Religious Tolerance for Hindus?

Recently, a Hindu was asked to give the opening prayer at a session of the US Senate. It was a first for this religion, which surprised me. It didn’t go well. “Christian” extremists continually disrupted his prayer and made a mockery of what should have been a solemn occasion. Now, a coalition of Hindu groups is asking that presidential candidates as well as the Senate as a body denounce the actions of those who perpetrated this act of intolerance. I would imagine that the Senate will do so and certainly Democratic presidential candidates will follow suit. What I’ll find interesting is whether any Republican candidates will heed this call and who those “rugged individualists” might be. I’m going to try to follow this and if I can track down any further information, I’ll report back.

Seriously, disrupting a prayer before the Senate? I swear that most view history books as a place to set coffee.

You can see a video of the incident here.

27 July 2007