Replies

Thank you for your abject racism and unimaginative comments, which smack of the kind of educationally-challenged race-based insults so common on such intellectually stimulating sites as the "Yahoo Messenger Board."

Please do not degrade these coveted board on Free Republic with that kind of idiocy. The Free Republic is one of the few places that people with minds can talk, debate, and think. Your base and vile statement that "Hindus worship rats" is totally deceitful and an evil statement, and it is typical of the ISI propaganda war machine that is ruining Pakistan, India, and the rest of the world.

All he said is that it's a two-sided quarrel. I seem to recall that the Hindus demolished an ancient mosque a couple of years ago to build a Hindu temple in its place.

And what seems to get left out of this article is that the Hindus AND the Muslims in India delight in killing Christians.

I tend to agree with you that we have more to worry about from the Muslims--not because of what both sides do to each other in the Indian subcontinent, but because Islam is an expansionist religion, while Hinduism is not, and also because Muslims are everywhere, while most Hindus are in India where they don't bother us.

In Hindu mythology, the elephant-headed god, Ganesh, is accompanied by a rat wherever he travels. An offering to Ganesh and his small companion is an important part of Hindu worship.

The Karni Mata Temple was built in the 17th century and dedicated to an incarnation of the goddess Durga. The rats are holy because they are considered to be reincarnations of people hiding from the wrath of Yama, the Hindu god of death.

But it is not only the rats living in the temple that are worshipped. Many Hindus are reluctant to kill any rat even an unwelcome one caught in a kitchen. And in Calcutta, residents regularly feed thousands of rats that live in the city parks.

But in the Karni Mata Temple, rat worship is taken to an entirely new level. There, it is considered auspicious if the rats scamper across your feet. However, if you accidentally trample one of the small but holy rodents and kill it, you are expected to donate a solid gold model of a rat to the temple to compensate for your inadvertent sin

Rat temple a sight to see, but not for the squeamish

You really have to learn all about "subjunctive mood" and secondary reference.

I didn't say Hindus worship rats. I said that's a favorite propaganda ploy of a certain type of Indian or Pakistani Moslem. I deal with it the same way I deal with Indian propaganda ploys regarding Moslems.