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The Hindu American Foundation has assailed President Barack Obama for deciding against visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar during his visit to India but having not qualms about visiting one of the largest mosques in Southeast Asia when on the second leg of his four-state Asian itinerary he visits Indonesia.
HAF said, "According to some sources, the decision was made due to concerns that photographs of the President with his head covered -- a requirement for all visitors to the Golden Temple -- could revive claims that he was Muslim."
But it pointed out in a statement, "Yet, within a matter of days of the Golden Temple cancellation, the White House announced that the President would visit the Istiqlal mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia, the largest Muslim place of worship in Southeast Asia."
Sheetal Shah, HAF's senior director said, "Many of us are confused and concerned, to say the least, by the apparent contradiction. If President Obama's primary concern is to allay continued rumours of his being Muslim, then why would he agree to visit a mosque after reversing his decision to visit the Golden Temple?"
"We regret the message this may send around the world. A visit to the Golden Temple, a place of pilgrimage for people of many faiths in India, would have helped educate a global audience about Sikhism, amongst India's other dharmic traditions, and provided the President an opportunity to witness India's vibrant religious pluralism. We hope that the administration will reconsider its decision," she said.
Shah said, "The President's trip to India also coincides with Diwali, one of the most widely celebrated Hindu holidays. There has been no mention, however, of the President visiting a Hindu temple while there."
Dr Mihir Meghani, founder of HAF, said: "It would indeed be a welcomed gesture for the President to include a visit to a temple especially if the administration finds it appropriate to visit a mosque in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population."
Meghani said, "It seems it would follow that he would extend the same courtesy to Hindus during his stay in the most populous country of Hindus. Through various public addresses, the establishment of the Faith Based Advisory Council and numerous White House celebrations, the President has articulated a commitment to religious inclusiveness. We hope he will continue this trend on the global scene, where it is imperative to foster a deeper understanding of the world's faiths, their complexities and most importantly, the respective roles they play in ongoing conflicts and may play in reconciliation."
Meanwhile, Suhag Shukla, managing director of HAF and its legal counsel, pillorying the newly-elected Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Obama in one hefty swipe said, "Nikki Haley's abrupt departure from her more syncretic embrace of her Sikh roots and adopted Methodist Christianity, Bobby Jindal's repudiation of his Hindu heritage to the extent of supporting an ultra-conservative socio-political agenda, and now President Obama's reluctance to visit the Golden Temple allegedly to avoid being mistaken as a Muslim -- all of these represent opportunities lost by our political leadership to positively demonstrate the American ideal of religious inclusiveness."
Shukla said, "Haley's and Jindal's public embrace of Christianity and Obama's avoidance of the Golden Temple because of a head covering come across as a deliberate way of distancing themselves from Sikhism, Hinduism and Islam respectively. This simply kowtows to an inappropriate religious litmus test which undermines the foundational values upon which America was founded."
She argued, "India's religious diversity is unsurpassed as is its history of religious pluralism and for the most part, peaceful inter-religious coexistence. A visit to the Golden Temple, perhaps Akshardham in Delhi, Dharamshala and a mosque would have surely gained the international media's attention and provided an opportunity to learn first hand about the respective faith traditions in practice on an average day in India, rather than the politicised, reactionary glimpses the world has seen in times of unrest and that too through the lens of the Indian English media which is wrought with its own biases and agenda."
Shukla said, "Religion is integral to America -- impacting our domestic and international relations," and noted that "since 9/11, our community, in particular, has seen a surge in hate crimes -- many of them motivated by a misunderstanding of our religious and ethnic identity."
"Unless and until our leadership utilizes opportunities to interact directly with the various faith communities here and abroad, delving deeper and beyond interfaith niceties which tend to tout only our similarities, we will continue to have to face religion more as a divisive force manifesting as fundamentalism and terrorism rather than a fount for solutions," she added.
Shukla said, "While the intentions underlying a specific outreach to the 'Muslim world' and the visit to the mosque in Indonesia by President Obama are understandable given US interests and presence in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, not engaging other nations and communities on the basis of faith identity are deeply problematic."