Hindus tell Europe to be more accepting of “outsiders”

NEVADA - Hindus have urged Europe and its leaders to show more tolerance to “outsiders”.

Notable Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that instead of blaming multiculturalism as a failure, Europe should make more efforts to create a society where all Europeans could learn to live together in peace and mutual trust despite seriously different traditions, beliefs and backgrounds.

In separate statements in the recent past; French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel; said that multiculturalism had failed.

Sarkozy reportedly declared Thursday in a television interview that multiculturalism had failed. If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France, he is quoted to have said. Cameron also criticized multiculturalism in Munich on February five and made quite clear that it had failed. “Frankly, we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years”, he is quoted to have said.

In a speech in Potsdam (Germany) on October 16, Merkel reportedly said that the so-called ‘multikulti’ concept, where people would ‘live side-by-side’ happily, utterly failed; and anybody not speaking German was not welcome. Horst Seehofer, Prime Minister of Bavaria, Germany’s largest and oldest state, was quoted as saying that ‘multikulti’ was dead and there was no room in Germany for more people from alien cultures. Various other German politicians had also expressed strong anti-immigrant feelings recently.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that Sarkozy, Cameron, Merkel and others should show more maturity and responsibility when talking about “others” who were simply different, and not give in to unnecessary hysteria. It was simply irresponsible to stigmatize ethnic communities. Europe needed to stay away from the racist sentiment and chauvinism and check the facts on immigration more closely. “Others” living in Europe were also human beings and should have the same rights as any European.

Rajan Zed quoted “Leviticus 19:33-34″: “When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you. You shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.”

Zed also urged religious leaders of Europe; like His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Douglas Williams, Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, etc.; to preach God’s word of loving one another to the European politicians.

Europe needed to learn to be more inclusive, seek a unity that celebrated diversity, and create a European-wide dialogue based upon mutual trust and understanding, Rajan Zed pointed out. (ANI)