Campaigns Archives - INSIGHT UK

Preet Kaur Gill’s Hinduphobia

On 18th December 2021, Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill posted a Hinduphobic comment after an unidentified man committed sacrilege at the Golden temple in Amritsar, Punjab.

Preet Kaur Gill posted “Hindu terrorist prevented from an act of violence at the Sikh Holy shrine of Harmandir Sahib, (Golden temple) against Sikhs.”

Preet Kaur Gill was quick to assume the culprit was Hindu even before the authorities had conducted their investigation. The culprit was in fact taken away and lynched. And the identity of the man remains uncertain.

Preet Kaur Gill has clearly exposed her hatred for Hindus and consequently her Hinduphobia.

Our Demand

Our demand is simple. MP Preet Kaur Gill must publicly apologise and must be suspended from her role as a Member of Parliament.

Our response

We (INSIGHT UK) have responded as follows;

A series of social media posts condemning and raising awareness of Preet Kaur Gill’s Hinduphobia
Wrote letters of complaints via email to the Labour party
Wrote letters of complaints via email to the UK Parliament Commissioner
INSIGHT UK West Midlands team is further pursuing to contact MP Preet Kaur Gill’s office

results / Responses

The following has thus far been achieved

The Parliament Commissioner responded by advising us to complain directly to the Labour party via their complaints procedure and following that, we can file a police complaint for hate speech
The Labour party responded with having spoken to MP Preet Kaur Gill, she regrets her comment and had since deleted her tweet

Simply regretting her comment is not at all good enough. MP Preet Kaur Gill clearly has irrational issues with Hindus and has exposed herself as a person who is a Hinduphobe. We will continue raising our voice and demand the Labour party takes strict action against Preet Kaur Gill and the issue of Hinduphobia within the party.

Open letter to the leader of the opposition sir keir starmer

An open letter was sent to the Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer by over 200 people via email. We are yet to receive a response.

Nazir Ahmed: A Lord with no honesty or integrity

Campaigns / By INSIGHT UK

Lord Nazir Ahmed retires just as his sordid history catches up with him resulting in the first-ever expulsion of a peer in the history of the House of Lords.

The House of Lords Conduct Committee has published a report on Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, concluding for the first time ever that a peer should be expelled. The report finds Lord Ahmed to have breached the Code of Conduct for “failing to act on his personal honour” over sexual assault and exploitation. Ahmed, who has a history of controversial incidents both in his career and personal life, announced his retirement on 14 November after having seen the report. Further controversially he announced his retirement only to Pakistani news outlets, keeping silent in the UK.

His sudden retirement is an obvious attempt to escape justice, meaning he does not lose his title & has the legal right to return if he changes his mind.

The report details how Tahira Zaman, “was put in contact with Lord Ahmed to help her make a complaint to the Metropolitan Police about a faith healer”.

After offering to help, Lord Ahmed was found to have used his position to:

Sexually assault the complainant on 2 March 2017
Lie to the complainant about his intentions to help her
Exploit the complainant emotionally and sexually despite knowing she was vulnerable

The Commissioner also found that Lord Ahmed failed to cooperate with her investigation and instead attempted to discredit Ms Zaman’s evidence through “denial and dishonesty”. The Committee noted that at no point in the process did Lord Ahmed show any remorse or take any responsibility for any aspect of his conduct towards the complainant.

The allegations of sexual misconduct were first brought to light in a BBC Newsnight investigation (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHRxoFrIC7M). It was reported that there are many women he has taken advantage of, but most unwilling to come forward due to fear and community honour.

Ahmed’s conduct, particularly his dishonesty and lack of cooperation towards the investigating committee, is a key part of the report. Exploitation, sexual assault, lack of integrity, deliberately inaccurate, misleading accounts, lying about his intentions, deception, acting without honesty or integrity, risk of repetition, just a small list of damning condemnations in the report.

Due to the severe nature of his misconduct, the only recommendation the committee could make was expulsion. The full report can be found here: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5801/ldselect/ldcond/170/170.pdf

Ahmed has a history of controversial and often criminal acts in his career:

Attempted rape and indecent assault charges

He is due to stand trial in January 2021 facing charges of historical child sexual abuse along with two of his brothers. Ahmed has been charged with two counts of attempted rape and one count of indecent assault, whilst his brothers have also been charged on multiple indecent assault charges against two children, a boy and a girl. The accusations date back to the early ’70s.

In what is surely a miscarriage of justice, the court at the last hearing has declared his brothers now aged 63 and 68, would not be able to recall that far back, and therefore will not face trial.

Fatal road crash

On Christmas Day 2007 Lord Nazir Ahmed killed 28-year-old Martin Gombar, a husband and young father of two. Ahmed sent & received messages whilst driving, before his Jaguar smashed into a stationary Audi killing its driver. He was jailed for 12 weeks, but freed after serving just 16 days when the Court of Appeal suspended his sentence because of “exceptional” mitigation relating to his community work. He later lied about this and told the media his sentence had been overturned, blaming his original prison sentence on a Jewish conspiracy.

Ref: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/feb/25/lord-ahmed-dangerous-driving

Anti-Semitism and Labour Party Suspension

Lord Nazir was caught on camera saying that his dangerous driving case was not serious and was made critical by the Jewish community, who control the media through their television channels and newspapers, by pressuring and influencing the courts.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/muslim-peer-lord-ahmed-blames-jewish-conspiracy-for-jailing-him-nkcxnk892wj

He was due to appear before the Labour National Executive Committee for his antisemitic remarks, but to pre-empt his expulsion from the party, which can clearly be seen in The Times video, he resigned from the party two days beforehand.

Other anti-semitic incidents

In 2005, Ahmed hosted a book launch in the House of Lords for neo-Nazi holocaust denier Israel Shamir, who frequently uses anti-Semitic language in his work.
In 2009, Ahmed, along with several extremist British Islamists, signed a letter praising the anti-Jewish Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he walked out of a debate with President Shimon Peres at the Davos Conference in Switzerland.
In 2009, in an interview on Iranian Press TV, Ahmed said that British Jews who served in the Israeli army should be arrested and charged with war crimes.

Misinformation about Hinduism in schools

Campaigns / By Expert User

UK Schools spread misinformation about Hinduism, resulting in bullying and racial hate crime, a report suggests.

A report [1] published by INSIGHT UK today reveals that pupils leave school with an incorrect and sparse understanding of Hinduism. INSIGHT UK is an organisation that aims to address the concerns of the British Hindu and British Indian communities.

The document titled “A report on the state of Hinduism in Religious Education in UK schools, includes claims of bullying and inferiority complex issues experienced by British Hindus because of the inaccurate teaching of Hinduism in RE.

It states some disturbing findings, including parents highlighting misinformation spread by UK schools, for example linking gender disparity in education in India to Hinduism and linking social issues from South Asia to Hinduism. A teaching book even suggested that Hindus were turning to terrorism.

The report also provides evidence that the subject is not available for most students taking GCSE exams, despite Hindus being the third-largest religious group in the UK. The project by INSIGHT UK was supported and guided by major Hindu organisations in the UK. Asmita Bhudia, a Hinduism Tutor and School Teacher, says, “The choice is taken away from pupils and parents to accurately study Hinduism in many UK schools”.

INSIGHT UK carried out consultations and research with SACRE members, academics, teachers, and parents followed by a national survey, which is being described as one of the most successful Hindu surveys in the UK in terms of responses and coverage.

Data captured showed that the majority of British Hindus were dissatisfied with the teaching of Hinduism in UK schools and unhappy with teachers’ knowledge of the subject. The report mentions that as a result, students in the UK schools are being deprived of the correct knowledge of Hinduism and hence of a true worldview.

Recent research has claimed many schools were breaking the law when it comes to RE [2]. This comes at a time when Hindus have faced attacks for practising their faith [3].

This project of INSIGHT UK was supported and guided by the following major Hindu organisations in the country:

Hindu Forum of Britain
Hindu Council UK
National Council of Hindu Temples (UK)
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (UK)
Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (UK)

[1] https://insightuk.org/hinduism-in-re

[2] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-41282330

[3] https://www.facebook.com/76807881169/posts/10158944283001170

MEDIA LINKS

https://www.insightuk.org

https://twitter.com/INSIGHTUK2

https://www.instagram.com/insightuk2/

https://www.facebook.com/InsightUKTeam

October 2021 Anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh

Campaigns, Hindus in Bangladesh / By Expert User

Terrible story of the Hindus in Bangladesh, which began with the 1947 genocide and reached a pinnacle during the Bangladesh Liberation War, when about three million (3,000,000) Hindus were slaughtered in one of the century’s largest genocides, continues to this day.

Over the years, countless Hindu shops have been plundered, businessmen have been killed, land belonging to Hindus has been forcefully occupied, temples have been damaged, and idols have been destroyed. Targeted killings of men, abduction of girls and women with an intent to rape and murder has been a principal tactic of fundamental Islamists that primarily belong to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and other radical Islamists, jihadi groups, political parties and associations active in the region. As a result, thousands of Hindu families have been forced to flee the nation.

Over the previous seventy years, the number of Hindus in Bangladesh has been steadily declining. Figure 1 depicts Bangladeshi population demography trends based on data from the Ministry of Planning and the Bureau of Statistics.

Islamic indoctrination and radicalization in Bangladesh have been a constant source of worry for minorities in the country. From the records of the Council, several Hindu families were falsely accused of insulting Islam, resulting in looting and plundering of their shops and households. Two notable examples of jihadi violence on the basis of made-up blasphemy accusations were in Brahmanbaria (2016) and Thakurpara (2017). The law-and-order agencies of the country have repeatedly failed to take requisite measures to bring peace and stability, indicating their appeasement of the majority Islamic community.

As per data from the Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mohajote’s annual report released in 2020, the following figures detailing the atrocities against Hindus in the country have been obtained:

Similarly, recent Anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh by Islamic mobs (primarily Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh members) started on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. This was just hours after falsified images of a copy of the Quran in the lap of Lord Hanuman’s idol at a Durga Puja pandal in Comilla district were circulated over the Internet by Jamaat-e-Islami members.

Subsequently, Muslim mobs stormed the pandal, accusing Hindus of blasphemy, setting off a chain of pre-planned attacks on pandals and temples across Bangladesh.

Timeline of Events

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Cumilla, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
Radical Islamists entered the Nanuar Dighir Par Durga Mandir in Cumilla district of Bangladesh and placed a copy of the Quran in the lap of Lord Hanuman’s idol.

Shibu Prasad Dutta, the general secretary of Cumilla Mahanagar Puja Udjapon Committee. Someone planted a copy of the Quran at a Durga Puja when the guards were sleeping.

A district official stated that these individuals took photos of the scene before fleeing. He alluded to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islam playing a part.

Chittagong, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
Radical Islamist mobs attacks Durga Puja locations in Chittagong, including the Bura Kali Mandir in Banshkhali upazila and other temples in Hathazari.

Chandpur, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
Jihadi mobs storm into the Durga Puja venue at the Lakshmi Narayan Akhra temple in Hajiganj upazila in Chandpur, killing unarmed innocent Hindu devotees.

Lakshmipur, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
A group of Islamists attacked two temples in Lakshmipur’s Ramgati and Ramganj upazilas during the night in a series of well-coordinated attacks.

Noakhali, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
At about 9 P.M. in the night, a group of Islamists vandalised a puja mandap in Hatia upazila in Noakhali.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Khulna, Khulna division of Bangladesh
At around 7:00 p.m. local time. Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and Bomb Disposal Unit (BDU) retrieved 18 crude bombs from the main gate of Rupsa Maha Shashan, which contains a Kali temple. The law enforcement agencies are still investigating the source of the crude bombs. General public is hinting towards the role of fundamentalist jihadi groups in making and supplying the bombs.

Ghazipur, Dhaka division of Bangladesh
A group of Islamists armed with sticks vandalised idols at Kashimpur’s Radha Gobinda Temple. Paschim Para and Pal Para temples were also attacked the same night in Ghazipur, Dhaka division in Bangladesh

Bandarban, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
In a morning attack on peaceful Hindu devotees. Islamists mobs stormed the Central Hari Mandir in Bandarban’s Lama upazila in, resulting in a violence and destruction of Hindu property. When the police intervened to save the Hindu devotees the violent mob. Around 50 rioters and police personnel were injured in the attack. The injured also including the Lama police officer in charge.

Friday, October 15, 2021

Chittagong, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
After the Juma prayers (Friday prayers) in hundreds of Islamists marched out of the Shahi Jama Masjid and attacked Hindus at the Hindu puja venue at Anderkilla. Soon after the incident, they departed the site amidst inaction by the Bangladeshi police.

Noakhali, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
An innocent Hindu devotee is slain in Noakhali’s Begumganj upazila after a Islamic mobs attacks Hindu residences. According to ISKCON authorities, a 500-strong mob first vandalised a Durga Puja pandal adjacent to the temple in Noakhali in Bangladesh before attacking the devotees in the ISKCON temple.

Barisal, Barisal division of Bangladesh
Jihadi mobs vandalises three Hindu temples in in late night at Gournadi upazila in Barisal.

Saturday, October 16, 2021

Munshiganj, Dhaka division of Bangladesh
In the early hours of the October 15, 2021. Islamic radicals vandalised six idols at a Kali temple in Sirajdikhan upazila, Munshiganj.

Noakhali, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
On Saturday morning, the body of Pranto Das, 20, was discovered in a pond near the ISKCON temple in Begumganj Upazila’s Chaumuhani. As per Kishor Ray, the president of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian Unity Council’s Noakhali branch, Pranto was killed by Jihadis during Friday’s temple attacks.

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Rangpur, Rangpur Division of Bangladesh
Jihadi mob loots and sets fire to Hindu homes in a village in Rangpur’s Pirganj upazila in the middle of the night after seeing a post on social media that purportedly insulted Islam.

Monday, October 18, 2021

Rangpur, Rangpur Division of Bangladesh
During the attack, 65 Hindu homes were set ablaze, according to local Union Parishad Chairman Md Sadequl Islam. “The attackers were members of the Jamaat-e-local Islami’s units and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir”.

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Cumilla, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
In the villages of Bihar Mandal, Fultala, Debidwar, Comilla. Radical Islamists attacked a local temple and vandalized Hindu idols.

Cumilla, Chittagong division of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Police identify thirty five year old Iqbal Hossain, son of Nur Ahmed Alam from Sujanagar area in Comilla as the culprit responsible for the Comilla Quran incident. The incident dated October 13, 2021 which has provoked countrywide attacks on peaceful Hindu devotees and citizens. Further investigations are underway.

Latest Update

It in a series of targeted attacks on Hindus. From the week commencing October 13, 2021 till date (October 20, 2021) two (2) innocent Hindus have been mercilessly killed by Islamic radicals. More than one hundred fifty (150) Hindu homes have been set on fire, one hundred one (101) Hindu temples have been vandalized, and one hundred eighty-one (181) pandals (makeshift prayer halls) have been destroyed by violence. In addition, Hindu women and girls have reported rapes, hundreds have been injured, and thousands of Hindu businesses and shops have been closed, looted or set ablaze across Bangladesh.

References

https://censusindia.gov.in/census_and_you/old_report/census_1941.aspx

http://111.68.102.42:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/14510

http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/115

https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/MinorityIssues/Session10/Item5/AdditionalStatements/item5%20-%20Bangladesh%20Minority%20Council%20.pdf

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2021/10/19/timeline-attacks-on-hindus-since-october-13

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2021/10/16/hindu-man-found-dead-in-pond-next-to-temple-in-noakhali

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2021/10/20/police-man-who-placed-the-quran-on-a-puja-idol-identified

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/2021/10/18/ask-413-attacks-on-hindu-households-temples-per-year

https://www.opindia.com/2021/10/bangladesh-101-hindu-temples-pandals-181-housesburnt-islamists-after-ganga-jamuna-cultural-festival/

Protest against the persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh

Campaigns, Hindus in Bangladesh / By INSIGHT UK

Protests were held outside the Bangladesh Embassy in London, Birmingham and Edinburgh to condemn and raise awareness of the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh.

Brutal attacks on Hindu temples, homes, people, and the rape of Hindu women by Islamic extremists are shocking and unpardonable.

We appeal to the Bangladesh government to bring the perpetrators of the attacks on Hindus to justice.

Gallery

Nationwide silent vigil at 40 places across the UK

Campaigns, Hindus in Pakistan / By INSIGHT UK

On 2^nd October, the international non-violence day, INSIGHT UK organised a nationwide vigil across 40 places in the UK with an appeal to stop violence against Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan.

The situation of Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan is becoming increasingly dire. They face regular violence, kidnappings, forceful religious conversion, attacks on businesses and religious places and persecution.

It is reported that each year more than 1,000 minor Hindu girls are abducted, forced to convert, married to people twice or thrice of their age or pushed into the sex trade, never to be seen by their family again. Some seminaries teach that forcibly converting Hindu girls is equivalent to the greatest religious duty. Minorities in Pakistan face the constant threat of blasphemy laws.

Islamic law introduced in 1977 imposes regulations and constitutional injunctions that deny equal protection and religious freedom to non-Muslims. Additionally, the Pakistani Constitution states that only a Muslim can be the president of the country and that all high officers must take the oath of office by invoking an Islamic prayer, regardless of their religion. In the last 2 years alone there have been 7 attacks against Hindu places of worship. The latest one happened on August 4, 2021. The Hindu temple in Bhong City in Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province was destroyed by a mob.

More details: https://insightuk.org/pakistani-hindus

The latest State Department report on International Religious Freedom 2020 depicts a very precarious situation for minorities in Pakistan. At the time of independence in 1947, Pakistan had a minority population of about 31%. Of these 24%, i.e.⅔ or 7.5 million of the minority population were Hindus. In 75 years, the minority population has dwindled to 4% of which Hindus form merely 1.6% i.e.2.5 million. Pakistan’s State-sponsored genocide, pogroms and torture instituted and engineered by the state apparatus resulted in this precipitous decline. Many Hindus in Pakistan continue to flee to India to protect their human rights and dignity.

Below are some ongoing examples of media coverage on the topic:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/pakistan-girls-forced-conversion-islam-b1779492.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-56337182

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/30/mob-tears-down-hindu-temple-and-torch-holy-shrine-in-pakistan

British Hindus across the United Kingdom gathered today to highlight the helpless condition of these minorities in Pakistan and particularly the minor girls in Pakistan. After the vigil, the community members petitioned their local MPs to take up this humanitarian issue with the Minister for South Asia and the Commonwealth and ask for below:

The UK Govt should raise these concerns with the Pakistan Government to protect the minorities and safeguard their human rights.
The UK Govt should take up this matter with the Indian Government to ensure that the citizenship application of the minorities from Pakistan who have taken refuge in India should be expedited.

Some of the locations included Edinburgh, Leeds, York, Manchester, Warrington, Bolton, Liverpool, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, London, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Rugby, Sheffield, West Bromwich, Bristol, Swindon, Salisbury, Cheltenham, Swansea, Reading, Slough, Basingstoke, and Cardiff.

Protest against the persecution of Hindu in Pakistan

Protest at the High Commission for Pakistan in London

Campaigns, Hindus in Pakistan / By INSIGHT UK

The Hindu community in the UK has been continuously shocked by the persecution of Hindus in Pakistan and has started lobbying the British government to ensure the safety and basic human rights of Pakistani Hindus.

The recent incident of arresting an eight-year-old Hindu boy under blasphemy laws shocked the whole world. It meant that this eight-year-old Hindu boy could face execution. Although these outrageous charges are dropped by the Prime Minister of Pakistan after global uproar, the boy and his family are believed to be in police custody due to threats issued by Islamist extremists in Pakistan. Around 200 Hindu families in the same town of the boy were threatened to leave their houses overnight are yet to return.

This has shaken up the British Hindus further and a peaceful protest outside the Pakistani embassy was organised on Sunday 15th August 2021 which was attended by around 500 people. Multiple Hindu organisations, including INSIGHT UK, a social movement for British Hindus and Indians, mobilised to organise the protest.

Since partition in 1947, the minority Hindu community in Pakistan has been treated like second-class citizens and suffered decades of persecution. Over 5,000 Hindus leave Pakistan for India each year to escape. An estimated 1,000 Hindu girls are abducted and forcefully converted to Islam each year, married off to their abductors who are often old enough to be their fathers. There were over 400 temples in Pakistan just 40 years ago, now there are just 20, the rest having been destroyed. The Hindu population in Pakistan is believed to be 2.14% in 2017 which shows a sharp decline from approximately 22% in 1947.

The trigger which prompted this protest was an eight-year-old boy who had unknowingly wandered into a Madrassah (Muslim place of learning). He was threateningly confronted by a man, and in his fear, he urinated. The Pakistani police believed this was a ‘crime’ and the boy was arrested for blasphemy, put in prison, with no contact with his family. Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan. Even more disturbingly, vigilante crowds often don’t wait for legal justice and take the law into their hands, lynching the alleged ‘criminals’. On this occasion after hearing of the alleged blasphemous incident, the crowd of local Muslims destroyed a temple in the same district, damaging the building and the Murtis (Hindu religious holy shrines) situated within.

The protest was a huge success and with just a few days to plan, around 500 people attended to raise their voices. Educational speeches were given expressing the plight of the Pakistani Hindus, slogans of peace were chanted, and signs were held. This peaceful protest was live-streamed via many social media channels. We hope wider awareness was raised to the general public about what is happening in Pakistan, and although the protest was a success, this is just the start. We cannot rest whilst the innocent Hindus of Pakistan are attacked, raped, and forcefully converted, all under the watch of the Pakistani and British governments. Their voices will be heard.

INSIGHT UK will be launching a series of events on this matter including an awareness campaign for the Members of UK Parliament (MPs) soon.

Pakistani Islamist extremists destroy one more Hindu temple in Aug 2021:

https://fb.watch/7ra_0MzUbO/

Protest details:

https://twitter.com/INSIGHTUK2/status/1425907794134327304?s=20

Interview at the protest site:

Hinduism in R.E.

Campaigns / By INSIGHT UK

INSIGHT UK conducted an online survey to gauge and understand from the parents and students the current state of Hinduism in Religious Education in UK schools. The survey proved to be one of the most successful Hindu surveys in the history of the UK, based on the number of responses received and good distribution of responses from all 4 countries in the UK.

Religious Education (RE) is a mandatory subject in state-sponsored schools in the UK. Many concerns have been raised across the country by parents and educationalists about the reduction in the availability, content and quality of teaching Hinduism in Religious Education in UK schools. Grave errors in resource content, lack of understanding among RE teachers and incorrect references can create a lot of harm. This has an adverse impact on the UK’s youth, and this will impact many more future generations to come.

The lack of awareness amongst Hindu students about their religion is leading to issues related to forced conversion, an inferiority complex, bullying, psychological harm and even suicide. At the same time, the lack of awareness about the Hindu religion among non-Hindu students deprives them of a worldview, as well as the religion and culture of one of the largest and most contributing minority communities in the country. This results in ignorance and insensitivity towards Hindu people and their beliefs. This can even lead to racial hate crime.

This project of INSIGHT UK was supported and guided by Hindu Forum of Britain, Hindu Council UK, National Council of Hindu Temples (UK), Vishwa Hindu Parishad (UK), Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (UK).

INSIGHT UK conducted an online survey on the 12th of September 2020 and ran for one month till 11th October 2020 to gauge and understand from the parents & students the current state of Hinduism in Religious Education in UK schools. The survey proved to be one of the most successful Hindu surveys in the history of the UK, based on the number of responses received and good distribution of responses from all 4 countries in the UK.

After the survey concluded, INSIGHT UK organised a live webinar on Saturday 24th October 2020 which was viewed by over 300 people. The webinar covered key survey findings and recommendations.

On Thursday 14th January 2021, INSIGHT UK published a detailed report on this project highlighting all the findings and results from all the phases of the project.

Download Report

Plight of Hindus in Pakistan

Campaigns, Hindus in Pakistan / By INSIGHT UK

INSIGHT UK is raising awareness of the denial of human rights and religious freedoms of the Hindus in Pakistan. The country which is not only breeding terrorists, but is also abusing its minorities and brutalising them in myriad ways. Forcible conversion of minorities or driving them out of their ancestral homes, can be gauged from the fact that the non-Muslim minorities have declined from 23% at the time of partition in 1947 to barely 4% now.

In the last 2 years alone there have been 7 attacks against Hindu places of worship. The latest one happened on August 4, 2021 and we wish to bring this to your attention and request you to raise your voice against the brutal and inhuman Pakistan government. The Hindu temple in Bhong City in Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab province was destroyed by a mob.

Here is a list of desecrations and destruction of Hindu temples from the recent past.

A 100 year old Hindu temple in Rawalpindi, the capital of Pakistan was attacked and property destroyed.
In June 2020, the construction of a Hindu temple in Islamabad was stopped. Though the permission had been granted by the Islamabad Capital Development Authority, there were objections and lawsuits to stop the construction.
A pre-partition Hindu temple in Karachi was demolished in August 2020 by a builder and the police sealed off the site, preventing access.
The Hindu temple in Nagarparkar in Sindh province was vandalized and idols damaged in October 2020.
The Hindu temple in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was set on fire and destroyed by a mob following hate speech in December 2020. This temple which was built in 1919, was the target of an attack in 1997 as well.
In January 2020, the Hindu temple in Chhachro City of Sindh province was attacked and idols were broken.
In the same month, the Nankana Sahib Gurudwara, the place of worship of Sikhs, was pelted with stones.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke. That’s why it is absolutely imperative, both as a great human being and as a politician, raising your voice is essential to protect the voiceless in a land of barbarity. The laundry list of brutal, inhuman, often criminal behaviour of the people, the police, and the politicians of Pakistan is long and heart breaking. We present to you a tiny bit of this sordid list.

The Pakistan government is guilty of violating international covenants that it has voluntarily signed. Pakistan has signed the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Pakistan has also signed other covenants of the UN including respecting women’s rights and children’s rights. These are very important covenants as Pakistan has violated the rights of women and female children particularly.

In essence, we want to stress the following for your immediate action and support.

1. Minorities are in constant danger: Rape, abduction, forced conversion and even murder are frequent occurrences. Policemen refuse to take action against perpetrators of atrocities or worse still, become participants in the crime.

2. Non-Muslim minorities – Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians face denial of equal rights. Hindus being the largest minority group, face most of the attacks.
Muslim minorities include Shia, Hazara, Ahmadis, Ismaili, and Bohra (a branch of Ismaili) account for 15-20% of the population but the numbers are not very clear. The Pakistan constitution does not recognize Ahmadis as Muslims and the Ahmadis face as much danger as non-Muslim minorities.

3. The Pakistan government is in denial most of the time, and at times due to international pressure, launches an investigation that eventually blames the victims. With a small population often facing violent mobs, the minorities do not have any choice but to submit to the brutality of the marauding mobs. The feeble and often untruthful ‘investigations’ do not produce any tangible results. So, asking the Pakistan government to take action and depending on them to protect the minorities is never going to work, unless there is international pressure and human rights watch is monitoring the situation and promised actions.

4. Judiciary in Pakistan is in collusion with the perpetrators of crimes as most often the accused have been released for ‘lack of evidence’ or by quoting Islamic Law or because the minorities ‘agreed to pardon the perpetrators’. The country’s draconian blasphemy laws are being foisted on innocent people, for imaginary offences. Even the judiciary is complicit in this crime by accepting that the minorities have ‘pardoned the perpetrators’, refusing to recognize the fact that the ‘pardon’ is also obtained by coercion.

5. There were 400+ Hindu temples in the Sindh region of Pakistan at the time of partition in 1947. Now, there are barely 20, with the rest of the temples either having been demolished and desecrated or converted into mosques. The Evacuee Trust Property Board of Pakistan should have a Hindu or Sikh as its head as per the Liaqat Ali – Nehru Pact. But today, all 6 official members of the Board are Muslims and of the 18 non-official members only 8 are Hindus and Sikhs.

The Evacuee Trust Property Board has been criticised for leasing sacred Hindu temples. The board rented out the historic Kali Bari Hindu Temple to a Muslim in Dera Ismail Khan in 2014 and the temple is being converted and used as the Taj Mahal Hotel. Frontier Constabulary officials, with the help of the board, have occupied the Shamshan Ghaat in Dera Ismail Khan and the Hindu community is unable to cremate their dead because of the unavailability of Shamshan Ghaat and is forced to bury them in a graveyard shared by members of other faiths. As per Hindu custom, the body should be cremated and not buried. Hindus are being denied their due even after their death.

6. Menial jobs are reserved for minorities, while claiming that Islam treats everyone equally. In most of Pakistan the menial jobs are primarily reserved for Christians. The menial jobs are mostly removing solid waste and sweeping the roads and public places, often at below minimum wages.

7. Even well-known people are no exception to these attacks. The only Hindu ever to play cricket for Pakistan has spoken out about the degrading treatment he received from his team mates. This has also been confirmed by one of his Muslim team mates. The Muslim player has come under attack for supporting the Hindu player’s allegations.

8. Activists of all kinds – Hindus, Christians, Baloch activists are in constant fear of murder, even if they leave Pakistan. Two Baloch activists have been found dead in a river and lake following several death threats – one in Sweden and another in Canada. A third activist, who was calling attention to the plight of Christians in Pakistan was attacked with a knife and suffered serious injuries in South Korea. The ISI has been the suspect in all these cases.

9. In 2010, after a delay of 44 and 24 years respectively, Pakistan signed and ratified two key international treaties of United Nations – namely the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT). However, the people of the country do not have recourse to any law. The UN is a spectator to the ugly spectacle of spiralling religious intolerance, government inaction, and judicial collusion in Pakistan.

It is with deep trepidation at what is in store for the remaining minorities in Pakistan. Please support INSIGHT UK by raising awareness and participating in our campaigns to help the minorities in Pakistan before it’s too late. We thank you in advance for your support and help