Hindu American Foundation [HAF]

This article was written as a result of HAF's filing of an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the 10 Commandments case. The below article was published in many national newspapers including the Washington Post.

(RNS) Arguing the Ten Commandments are a Judeo-Christian rather than universal code of morality, an alliance representing millions of Hindus, Buddhists and Jains is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to remove a controversial monument from government property.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) made its position official this month
(December) by filing a brief in a case in which the plaintiff aims to purge the Texas State Capitol grounds of a 6-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument. The Supreme Court in October agreed to review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of keeping the monument. The court will also hear a similar case from Kentucky. Decisions in both cases are expected sometime in 2005.

In submitting its brief with signatories from such groups as the Federation of Jain Associations in North America, the HAF said it was weighing in on behalf of millions of religious minorities.

"The brief makes it clear that the co-signatories regard the Ten Commandments with utmost respect," said Suhag Shukla, legal counsel for the HAF. "But the overtly religious monument is a blow to pluralism, and its prominent presence on Texas Capitol grounds implies political and social exclusion of Hindus, Jains and Buddhists alike. The district and appellate courts failed to consider the effect of the monument on those adhering to non-Judeo-Christian faiths."

The place of the Ten Commandments on government property has for years generated heated debate. The issue came to a head last year when the top justice of Alabama, Roy Moore, lost his job in a bid to keep a Ten Commandments monument in the courthouse rotunda.

Now as the issue moves into the hands of nation's highest court, those outside the Judeo-Christian tradition are taking a higher-profile role. The American Humanist Association, representing some 7,000 non-theists, has also filed a brief urging that the Texas monument be removed.

The HAF brief argues that the Commandments are irreconcilable with beliefs of Jains and Buddhists, who recognize no "creator/controller God." What's more, the second commandment bans the worship of idols or graven images, a notion anathema to Hindus, who consecrate images in worship.

"The courts below (Federal Court of Appeals) completely ignored the effect of the Ten Commandments monument on non-Judeo-Christians," the brief said, "whose beliefs regarding the nature of God and the relationship between man and God differ greatly from those enshrined in the monument and for whom the monument is clearly and unavoidably `sectarian."'