How should Hindus react when a Hindu temple is demolished in an Islamic state?
Temple demolition irks Malay Hindus
Associated Press
Kuala Lumpur, December 18, 2006
Malaysian Hindu rights groups sought a court order on Monday to prevent authorities from demolishing temples and shrines in the Muslim-majority country.
More than 70 Hindu temples built on public land have been razed or threatened with demolition this year to make way for development, sparking fears about the fate of hundreds of temples nationwide, said lawyer P Uthayakumar.
Uthayakumar filed an application in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on behalf of the Hindu Rights Action Force, a coalition of about 50 private groups, seeking a court injunction to keep authorities from destroying more temples.
“Temples all over the country are at risk,” Uthayakumar told the agency.
The court did not immediately schedule any date to hear the application.
The move comes amid pleas by the coalition for the government to declare temple locations as religious land reserves, which would protect them.
Many Hindu temples were built by plantation laborers, without official approval, before the country’s independence from Britain in 1957.
Hindu activists have held several peaceful demonstrations over the issue in recent months.
Government officials have defended the demolitions, saying the temples had been built illegally.
The issue has triggered allegations of religious discrimination in the multiethnic country, which takes pride in its racial harmony and discourages overt disagreements over ethnicity-related issues.
Ethnic Indians, mostly Hindus, make up 8 per cent of Malaysia’s 26 million people.
Malay Muslims are about 60 per cent of the population, and ethnic Chinese, mainly Buddhists and Christians, account for about a quarter.
The other day my office colleague termed Pervaiz Musharraf a kifir on removal on a mosque which was coming underneath the National Stadium fly-over in Karachi. The mosque has been shifted to a few yards away from its original
Indonesia should not allow this to happen. Let them build the temples and let them worship in peace. That's what Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would have done. Afterall, he(PBUH) let the Jews pray in his mosque once.
Second on the name of development, the mosque was shifted and rightly done. now there are so many mosques that i think no body in Pakistan would have count of them.
If the reason of destroying shrines and temples is development than it is their internal matter and the community can decide itself but if bigoted muslims (which is not the case here, malaysians are fairly open minded) are doing it, then they need to be condemned
a mosque/mandir.church built illegally should come down. I mean what is the message we are going to build a house of worship but we will do it illegally? It irks me when i see that happen in pakistan, well, used to see it happen in Pakistan as well.
proper Mandirs should not be torn down, i mean unless there is some major need in which case shifting the mandir or the masjid, may need to be done although attempts should be made to try as best as possible to avoid it.
proper Mandirs should not be torn down, i mean unless there is some major need in which case shifting the mandir or the masjid, may need to be done although attempts should be made to try as best as possible to avoid it.
You are right...today technology is available to shift these to new location except for the really big ones which are more or like a township.