‘Wash away the hatred’: Canada temple to hold event to promote communal harmony
The Shri Ram Mandir in the Greater Toronto Area town of Mississauga was desecrated on February 14 with anti-India and pro-Khalistan graffiti spray-painted on its rear walls
Toronto: The Hindu temple which was desecrated on February 14 with anti-India and pro-Khalistan graffiti spray-painted on its rear walls, will host a public event this Friday to “wash away the hatred”.
The Shri Ram Mandir in the Greater Toronto Area town of Mississauga had been spray-painted in the early hours of February 14. The incident is being investigated by Peel Regional Police as a hate crime.
Temple officials decided to keep the graffiti on the walls and only clear it during such a high-profile two-hour long event to attract attention on attempts at spreading disharmony and growing Hinduphobia in Canada. In a message posted on social media on Monday, the temple’s president Roop Nauth Sharma said they were “inviting everyone regardless of religion, colour or creed to join us”.
“We will join together in the process of washing away the hatred,” he said, adding, “We will show these people that in Canada we live in harmony”.
Sharma said he felt “personally hurt” by the vandalism as did devotees visiting the temple.
Politicians from all levels of governments are expected to attend the event, a temple official told the Hindustan Times.
The vandalism, the fourth such incident where a Hindu temple has been targeted over the last eight months, has attracted condemnation from senior Canadian ministers including foreign minister Melanie Joly, defence minister Anita Anand and Minister of Seniors Kamal Khera. Late on Sunday, Minister of International Development Harjit Sajjan joined them as he tweeted the “rise in anti-Hindu hate crime is disgusting. This type of hateful vandalism has no place in Canada”.
Anand, the first Cabinet minister in Canada who is of Hindu origin, has been in touch with the temple administration, as has local MP Iqwinder Gaheer. Another MP Chandra Arya raised the matter in the House of Commons on Thursday, as he stressed, “As I have said before, Canada need to take the issue seriously and address the growing Hinduphobia.”
There has been no update from police about the results of their investigation. No arrests have been announced with regard to the previous three incidents. On January 30, the Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton was similarly desecrated. Prior to that, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi, located at the Vishnu Mandir in Richmond Hill, was defaced in July last year. In September, an episode of such vandalism occurred at the front entrance to the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Toronto.