Hinduism is in essence a kind of meta-religion, with myriad religions included in it, tolerance is ingrained).

I can explain to a Hindu friend that I don't believe in his gods and goddesses but I believe in only ONE God. My Hindu friend would say that he believes that all paths lead to God and that he/she worships Christ as one of the manifestations of God.

I can tell him why I think that's not correct, but finally it comes down to his/her choice of bestowing that exclusivity. BEYOND that, many Hindus have and are more model Christians (excepting the first commandment) than most Christians. Example: Gandhi
278 posted on 01/01/2006 7:22:01 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11. Restore Hagia Sophia!)
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To: jb6

You're right.

I'm honored then.


279 posted on 01/01/2006 7:27:23 PM PST by Hill of Tara
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To: TexConfederate1861; Gengis Khan; CarrotAndStick
Good for you...I suggest you immigrate to the land where you can practice your pagan demon-worship with others who do so....

Double rot: Firstly, while Hinduism is by the definition of the word pagan (non-Christian), you (and the Archbishop) don't know enough to call it "demon-worship" and it isn't worhipping of demons (who by their definition seek to hurt man) -- as even a cursory glance of their Scriptures (the Gita) tells you that the aim is the betterment of man and many tracts are not out of alignment with Christianity.R
Secondly, you have no right to ask a person to migrate because you don't agree with their religion: as long as they don't interfere with you, live and let live (or else you become like the Saudis or Pakis).

America is a land of Protestants, Catholics, Orthodox, Evangelical Christians and Jews and others. Would you tell the Catholics to leave because you didn't agree with them? Would you tell the Jews? No. That's wrong. India, too, respects all religions and Christians are an intrinsic part of India -- to ask them to leave India would be abominable, similarly, to ask Hindus to leave North America or Europe or Australia, is abominable.

Don't act like the Mohammedans.

280 posted on 01/01/2006 7:30:14 PM PST by Cronos (Never forget 9/11. Restore Hagia Sophia!)
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