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MINNEAPOLIS, MN (November 21, 2006) –
Hindu Americans, still reeling from an election season that
saw high profile Republican Party candidates scorn adherents
of minority faiths in the United States, were treated to another
attack on pluralism from a state senate candidate in Minnesota.
Republican Rae Hart Anderson, who was defeated by a margin
of nearly 40% in her bid to unseat Sen. Satveer Chaudhary
of District 50, wrote a rambling concession email over a week
after the election in which she called on the senator to convert
to her Christian faith as she said he needed to be “forgiven.”
Sen. Chaudhary is a practicing Hindu.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF), which
has a full-time staffed office in Washington, D.C. to promote
human rights and religious liberty issues in government, contacted
the Minnesota Republican Party office Monday. The foundation
demanded that the GOP in Minnesota repudiate Anderson’s
correspondence as she was the GOP’s chosen candidate
to represent the northern suburbs of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
At the time of this press release, no response had been received
from the GOP office.
“The race of your life is more important
than this one--and it is my sincere wish that you'll get to
know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior,” wrote Anderson
in her email. “Jesus is the way, the truth and offers
His life to you and each human being. Pay attention...this
is very important, Satveer. Have you noticed Jesus for yourself...at
some moment in time, yet???”
Anderson continued on the same message for
another five paragraphs beseeching Sen. Chaudhary to convert
without discussing the electoral race they had just completed.
Local print and broadcast media picked up the story of the
conversion call and the email was roundly derided in the blogosphere.
In response to an inquiry from the Star Tribune newspaper
in Minneapolis, Anderson’s campaign manager said, “Chaudhary
is not Christian. He needs to find his soul.”
“Hindu Americans are active participants
in the political process, and over a dozen Hindus were candidates
in national and regional races throughout the country this
year,” said Suhag Shukla, Esq., legal counsel of HAF
and a resident of St. Paul. “Anderson obviously hid
her overt bigotry until after the election, and Hindus can
only wonder how they would have fared had the election results
been different and their senator considered their faith inferior
at best, and outright evil, at worst.”
HAF had already condemned similar ultraconservative
and exclusivist remarks made by other candidates this year.
Congresswoman Katherine Harris (R-FL) stated in late August
that "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence
you are going to legislate sin," and Republican Governor
Rick Perry of Texas publicly agreed with a pastor onstage
after he asserted that non-Christians are going “straight
to hell with a non-stop ticket.”
“Republicans have been among the strongest
voices backing HAF on Capitol Hill on their issues, and many
Hindu Americans are loyal supporters of the GOP,” said
Ishani Chowdhury, the Executive Director of HAF who is not
related to Sen. Chaudhary. “But at HAF, we are distressed
by the intolerance and disrespect for Hinduism and other minority
faiths displayed by a few prominent Republican candidates
this year in pandering to the right wing Christian conservative
vote—a clear and present danger to the pluralistic ethos
our founding fathers valued so much.”
Anderson’s insinuations of her religion’s
superiority took on new meaning in light of events earlier
this year in the Minneapolis suburbs. The main Hindu temple,
situated on nearly 30 acres, was heavily vandalized in the
spring by a group of rampaging youths. HAF members expressed
concern that when politicians demean and dismiss their faith
and heritage without reaching out to understand its precepts,
Hindus and their institutions become easy targets when the
prevailing mood is of intolerance.
The Hindu American Foundation is a non-profit
501(c)(3), non-partisan organization, promoting the Hindu
and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism.
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