Fighting hate speech
THE South African Hindu Youth Movement vehemently rejects and strongly condemns the recent religious hate speech utterance against Hinduism in the form of a Facebook post by a certain Daniel Naicker.
He used derogatory terminology in discussing the holy Hindu Shivalingum of Lord Shiva in the article “Row erupts over religious Facebook post” (POST, January 23-27).
We have acted swiftly as a national Hindu youth body by lodging complaints with the South African Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.
The movement will not sit back and allow any individual to degrade and use disgusting and derogatory terminologies to demean Hinduism and Hindu religious symbols.
We are committed to the championing and protection of the rights of all Hindus in South Africa.
Since the dawn of democracy, the South African government has always promoted mutual respect for all religions.
In this regard, on June 2, 1995, the panel of constitutional experts wrote to the chairpersons and the executive director of Constitutional Assembly that “people who feel strongly about their religion and other values and beliefs should use their fundamental rights (such as their freedom of expression) to advance and promote their cause in a spirit of respect for the rights of others”.
The Bill of Rights further promulgated the Freedom of Religion and Opinion, while categorically and clearly stating that Freedom of Expression does not extend to advocacy of hatred based on religion.
The South African Hindu Youth Movement will not grow tired of challenging religious hate speech against Hinduism.
We will continue to act with gusto and vigour and will not hesitate to approach the Equality and Constitutional Courts to uphold Hindu religious rights.
For far too long, Hinduism has been seen as an easy and soft target. The Hindu youth will not sit back silently any more.
We will protect and safeguard our religion – the oldest in the world – by consistently tackling head-on those who criticise Hinduism. VEDHAN SINGH Chairperson: South African Hindu Youth Movement