2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
Kuldip R. Rampal
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Opinion
Dear Editor:
Raghvendra Singh's starry-eyed view of American ("International Perspective on American Dream", March 20) freedoms in the areas of speech and religion must be tempered by a reality check.
Many mosques and temples across the US were attacked in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The FBI initiated around 400 probes into alleged hate crimes against Muslim, Sikhs and Arab-Americans. In early 2003, the FBI was probing a second bomb attack in two weeks on a Hindu temple in St. Louis.
One has to ask if religious freedom in this country is merely an extension of the Constitutional separation of church and state, or what it really should be: according an equal status to every religion. The latter clearly is not the case.
Any religion outside the WASP framework spurs leeriness in the sensibilities of the U.S. political establishment, republican or democratic. Protestant Christianity is so entrenched socially across America that other versions or Christianity and certainly other religions are suspect, to say the least.
On the matter of freedom of speech, I believe many Americans feel that the "patriotism" or "national security" syndrome has provided a rational veneer to something that has truly declined in America: free speech.
Recall how media in this country fell into this syndrome right after 9/11 and for quite some years later on - at a time when they really needed to examine the causes of this terrible tragedy and find out if America needed to change directions in its foreign policy.
Finally, Mr. Singh in his column says that "India, which is the second biggest democracy in the world and yet, if often lacks the aspect of practicing free speech or religion." A small point, but India is the biggest, not second biggest, democracy in the world.
More importantly, Indian secularism accords equal status to all religions, something only possible because Hinduism, unlike Christianity and Islam, does not claim to be a true religion and therefore by nature is acceptable of other religions. No wonder than that India has had one Christian, two Muslims, and one Sikh among the country's presidents in this relatively young 60-year-old democracy. The country's current prime minister is a Sikh, who comes from a minority community of less than 2 percent of the population. The head of the ruling political party is Italian-born Christian. In more than its 200-year history,
America has yet to have a non-Christian as head of the state. Even an acknowledged Christian, Barak Obama, is facing the slurs of allegedly having a Muslim middle name or spending time in a Muslim madrassa school in Indonesia.
Sincerely,
Kuldip R. Rampal
Professor of Mass Communication
Raghvendra Singh's starry-eyed view of American ("International Perspective on American Dream", March 20) freedoms in the areas of speech and religion must be tempered by a reality check.
Many mosques and temples across the US were attacked in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The FBI initiated around 400 probes into alleged hate crimes against Muslim, Sikhs and Arab-Americans. In early 2003, the FBI was probing a second bomb attack in two weeks on a Hindu temple in St. Louis.
One has to ask if religious freedom in this country is merely an extension of the Constitutional separation of church and state, or what it really should be: according an equal status to every religion. The latter clearly is not the case.
Any religion outside the WASP framework spurs leeriness in the sensibilities of the U.S. political establishment, republican or democratic. Protestant Christianity is so entrenched socially across America that other versions or Christianity and certainly other religions are suspect, to say the least.
On the matter of freedom of speech, I believe many Americans feel that the "patriotism" or "national security" syndrome has provided a rational veneer to something that has truly declined in America: free speech.
Recall how media in this country fell into this syndrome right after 9/11 and for quite some years later on - at a time when they really needed to examine the causes of this terrible tragedy and find out if America needed to change directions in its foreign policy.
Finally, Mr. Singh in his column says that "India, which is the second biggest democracy in the world and yet, if often lacks the aspect of practicing free speech or religion." A small point, but India is the biggest, not second biggest, democracy in the world.
More importantly, Indian secularism accords equal status to all religions, something only possible because Hinduism, unlike Christianity and Islam, does not claim to be a true religion and therefore by nature is acceptable of other religions. No wonder than that India has had one Christian, two Muslims, and one Sikh among the country's presidents in this relatively young 60-year-old democracy. The country's current prime minister is a Sikh, who comes from a minority community of less than 2 percent of the population. The head of the ruling political party is Italian-born Christian. In more than its 200-year history,
America has yet to have a non-Christian as head of the state. Even an acknowledged Christian, Barak Obama, is facing the slurs of allegedly having a Muslim middle name or spending time in a Muslim madrassa school in Indonesia.
Sincerely,
Kuldip R. Rampal
Professor of Mass Communication
Be the first to comment on this story