Press Release
WASHINGTON, DC/ALBANY, NY – Over 30 church and Christian leaders from across the United States and India signed a joint statement by the New York State Council of Churches and The Religious Nationalism Project, condemning the Hindu supremacist event in Dallas, Texas, featuring Kajal Singhala, also known as Kajal Hindustani.
Singhala is a prominent figure in India’s Hindu nationalist movement and has repeatedly called for violence and exclusion against Christians and Muslims.
The Dallas event, organised by extremist groups with a history of anti-Christian and anti-Muslim rhetoric, threatens not only the safety of religious minorities but also undermines the American values of religious freedom and dignity.
The event is being organised by the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America, both of which are designated as anti-Christian and anti-Muslim hate groups. In particular, GHHF has a long track record of anti-Christian activity, including a 2022 fundraiser that sought to finance the demolition of churches in India.
As the statement outlines, Hindutva ideology has fuelled attacks on churches, the criminalisation of religious conversion, and the persecution of clergy across India. Allowing its proponents a platform in the US sends a chilling message of tolerance for religious hatred. The statement reflects a rising number of Christian organisations, spanning denominations, races, and regions, who are speaking out against the issue of Hindu supremacy in the United States and India.
“Within 24 hours we have gathered well over 30 signatures of support from a broad-based and ecumenical group of Christian laity and clergy who agree that hate speech, especially when disguised in the form of religion, is antithetical to the gospel of Christ,” said Rev Neal Christie, Principal of the Religious Nationalisms Project. “We represent Congregational, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, United Methodist, Anglican, and Evangelical expressions of the body of Christ. We know that mutual respect, collaboration and investment in the common good cannot coexist with any hate speech perpetrated by any person.”
Described by Indian publication The Quint as a symbol of “hate politics,” Singhala is a hardline supporter of Hindu nationalism, also known as Hindutva. This hateful ideology, which has been mainstreamed over the past decade by the Indian government, proclaims that India should be a Hindu theocratic ethnostate, where minorities – especially Muslims and Christians – should be reduced to second-class citizens and subjected to mass violence. Under this ideology, Christians in India have been relentlessly targeted: churches attacked, prayer gatherings violently disrupted, conversion to Christianity effectively criminalised, and clergy arrested on false allegations of forced conversions. In many parts of India, simply practicing Christianity has become dangerous.
Under the current Indian government, the NCC said in its statement, “Churches have been burned and mosques destroyed; Muslims have been beaten in public; Christians have been subject to sexual violence; and Sikh leaders have been assassinated, all of this justified by Hindu nationalism… We call upon individuals to contact their elected officials to bring awareness of the human rights atrocities in India and the fundraising that takes place in local US communities to support such acts of hate and terror.”
This story was originally published in clarionindia.net.
