LONDON: A New Jersey church has cancelled an event that was set to feature a Hindu supremacist as a guest, The Independent reported on Monday.
The Old Paramus Reformed Church was to hold the fundraiser and “spiritual gathering” featuring Sadhvi Rithambara, who has been accused of anti-minority rhetoric.
Rithambara is the founder of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a Hindu group registered as a “religious militant organization” by the CIA.
She was accused of involvement in the destruction of a historic mosque in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1992, which triggered violent clashes that led to the deaths of around 2,000 people, most of them Muslims. She was cleared by India’s Supreme Court in 2020 due to lack of evidence.
Her rhetoric has also targeted other minorities in India. In 1995, India Today quoted her as saying: “If a single choti (ponytail) or janeu (thread worn by upper-caste Hindus) is cut, Christians will be wiped out from the face of India.”
Rev. Robert Miller, the church’s priest, said he decided to shelve the plans for the event after receiving over 600 letters of complaint asking him to “reject hate (and) say no to Hindu nationalism in New Jersey,” and being told by the Indian American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights that they would protest the event if it went ahead.
Hindus for Human Rights said Rithambhara’s language was “the single most powerful instrument for whipping up anti-Muslim violence” in India.
Shaheen Khateeb, a founding member of the IAMC, said: “To invite such a divisive person to the country where people live in harmony is kind of sad, really.”
The IAMC’s New Jersey President Mohammed Jawad said: “Hindu extremist leaders like Rithambhara threaten peace in our communities. New Jersey should never provide space to people who peddle the hateful ideology of Hindutva (Hindu supremacy) that is completely antithetical to the democratic values of the US.”
Organizers, though, criticized the decision, with one telling The North Jersey media outlet that Rithambara is a “social reformer who helps underprivileged children and champions women’s rights,” and that the campaign against her was prompted by “misinformation.”