Hinduism

A child reacts as villagers hold placards featuring U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris after participating in special prayers ahead of her inauguration, outside a Hindu temple in Thulasendrapuram, the hometown of Harris' maternal grandfather, south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu state, India, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. A tiny, lush-green Indian village surrounded by rice paddy fields was beaming with joy Wednesday hours before its descendant, Kamala Harris, takes her oath of office and becomes the U.S. vice president. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)

Indian village cheers for Harris during swearing-in as US VP

Jan. 20, 2021 11:16 PM EST

THULASENDRAPURAM, India (AP) — With chants of “Long live Kamala Harris,” fireworks and prayers, residents of a tiny Indian village celebrated her inauguration as U.S. vice president. People flocked to the village and its Hindu temple in southern India, to watch Harris, who has ancestral roots...

Sanaullah Abbasi, right, Police chief of Pakistan's Khybder Paktunkhwa province and other provincial officials leave the Supreme Court after a hearing in the case of a Hindu temple that was vandalized, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021. Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Tuesday to rebuild a century-old Hindu temple that was vandalized and set on fire by a mob last week, drawing condemnation from the government and leaders of minority Hindus. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistani court orders rebuilding of destroyed Hindu temple

Jan. 5, 2021 9:46 AM EST

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered authorities Tuesday to rebuild a century-old Hindu temple that was vandalized and set on fire by a mob last week, drawing condemnation from the government and leaders of minority Hindus. The court ruled after authorities said they arrested more than 100...

Members of Pakistan Hindu Council hold a protest against the attack on a Hindu temple in the northwestern town of Karak, in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2020. Pakistani police arrested 14 people in overnight raids after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a mob led by supporters of a radical Islamist party, officials said. The temple's destruction Wednesday in the northwestern town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Pakistan arrests 31 people over demolishing of Hindu temple

Dec. 31, 2020 1:10 PM EST

PESHAWAR, pakistan (AP) — Pakistani police arrested at least 31 people in overnight raids after a Hindu temple was set on fire and demolished by a mob led by hundreds of supporters of a radical Islamist party, officials said Thursday. Meanwhile, dozens of Hindus rallied in the southern port city of...

Mob led by Islamists demolishes Hindu temple in NW Pakistan

Dec. 30, 2020 2:39 PM EST

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A mob led by members of Pakistan's radical Islamist party demolished a Hindu temple Wednesday after setting it on fire in a deeply conservative northwestern town, a senior police official said. The incident in the town of Karak drew condemnation from human rights activists and...

Police officers escort Arzoo Raja, background center, after her appearance in Sindh High Court, in Karachi, Pakistan, on Nov. 3, 2020. Raja was 13 when she disappeared from her home in central Karachi. The Christian girl’s parents reported her missing and pleaded with police to find her. Two days later, officers reported back that she had been converted to Islam and was married to their 40-year-old Muslim neighbor. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan)

Each year, 1,000 Pakistani girls forcibly converted to Islam

Dec. 28, 2020 7:30 PM EST

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Neha loved the hymns that filled her church with music. But she lost the chance to sing them last year when, at the age of 14, she was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age. She tells her story in a voice so low...

FILE - In this Oct. 9, 2005, file photo, a crowd gathers in front of French luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton's landmark store on the Champs Elysees in Paris, during its reopening ceremony after a 20-month redesign and enlargement project. In a statement on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020, Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, called on Louis Vuitton to pull a yoga mat made partly from cowhide leather, saying the mat is

Louis Vuitton yoga mat made of leather draws Hindu complaint

Dec. 22, 2020 3:06 PM EST

BOSTON (AP) — A Hindu activist is calling on luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton to pull a yoga mat made partly from cowhide leather, calling it “hugely insensitive.” Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said in a statement Tuesday that the mat is “highly...

FILE- In this March 28, 2019, file photo, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, speaks with Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh state Yogi Adityanath during an election campaign rally in Meerut, India. India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree was passed Tuesday and follows a campaign by Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party against interfaith marriages. The party describes such marriages as “love jihad,” an unproven conspiracy theory used by its leaders and Hindu hard-line groups to accuse Muslim men of converting Hindu women by marriage. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri, File)

Indian state outlaws religious conversion by marriage

Nov. 25, 2020 2:34 AM EST

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party has approved legislation in the country’s most populous state that lays out a prison term of up to 10 years for anyone found guilty of using marriage to force someone to change religion. The decree for the state of Uttar Pradesh was...