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US lawmakers to express solidarity with Afghan Hindus

Several influential US lawmakers Wednesday pledged to wear a yellow badge with the inscription "I am a Hindu" in solidarity with the Hindus in Afghanistan on the day the reprehensible anti-Hindu Taleban edict is enacted.

During a mark-up of a resolution by the powerful House International Relations Committee condemning the Taleban's edict requiring Hindus and other non-Muslims to wear a yellow badge as a mark of identity, the lawmakers said the Taleban's despicable decree was analagous to the Nazi persecution of the Jews who were forced to wear a yellow star to identify themselves as Jews prior to the holocaust.

Representative Gary Ackerman, New York Democrat, during the course of his remarks castigating the Taleban edict, held up a copy of the yellow star the Nazi generals of Adolf Hitler's regime had ordered the Jews in Denmark to wear in 1943, which said in Hebrew, "I am a Jew."

Ackerman, former co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, said that the then King of Denmark had himself worn the yellow star in solidarity with the Jews and exhorted his people to do the same which torpedoed the Nazi's army's efforts to identify the Jews to haul them away to concentration camps to be tortured and ultimately massacred.

Ackerman hoped that on the day the Taleban's edict comes into force, all members of the US Congress would wear a yellow badge in solidarity with the Hindus in Afghanistan. "On that particular day, we will all become Hindus, so that the miniscule minority Hindus in Afghanistan will have a source of strength," he said.

Rep Tom Lantos, California Democrat, who is the ranking minority member on the committee, strongly endorsed Ackerman's remarks and pledged to wear a "I am a Hindu" badge too if the Taleban decree comes to pass and vowed to support a campaign to convince all US lawmakers to do the same on that fateful day.

Lantos also said he would aggressively pursue Washington's concern over Pakistan's support for the Taleban when Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar visits Washington later this month and warn him that if such support is not ended Islamabad would have very few -- if in any -- friends on Capitol Hill.

He said he would urge Sattar to make sure that the Pakistani government puts pressure on the Taleban and prevail on the latter to have this edict withdrawn immediately.

Rep Eliot Engel, New York Democrat -- co-author of the resolution that has 74 co-cponsors and was approved unanimously by the committee and sent to the full House for a vote -- said, "I cannot express in words my utter shock at this act," by the Taleban. "This resurfacing of tactics used against Jews in Nazi Germany reminds all of us that we must remain vigilant when it comes to defending human rights."

"This type of religious discrimination has no place in the world today," Engel added, and argued that far from protecting Hindus from the religious police as the Taleban had said this badge of identity would do, "makes them even more vulnerable to police and mob violence."

He said he was particularly concerned "because this is not the first time the Taleban has singled out Afghan Hindus. Prior to 1992, Afghanistan had a population of over 50,000 Hindus. Most fled due to anti-Hindu violence. There are now approximately 500 Hindus left in Afghanistan who are subject to the Taleban's edict."

Another founding member of the India Caucus, Rep Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat, also ridiculed the Taleban's rationale for the edict and said that "contrary to Taleban claims, such an action is a sign of religious intolerance, and marks a dangerous trend for minorities living in Afghanistan. Taleban reasoning is further contradicted by the fact that Afghan Hindus strongly oppose the decree."

"Unfortunately, this act is not the first time the Taleban has targeted its opponents and violated the human rights of those ho do not agree with its agenda," he said.

Brown also said that under the Taleban regime, "The status of women in Afghan society has been severely degraded and set back by generations."

He also went on to slam the Taleban for its destruction recently of the Buddha status in Bamiyan "despite widespread international condemnation," and said "this senseless act of desecration demonstrated the widespread disdain and lack of respect the Taleban exhibits for other religions."

Brown called on the Bush Administration to "take a strong stance" against the anti-Hindu decree by the Taleban and warned that "the world learned the horrors imposed by an extremist government over 50 years ago when nobody spoke out."

The House resolution strongly condemned "the Taleban's use of Nazi tactics to force Hindus in Afghanistan to wear symbols identifying them as Hindu; joins with people of all faiths around the world in standing against the religious persecution by the Taleban regime; demands the Taleban regime immediately revoke its order stigmatizing Hindus and other non-Muslims in Afghanistan and conform its laws to all basic international, civil and human rights standards; and calls on the Government of Pakistan to use its influence with the Taleban regime to demand that the Taleban revoke the reprehensible policy of forcing Afghan Hindus and other non-Muslims to wear a yellow identity symbol."

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