Bangladeshi leader Tarique Rahman refers to Hindu scriptures as ‘porn text’.

The testimony these workers and others stated formed the basis for a May 2021 guns-drawn, pre-dawn raid by Federal law enforcement, violating a highly sacred space. The unprecedented raid was accompanied by a simultaneous New York Times exposé which characterized the widely respected Hindu institution of BAPS as something close to slave-traders, the temple itself compared to the Temple of Doom from the Indiana Jones film series by other writers, and was even used to malign the current government of India, since BAPS originates from the same state as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Churchill was no fool and believed Britain had to exploit Hindu-Muslim differences. In a Cabinet meeting he once said “that he did not share the anxiety to encourage and promote unity between the Hindu and Moslem communities. Such a unity was, in fact, almost out of the realm of practical politics, while, if it were to be brought about, the immediate result would be that the united communities would join in showing us the door. He regarded the Hindu/Moslem feud as a bulwark of British rule in India.”

The BAPS Mandir in Melville, New York, like all BAPS Mandirs worldwide, stands as a beacon of peace, harmony, equality, selfless service, and universal Hindu values. Upon learning of the hateful vandalism, the local authorities were called, and BAPS is working fully with the authorities to support their investigation into this hate crime.

The global media plays a prominent role in the spread of Hinduphobia and Bharatphobia. It’s still stuck in a colonial mindset where much of the news regarding Bharat and Hindus is created through a prejudiced lens.