Dear Time Mag-By J.Marshal

[Guest guest]

Dear Time,

 

This is a disgrace.

 

I just read your article

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030324-

433208,00.html

 

Post-Trauma: Reclaiming a Child

By JEFFREY KLUGER

 

Sunday, Mar. 16, 2003

Was Elizabeth Smart brainwashed, as her father insists? Does she need

to be deprogrammed like some runaway Moonie or Hare Krishna?

 

--------

 

This is a blatant case of religious discrimination. I am a registered

Minister of Religion for the International Society for Krishna

Consciousness, recognized by the New Zealand Justice Dept.

http://www.hknet.org.nz/jtcdbio.htm

 

Please check with The 1993 Human Rights Act as it prohibits

discrimination on grounds of sex, marital status, religious belief,

ethical belief, color, race, ethnic or national origins, disability,

age, political opinion, employment status, and family status, before

you allow your staff to slander in writing for public distribution

one of the recognized religions, ethnic groups, cultures or minority

groups of the world.

 

We believe that we are being mistreated, victimized and greatly

singled out. ( PROVISIONS FOR THE PROMOTION AND PROTECTION OF THE

RIGHTS OF PERSONS BELONGING TO MINORITIES

http://193.194.138.190/html/menu6/2/fs18.htm )

 

"Discrimination has been prohibited in a number of international

instruments that deal with most, if not all, situations in which

minority groups and their individual members may be denied equality

of treatment. Discrimination is prohibited on the grounds of, inter

alia, race, language, religion, national or social origin, and birth

or other status. Important safeguards from which individual members

of minorities stand to benefit include recognition as a person before

the law, equality before the courts, equality before the law, and

equal protection of the law, in addition to the important rights of

freedom of religion, _expression and association."

 

Article 27:

The Declaration grants to persons belonging to minorities:

- Protection, by States, of their existence and their national or

ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identify (art. 1);

- the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their

own religion and to use their own language in private and in public

(art. 2.1);

- the right to participate in cultural, religious, social, economic

and public life (art. 2.2);

- the right to participate in decisions which affect them on the

national and regional levels (art. 2.3);

- the right to establish and maintain their own associations (art.

2.4);

- the right to establish and maintain peaceful contacts with other

members of their group and with persons belonging to other

minorities, both within their own country and across state borders

(art. 2.5); and

- the freedom to exercise their rights, individually as well as in

community with other members of their group, without discrimination

(art. 3).

States are to protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to

minorities by taking measures:

- to create favourable conditions to enable them to express their

characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion,

traditions and customs (art. 4.2);

- to allow them adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue

or to have instruction in their mother tongue (art. 4.3);

- to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and

culture of minorities existing within their territory and ensure that

members of such minorities have adequate opportunities to gain

knowledge of the society as a whole (art. 4.4);

- to allow their participation in economic progress and development

(art. 4.5);

 

Hare Krishna has been accepted EVEN by the US Supreme court amongst

others recognizing that the Hare Krishnas are an authentic branch of

Hinduism, the world's most ancient, largest and ongoing cultural

tradition. Time Mag should apologize and retract its statement.

 

Surely as well as being against all the Human Rights Act laws to pick

on a section of society like this (section 5, 13 -20 ) it is really

in BAD taste. Makes one wonder if we have digressed into some Nazi

state that we have to tolerate such comments singling out sections of

society. I really thought your magazine was better than that. I

strongly suggest that the writer be reprimanded and made to keep

his/her bigoted opinions to themselves. If you are not VERY careful

you may find yourselves in a big law suit.

 

We demand a retraction and an apology immediately.

 

Trusting this finds you well in every respect.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Rt Rev John Marshall a.k.a. Pt. Jaya Tirtha Charan dasa

http://www.hknet.org.nz/jtcdbio.html