#BREAKING: HAF's Executive Director @SuhagAShukla writes to presidents of 41 universities reportedly co-sponsoring the controversial Dismantling Global Hindutva event.
“The DGH organizers trade on the prestige of your institution’s name to host, not an academic conference, but a partisan event related to politics in India. The event platforms activists...[that amplify].. Hinduphobic discourse even while denying the existence of Hinduphobia." 2/
The DGH website mentions no academic organizers & specifically defines the event as nakedly political with an intention to "dismantle" the current government of India.
Universities have clear political neutrality statements that oppose sponsorship of partisan political events.3/
Hindutva is not Hinduism, anonymous organizers assert. So what is Hinduism for them? 👇
"heterodox, continuously under contestation, and often contradictory"
"Hinduism has rightly been critiqued for the deep inequities in Indian society, most importantly for the caste system"4/
DGH #Hinduphobia:
-Deny the internal unity of Hindu traditions followed by 1.2 billion people calling it: “continuously under contestation" "contradictory.”
-conflate Hinduism with caste.
-erase Hinduism's inherent pluralism asserting that Sufis made ancient Hinduism syncretic!
Speaker list includes activists who:
-equate Hinduism with caste bigotry
-deny indigeneity of Hindus to South Asia
-support the violent Kashmir militancy
-deny Hinduphobia & systemic oppression Hindus face throughout South Asia (Pak, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir)
6/
We demand that the safety of Hindu students be ensured leading up to the DGH event. @SuhagAShukla:
“Hindu students are targeted and report feeling under attack for opposing Hinduphobic depictions of their religion in the classroom and for opposing anti-Hindu hate on campus.” 7/
Today, @HinduAmerican announced that it will launch a grassroots campaign to enable students, alumni and concerned citizens to send their own letters to every university ostensibly co-sponsoring the DGH event. Details released shortly. Please join @HinduAmerican & take action!
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#Breaking: HAF releases letter sent to Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison @SeaCityAttorney last week advising her that @cmkshama’s caste proposal targets Hindus & South Asians on the basis of their national origin and ancestry for disparate treatment. In doing so, the resolution…
violates the very policy the resolution seeks to amend, not to mention Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Adding “caste” would be a departure from the practice of facially neutral policies applying broadly/generally to all people regardless of background/identity.
When @cmkshama stated her proposal “protects those of South Asian descent from discrimination by those who do [recognize the caste system]” she made clear who her proposal targets & is the very definition of discriminatory & a denial of both equal protection & due process.
#Breaking: Court finds that Audrey Truschke & H4HR's Sunita Viswanath lied about HAF and that they along with @IAMCouncil & @Fiacona_us leaders harmed HAF with their lies.
Court found that Viswanath's allegation that HAF has "parent organisations" in India is "verifiably false," thus confirming that HAF has no existential ties to Indian orgs! Court also found that Truschke made "verifiably false" claims relating to HAF Board member @rajiv_pandit.
Even more, the court found that HAF suffered "tortious injury" [civil damage] due to the lies.
But court still dismissed HAF's suit on procedural grounds. Importantly, the suit was not dismissed on the factual basis that instigated HAF to sue.
The @DemsTeaneck@iamc resolution uses a slur commonly used by #antiSemites, against Hindus. It actually calls Hindus “infilitrators” and paints Hindu advocacy as insidious.
When Hindus meet legislators and advocate on issues, it is not something to condemn. It is being American
The @DemsTeaneck resolution also lies about the million emails HAF’s letter campaign sent to colleges over the unethical use of college logos for the Hinduphobic DGH conference. Not a single letter was sent to Audrey Truschke as they were sent to @RutgersU admin.
#Breaking: After 4 months of relentless efforts by @hinduamerican working with allies, the word “Swastika” has been removed from @NYSenate & NY State Assembly bills NY A.9155 and NY S.7680.
BOTH bills originally referred to the swastika as “anti-Semitic and fascist symbols.”
HAF’s Anita Joshi and Shereen Bhalla worked tirelessly providing solid arguments and building strategic relationships in making this happen.
We thank the NY State Senate and Assembly, and the sponsor leads for their efforts — @AMBichotte & @LizKrueger.
Despite the horrific history of Nazi Germany, we thank our Jewish allies for their generosity in helping us end the false identification of the #hakenkreuz with the #Swastika.
#Update: After HAF filed a defamation suit against IAMC, its partner groups & Audrey Truschke, @Georgetown's Saudi funded @bridgeinit released a "Fact Sheet" with several factually incorrect statements about HAF.
HAF's letter to @Georgetown President & Provost @RobertMGroves states in part:
"This factsheet, carrying the imprimatur of Georgetown University, ignores the basic values of transparency, objectivity, impartiality & integrity of scholarship that Georgetown University expects.."
The @bridgeinit's report on HAF appeared to be a coordinated move to buttress false allegations first published by Qatari State funded @AlJazeera falsely accusing HAF of ties to Hindu nationalism and speciously implying that HAF was Islamophobic.
#Breaking: More than 80 @calstate faculty send blistering letter to Cal State Chancellor @josephlcastro and Board of Trustees strongly opposing policy change that will discriminate against and target ONLY Indian & other South Asian faculty. hinduamerican.org/press/cal-stat…
The faculty letter, signed by faculty of all ethnicities and faiths, opposes @calstate’s announcing its intention to add “caste” to the system’s anti-discrimination policy as part of a collective bargaining agreement with CSU faculty.
“Since adding caste as a specific and separate protected category would apply only to faculty of Indian and South Asian descent, the faculty letter stated that the new policy would unfairly target a minority community for policing and disparate treatment.”