As many as 14 civil rights and faith-based organizations in co-signing a letter to the US Senators, Representatives, State Governor, and other elected officials have demanded the FBI, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Department of Justice should investigate into Texas-based organization Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) a fundraiser campaign for demolishing churches in India.
Co-signed by Federation of Indian American Christian Organization in North America (FIACONA), North American Church of God, Southern Methodist University (SMU) Human Rights Program, Amnesty International - Dallas, World Without Genocide, Center for Pluralism, Genocide Watch, The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Limitless Church, Justice for All, Hindu for Human Rights, North Texas Peace Advocates, Good Citizens of DFW, and the North Texas Islamic Council, the letter has been sent to Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz; Representatives Michael C Burgess, Pat Fallon, Van Taylor, Terry Meza, Collin Allred, Marc Veasey, Jake Ellzey, Michael Cloud; Governor Gregg Abbott and Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney.
The letter follows GHHF, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, circulating a flier for a fundraising event, listing one of the causes as demolishing what they call “illegal churches” in Tirupati, a city in India’s Andhra Pradesh state. “We find it extremely disturbing and dangerous that GHHF would so openly advertise their goal to cause such great harm to Indian Christians, who already face enormous persecution on a daily basis,” says the letter.
“We urge you to use your platform as elected officials to forcefully condemn this blatant and brazen display of anti-Christian hate and bigotry. We also urge you to… [seek] immediate investigative and legal action against the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation for violating its 501c3 status by funding hate and enabling violence against religious minorities in India,” it adds.
Text:
We, the undersigned civil rights organizations, are writing to express our deep concerns about a fundraiser held by Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Frisco, Texas on November 27, to raise money for the disturbing goal, among other causes, of demolishing churches in India.GHHF is a Hindu supremacist group that raises money in the United States to fund its project of forcibly converting Muslims & Christians to Hinduism in India. This group supports an ideology known as Hindutva, or violent Hindu Supremacism, which holds that Hindu Indians are superior to non-Hindus and that minority groups, especially Christians and Muslims, should be reduced to second-class citizens and subjected to violence.
Hindu extremism in India has led to a hazardous environment for religious minorities. The US State Department and other major human rights organizations, including the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Freedom House, have noted the demonization and persecution of nearly 28 million Christians.
Today, Christians in India face the threat of being physically attacked -- sometimes while in their own homes -- and having their churches vandalized, arsoned, or shut down.
These attacks are even more common in Indian states that have passed laws criminalizing religious conversions. Hindu extremists use flimsy claims that Christians are “forcibly converting Hindus” as an excuse to break into churches, vandalize prayer spaces, disrupt congregations, harass worshippers, molest women, detain faith leaders, and socially boycott Christian communities.
In most cases, authorities in the states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party arrest the Christian victims instead of the Hindu extremists who orchestrate and participate in violence against them.
We urge you to use your platform as elected officials to condemn this blatant and brazen display of anti-Christian hate and bigotry
Human rights groups reported nearly 800 hate crimes against Christians in 2021 alone. However, the government of Prime Minister Modi refuses to condemn these hate crimes, and Hindu supremacists in India and abroad, including GHHF, continue to justify the persecution by claiming that Christians pose a “threat” to Hindus.
In 2014, GHHF wrote a letter to India’s Minister of Education urging her to revise the educational curriculum and teach children about the “heroism” of the man who murdered Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse.
The letter falsely accused Christians of “stabbing the nation” by converting the Hindus with “deception and allurement.” Upping its genocidal rhetoric, the letter further warns Indian Hindus that they might become “sacrificial lambs” in the hands of Christians.
In 2020, GHHF hosted an event in Plano to support discriminatory anti-minority legislation passed in India, advocating that Muslims and Christians be stripped of their minority status.
Now, GHHF is attempting to raise money to demolish even more churches, calling them “illegal.”
We find it extremely disturbing and dangerous that GHHF would so openly advertise their goal to cause such great harm to Indian Christians, who already face enormous persecution daily.
We urge you to use your platform as elected officials to condemn this blatant and brazen display of anti-Christian hate and bigotry. We also urge you to write letters to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seeking immediate investigative and legal action against the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation for violating its 501c3 status by funding hate and enabling violence against religious minorities in India.
In 2014, GHHF wrote a letter to India’s Minister of Education urging her to revise the educational curriculum and teach children about the “heroism” of the man who murdered Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse.
The letter falsely accused Christians of “stabbing the nation” by converting the Hindus with “deception and allurement.” Upping its genocidal rhetoric, the letter further warns Indian Hindus that they might become “sacrificial lambs” in the hands of Christians.
In 2020, GHHF hosted an event in Plano to support discriminatory anti-minority legislation passed in India, advocating that Muslims and Christians be stripped of their minority status.
Now, GHHF is attempting to raise money to demolish even more churches, calling them “illegal.”
We find it extremely disturbing and dangerous that GHHF would so openly advertise their goal to cause such great harm to Indian Christians, who already face enormous persecution daily.
We urge you to use your platform as elected officials to condemn this blatant and brazen display of anti-Christian hate and bigotry. We also urge you to write letters to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seeking immediate investigative and legal action against the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation for violating its 501c3 status by funding hate and enabling violence against religious minorities in India.
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