Parliament of the World's Religions Rejects Hindu Celebration of Swami Vivekananda: Hindu Trustees Resign
hiladelphia: Rejecting a request from a coalition of over three hundred North American Hindu spiritual leaders, organizations, community leaders, and lay people, the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR) refused yesterday to join Hindus in Chicago to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. The CPWR originally planned on being a co-sponsor of the celebration set for September 28, 2013, but then withdrew suddenly after receiving a complaint from an online based anti-Hindu group. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) coordinated a letter requesting the CPWR to change course as local organizers worked towards reaching a compromise with CPWR, but the Parliament rejected the final requests late last night, prompting the only two Hindu members of the Parliament Board of Trustees to resign in protest today.
"At HAF, we are saddened that the Parliament, created in the very name of Swami Vivekananda, turned its back on the Hindu community and drew its own fault lines defining politics and religion," said Suhag Shukla, HAF's Executive Director. "The CPWR has decided to define political organizations arbitrarily, and must now take a hard look at every organization it has partnered with and that its trustees are associated with or represent."
Shukla suggested that the CPWR immediately examine the ties Shaik Ubaid--the Muslim activist who claimed credit for forcing the Parliament to dissociate from the Chicago Hindu community in several Muslim media outlets-- maintains within the Parliament leadership. Ubaid works closely with the CPWR Chairman of the Board, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, having co-founded a number of organizations and worked together in others.
In a major setback to the Parliament Board of Trustees, the only two Hindu trustees of the Parliament, Professor Anant Rambachan, Chair of the Department of Religion at St. Olaf's College, and Ms. Anju Bhargava, Founder of Hindu American Seva Charities, resigned immediately after CPWR confirmed its unilateral decision to disengage from the community celebration.
"The decision to withdraw, made without consulting either one of us, has caused hurt and great disappointment across the Hindu world and especially here in the United States," wrote Rambachan and Bhargava, in a letter released earlier today. "In spite of claiming neutrality, the Board chose to be influenced in its decision by giving credibility to complainants against its participation in the event and by showing no interest in considering or deliberating on the Hindu responses received."
But while the CPWR boasted of a unanimous approval of its decision to refuse reversal, the resigning trustees also wrote, "We wish to clarify also that we did not participate in the Board meeting on September 24, 2013 when the Board approved its recently released resolution. For us, the heart of the matter is the Board's unwillingness to consider any form of participation."
"To completely ignore issues of fairness, transparency, and mutual respect raised by the Hindu community at large and the condescending tone of the announcement should call into question the Parliament's ability to be a global leader in the interfaith movement," said Mr. Pawan Deshpande, a member of HAF's Executive Council. "Nonetheless, the silver lining in all of this is that it has brought together so many Hindus, across a broad spectrum of religious, cultural, and political backgrounds, to voice our collective concern."
2In the last week there has been some news about the Parliament's withdrawal from an event which we had initially endorsed. To clarify the Parliament's position, the Board of Trustees unanimously approved the following resolution recommended by the Executive Committee on September 24, 2013:
The first Parliament of the World’s Religions took place in
1893, and was addressed by Swami Vivekananda. The Council for a Parliament of
the World's Religions (the Parliament) continues to honor this exemplary Hindu
saint for his ideals of interfaith understanding and mutual respect, and will
honor the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda and the
120th anniversary of the Parliament on November 16, 2013 in Chicago. We, the
Trustees of the Parliament, commit to working with and engaging in dialogue with
all faith communities in keeping with the nature and mission of the Parliament
which is:
To cultivate harmony among the world's religious
and spiritual communities and foster their
engagement with the world and its guiding
institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and
sustainable world.
We understand that the Parliament is an interfaith
organization and not a political one. It must therefore, remain neutral
relative to political interests and respectful of the self-identification of
each religious community. The decision of the Executive Director of the
Parliament to participate in the Chicago World Without Borders event, made in
consultation with a Hindu Trustee, and then her decision to withdraw from
the event, made pursuant to her authority as Executive Director and in keeping
with past practice, have both unintentionally plunged the Parliament into the
middle of a storm of differing views, passionately held by people on all sides
of the issue and who come from various faith traditions. Nonetheless, she
deeply regrets that she did not inform the organizing committee for the event
before posting the decision to withdraw the Parliament from co-sponsorship.
The Parliament is now formalizing a policy and process to govern the way in
which the Parliament responds to future invitations to co-sponsor or co-host
events. Despite the unfortunate way in which this matter has unfolded,
because the Parliament is an interfaith organization, the Parliament cannot
co-sponsor or co-host any event with political parties, politically partisan
organizations or individuals, nor can it participate in the promotion of a
political party or candidate, nor where self-identification of faith groups is
challenged.
The world's Hindu communities and spiritual leaders have long been a pillar of
the worldwide interfaith movement and have played a key role in all of the
modern Parliaments as well as the historic original Parliament in 1893. The
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions wishes to maintain and
increase its cordial and strong relationship with Hindu communities and
individuals everywhere who share its mission. We call upon our Hindu friends
and colleagues as well as our colleagues of all religions and spiritualties to
move forward with us in a spirit of harmony, constructive dialogue and action
to create a peaceful, just and sustainable world.
In the spirit of interfaith harmony, we would like to humbly
offer to facilitate conversations with all those concerned who have approached
the Parliament in this matter.
We reaffirm faith in the humanity of all sides and will redouble our efforts to
engage in dialogue among all faith communities.
We also rededicate our Faith Against Hate campaign to all people of
love who desire to touch and inspire the humanity of the other.
Finally, we continue to be inspired by Swami Vivekananda’s closing remarks at
the 1893 Parliament:
“Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism,
have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence
drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent
whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons,
human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time
is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning
in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism,
of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all
uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.”
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