Admin | On 13, Sep 2018

Friedrich says, “It is my moral obligation to raise my voice for the oppressed”

CHICAGO, IL: Sept. 13, 2018 — As South Asian Americans and others from all walks of life — Buddhist, Christian, Dalit, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh — rallied and marched in protest against the presence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) organized World Hindu Congress 2018 in Chicago, South Asian Affairs Analyst Pieter Friedrich spoke to describe the RSS as “the KKK of India,” explaining that he was present to “raise my voice for the oppressed.” His full remarks follow:

My name is Pieter, and I am here today to raise my voice in resistance against the World Hindu Congress 2018 in Chicago.

I am not here today to oppose Hinduism. I am not anti-Hindu. I love Hindus, and I am here because I love Hindus. I am here because I love all people. I am here because I love all people.

I am here because I am an American citizen and, what is more important to me, I am a Christian. And my faith as a Christian teaches me that it is my moral obligation to raise my voice for the oppressed.

The organizers of this conference have described me as a “rabble-rouser.” Now, I think that’s an insult to the hundreds of people who have come out here today, and yesterday, to raise their voices in dissent against the conference. I don’t want to rouse the rabble. What I want to do is I want to rouse people who have been victimized by oppressors. I want to rouse everybody who demands freedom and liberty. I don’t call for the creation of any state in particular, but I do call for the overthrow and end of oppression. And I call for liberty and equality for all people.

This event today, this event this weekend, this WHC in Chicago, is organized by the VHP, which has been declared by the U.S. Government as a religious militant organization. Its keynote speaker was Mohan Bhagwat of the RSS, which the U.S. Government has declared as a nationalist organization. Today, it’s featuring the Vice-President of India as its speaker — strangely, at a Hindu conference. The reason he’s speaking is because he belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party — the BJP — and he belongs to the RSS.

The RSS, the VHP, and the BJP all have one thing in common, and that it is that they all propagate an ideology of Hindutva, of supremacy, which says that anybody that says “I am not a Hindu” is not welcome in India, and which seeks to establish a Hindu State — a theocratic Hindu State — in India. The organizer himself, Swami Vigyananand, has called for establishment of a Hindu State, as have other speakers here.

So I am here to raise my voice for the victims of 1984 Sikh Genocide. Of 1992-93 Babri Masjid destruction, the Muslims that were massacred there. Of 2002, the Muslims that were slaughtered in Gujarat, by the BJP, by the VHP, by the RSS. And VHP members who participated in that pogrom against Muslims are on camera boasting about having murdered Muslims, but nothing’s happened to them. Instead, what happened — the only justice that was dealt — was that the Chief Minister who presided over Gujarat at the time of the massacre, who belonged to the party that perpetrated the massacre, his punishment was that he was elected Prime Minister of India.

Shame. Shame. Shame on Modi. Shame on Modi.

And so I am here to raise my voice also for the victims of 2008 Kandhamal, Odisha, when Christians — members of my own faith — were slaughtered. Nuns were gang-raped. People were burned alive. Churches were demolished, were burned. Tens and tens of thousands were made refugees in their own state. And I’m here to raise my voice for the victims of that violence, which happened ten years ago last month.

What we want to do today is stand in unity, in solidarity, and to answer these people — these militants, these terrorist organizations that are organizing this conference — to answer them and say, “No, we’re not a fringe element. We are the majority. You’re a fringe element, and you need to be driven out. And we will have no party with you in the USA, and we will have no party with you in India.” And we say that the RSS is the KKK of India, and just like the KKK should be driven out of the United States, the RSS should be driven out of the US and out of India. And out of the free world.