Diaspora group, Church leaders urge cancellation of Dallas event featuring Indian speaker with controversial record

By A Representative

The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), a U.S.-based civil rights advocacy group, has called for the cancellation of a scheduled event in Dallas, Texas, featuring Indian speaker Kajal Singhala, also known as Kajal Hindustani. The event, set to take place on June 29 at Bhartiya Nivas, is being organized by the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA).

In a statement, IAMC expressed concern over Singhala’s reported history of delivering inflammatory speeches in India. The organization cited findings by media outlets and research groups that have accused Singhala of making statements targeting religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians.

IAMC President Mohammad Jawad said the group’s primary concern is the potential normalization of hate speech and incitement in American public life. “We must be clear that there is no place for bigotry, incitement, or religious hatred in our city,” Jawad stated. He urged elected officials, interfaith leaders, and civil society groups in Dallas to oppose the event.

Singhala, a political commentator from the Indian state of Gujarat, has been featured in domestic media and tracking reports by groups such as India Hate Lab. According to their data, Singhala delivered dozens of speeches in 2023 and 2024 that allegedly included calls for violence and boycotts against religious minorities. She has also been subject to legal proceedings in India over some of her public statements.

IAMC also pointed to previous incidents involving VHPA, including a 2021 attempt to host Indian religious figure Yati Narsinghanand, which was canceled following public backlash due to his controversial statements.

Neither VHPA nor GHHF immediately responded to requests for comment on IAMC’s statement. The event remains listed on community calendars as of Thursday.

IAMC describes itself as the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States, with chapters across the country. The group has previously raised concerns about what it describes as the "transnational spread" of religious and political extremism from South Asia to diaspora communities abroad.

Church leaders' plea

A coalition of over 30 Christian leaders and churches from across the United States and India has issued a joint statement condemning an upcoming event in Dallas featuring Hindu nationalist figure Kajal Singhala, also known as Kajal Hindustani. The statement, released by the New York State Council of Churches and The Religious Nationalisms Project, calls for the event’s cancellation, warning that it promotes religious hatred and threatens the safety and dignity of religious minorities.
“Within 24 hours, we gathered signatures from a broad-based and ecumenical group of Christian clergy and laity,” said Rev. Neal Christie, Principal of the Religious Nationalisms Project. “We represent a wide spectrum of Christian denominations—Methodist, Lutheran, Baptist, Anglican, Presbyterian—united by the belief that religious hatred has no place in our communities.”
Christian leaders warned that giving a platform to such ideologies in the United States undermines American values of religious freedom and inclusion, while endangering local South Asian Christian and Muslim communities.
“This ideology has already wreaked havoc across India—churches burned, prayer gatherings attacked, pastors jailed on baseless charges,” said the statement. “Bringing its advocates to U.S. soil, especially in a diverse city like Dallas, sends the dangerous message that hate is welcome here.”
The joint letter denounced Singhala's repeated use of slurs and calls for violence and social exclusion of minorities. Citing her speech record, the signatories argue that hosting her legitimizes hate speech under the guise of cultural or religious expression.
Notably, Singhala has previously been condemned by leading Christian organizations, including the National Council of Churches of Christ, United Methodist Church, and United Church of Christ, among others.
The letter concludes with a call for action: “We urge the venue and local officials to cancel this event immediately. Religious bigotry and hate speech—whether in India or America—must be challenged wherever it appears.”
Signatories include:
- Rev. Neal Christie, The Religious Nationalisms Project
- Rev. Peter Cook, New York State Council of Churches
- Martin Padeti, Texas Indian Christian Coalition
- Daniel Mutyala, Bible Believers Fellowship of Dallas
- Jensen John, Church of The Way Frisco
- Rev. Cece Jones-Davis, The Prophetic Convening
- Jorge Parrott, President, CMM.world
- Pastor MDaimai, World Road Church
Pastor Paul Sunkari, Indian Christian Church of Sacramento
- Elizabeth Mangalwadi, RevelationMovement.com
- Father Joshua Lickter, Incarnation Anglican Church
- Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell, American Baptist Churches of Wisconsin

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Search This Blog