The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), a leading Hindu advocacy organization in the United States, recently held an event to educate the Hindu community on resources available for combating hate crimes, discrimination, and racism.
The event titled “Preventing Hate Crimes Against the Hindu Community,” was held in collaboration with the NYC Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes (OPHC), the NYC Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) at the Surya Narayan Mandir, New York.
The event commenced with a sacred invocation led by the temple’s priest. Nikunj Trivedi, CoHNA president and co-founder, presented on Hinduphobia and anti-Hindu bias, illustrating the impact of bigotry and intolerance with evidence from Rutgers University’s research, incidents on college campuses, attacks on temples and individuals nationwide, and vandalization of Gandhi statues.
Trivedi, alongside Dr. T.K. Nakagaki, president of the Heiwa Peace and Reconciliation Foundation, and the President Emeritus of the Buddhist Council of New York, distinguished the Swastika’s significance for various communities from Hitler’s “hooked cross” symbol of hate.
Eunice Lee, OPHC’s deputy executive director, outlined the agency’s approach to preventing hate crimes through initiatives like Partners Against The Hate (PATH).
Orlando Torres, CHR’s managing director of Outreach and Racial Justice, emphasized the commission’s role in enforcing human rights laws and encouraged reporting discriminatory incidents.
NYPD Officer Gina Gao shared her personal motivation to combat hate crimes, drawing from her own experiences with discrimination as an immigrant of Asian heritage.
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