US lawmakers wear 'I'm Hindu' badge

[Guest guest]

US lawmakers to wear 'I am a Hindu' badge

WASHINGTON: Several influential US lawmakers will wear a yellow badge

with the inscription "I am a Hindu" in solidarity with followers of

the faith in Afghanistan on the day a recent anti-Hindu Taliban edict

is enacted.

 

During a mark-up of a resolution by the powerful House International

Relations Committee condemning the Taliban's edict, requiring Hindus

to wear a yellow badge as a mark of identity, the lawmakers said the

Taliban's despicable decree was analogous to the Nazi persecution of

Jews.

 

The House resolution strongly condemns "the Taliban's use of Nazi

tactics to force Hindus in Afghanistan to wear symbols identifying

them as Hindu; joins with people of all faiths around the world in

standing against the religious persecution by the Taliban regime."

 

It demands "that the Taliban regime immediately revoke its order

stigmatizing Hindus and other non-Muslims in Afghanistan and conform

its laws to all basic international, civil and human rights

standards; and calls on the Government of Pakistan to use its

influence with the Taliban regime to demand that the Taliban revoke

the reprehensible policy of forcing Afghan Hindus and other non-

Muslims to wear a yellow identity symbol."

 

Rep Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, during the course of his

remarks castigating the Taliban edict, held up a copy of the yellow

star the Nazi generals of Adolf Hitler's regime had ordered the Jews

in Denmark to wear in 1943, which said in Hebrew, "I am a Jew."

 

Ackerman, former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and

Indian Americans, said the then king of Denmark had himself worn the

yellow star in solidarity with the Jews and exhorted his people to do

the same which torpedoed the Nazi army's efforts to identify Jews and

haul them away to concentration camps.

 

Ackerman hoped on the day the Taliban's edict comes into force all

members of the U.S. Congress would wear a yellow badge in solidarity

with the Hindus in Afghanistan. "On that particular day, we will all

become Hindus, so that the miniscule minority Hindus in Afghanistan

will have a source of strength," he said.

 

Rep Tom Lantos, California Democrat, who is the ranking minority

member on the committee, strongly endorsed Ackerman's remarks and

pledged to wear an "I am a Hindu" badge if the Taliban decree came to

pass, and vowed to support a campaign to convince all U.S. lawmakers

to do the same on that fateful day.

 

Lantos also said he would aggressively pursue Washington's concern

over Pakistan's support for the Taliban when Foreign Minister Abdul

Sattar visits here later this month and warn him that if such support

was not ended Islamabad would have very few, if any, friends on

Capitol Hill.

 

He said he would urge Sattar to make sure the Pakistani government

put pressure on the Taliban and prevail on the latter to have this

edict withdrawn immediately.

 

Rep Eliot Engel, co-author of the resolution that has 74 co-sponsors

and was approved unanimously by the committee and sent to the full

House for a vote --said, this badge of identity "makes them (Afghan

Hindus) even more vulnerable to police and mob violence."

 

He said he was particularly concerned "because this is not the first

time the Taliban has singled out Afghan Hindus. Prior to 1992,

Afghanistan had a population of over 50,000 Hindus. Most fled due to

anti-Hindu violence. There are now approximately 500 Hindus left in

Afghanistan who are subject to the Taliban's edict."

 

Another founding member of the India Caucus, Rep Sherrod Brown, also

ridiculed the Taliban's rationale for the edict and said "contrary to

Taliban claims, such an action is a sign of religious intolerance."

(IANS)