FIAN condemns the desecration of and damage to a Hindu temple in Sydney

A Hindu Temple, Bhartiye Mandir, situated at Regents Park in Sydney, Australia was set on fire and all statues and icons of Indian Godheads have been smashed and left in ruin a few days ago. It has caused a lot of pain and anguish to members of Hindu community.

The temple has been there for about twenty years and but for an incident of stone throwing ten years ago, the  devotees of this temple have not had any problems until now. When devotees came at 6pm to open the temple on Sunday evening of 14th October 2018, they found smoke coming from inside their temple. Upon investigation, they found some people inside and when challenged, the miscreants jumped out of the window and vanished.

FIAN president, Dr Yadu Singh, has been in touch with the head priest of the temple, Pandit Paras Ram Maharaj and offered support and assistance in getting the culprits brought to the justice.

After a coup in Fiji, a large number of Fijians of Indian descent had migrated to Australia. About twenty years ago, some of them collected funds for the temple.

It is time for leaders of all faiths to come in their support and condemn this criminal act by a few vandals who do not represent real Australia.

It is time for elected local, state and federal representatives to stand in solidarity with the Hindu community.

It is time that political leadership in state and federal Parliaments to do everything to send out a message that there is no place for this type of hateful activities in Australia, and people are free to follow and celebrate their religions in this country.

It’s totally unacceptable to do this to places of worship of any religion.

NSW Police should do everything to find out the culprits and charge them. Let’s make sure it never happens again.

We are deeply anguished and saddened to see this happen in a peaceful, tolerant and a multicultural nation.

Our thoughts and solidarity are with the Hindu community in Australia.

More info: Dr Yadu Singh, President, president@fian.org.au