Severe underreporting of hate crimes against people of Non-Abrahamic faiths by the western media

7 min readApr 30, 2022

Key Points:

Sikhs and Hindus were facing systemic persecution in Afghanistan. The US failed to give any significant asylum in the past two decades despite knowing and controlling the situation from 2001 to 2021.
Hindus and Sikhs are mourning the extinction of Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan in 2021–22.
Atrocities and violence against non-Abrahamic religious minorities are severely underreported. They face systemic discrimination even by the “liberal” western media.

As an immigrant physician living in the USA for the past fifteen-plus years, I am surprised to see double standards and severe underreporting of hate crimes against people of Non-Abrahamic faiths by the western media.

Extreme right-wing Islamists mercilessly murdered 25 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan in 2020. They were killed when they were worshipping in a Gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship. It is common for Hindus to go to Gurudwaras. Their misery was compounded when extreme right-wing Islamists carried out a bomb attack on the mourning families during cremation. This triggered intense panic among the Hindus and Sikhs and resulted in an exodus. Hindus and Sikhs have faced multiple mass shootings and bomb attacks due to hate against non-Muslims. However, most hate crimes against them went underreported and only major once are reported. Ironically, the shooter was a radicalized extreme right-wing Islamist from the Kerala state of India who had joined ISIS and many others from various countries.

Many of them became refugees in India, just like in many previous instances. I was surprised that the USA and other western countries whose forces were present in Afghanistan didn’t provide the asylum that they provide to people of Abrahamic faiths.

Has the USA given state-sponsored asylum to Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan in the last two decades?

The population of Sikhs and Hindus has declined from around seven hundred thousand to nearly zero in the last five decades. They faced discrimination and oppression. Hindus and Buddhists used to be the majority population, with Hindu rulers from the 7th to 11th century, and Sikhism came and grew in the 16th century when revered Guru Nanak Dev (founder of Sikhism) visited Afghanistan. Only Canada gave asylum to a few Sikhs and Hindus at the time of their extinction from Afghanistan in August 2021. I believe that there has been no other incidence of state-sponsored asylum of any significant number of Hindus and Sikhs by the western countries or organization of 57 Islamic countries? Why are they left with no other choice apart from India?

The number of religious places has been reduced from about 63 in 1990 to less than 10 in 2020.

A person will leave his ancestral country and all his belongings to live a life of poverty in slums only if they perceive perpetual extreme danger to his life. Thousands of people have chosen to leave Afghanistan and migrate to India. However, the number of articles, stories, and documentaries showing the pain and suffering of Sikhs and Hindus is minuscule. Is this western liberalism or discrimination?Taliban threatened the remaining Hindus and Sikhs to convert or leave in late 2021, prompting an exodus of the remaining few hundred to India. A central minister from the Modi government received the Sikhs and three holy books (Guru Granth Sahib) at the airport.

Why did Europe or USA not welcome them in any sizeable number? Why only India?

They were constantly persecuted, discriminated against, bullied, forced to convert, and killed, not only under Taliban rule but also under the non-Taliban regimes supported by western forces in the last two decades.

Are Hindus and Sikhs not equal human beings? Did they get equal treatment? What happened to the principle of equity and equality? Aren’t the “Liberal media” and human rights organizations co-culprits in this gut-wrenching act of discrimination?

The USA did a phenomenal job evacuating more than a hundred thousand Muslims from Afghanistan in August 2021 who might have been harassed or killed by the Taliban. However, I wish the perpetual declining population of Hindus and Sikhs due to unspeakable atrocities would have brought the same empathy and compassion to the hearts of western liberals? Have you seen any human rights organizations, activists, politicians, or prominent news headlines asking for equal treatment?

US lawmakers passed the Lautenberg-Specter amendment bill to help persecuted Christians and Jews from Russia and Iran. They later amended it to extend the benefits to Christians and Jews from other countries. Nice gesture but benefitting only the people from Abrahamic faiths.

Has there been any attempt to give state-sponsored asylum to Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and Hindus from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh facing enormous atrocities, perpetual hate, and constant decline in their population? They have been reduced from 28 percent to 9 percent in the last few decades in Bangladesh. More than a thousand underage girls are abducted, forcefully converted, and married to their abductors, often 30–50 years older than the girl in Pakistan. Atrocities are significantly underreported as the families are harassed, and journalists are killed.

A similar story of forced abduction and conversion became viral on social media and was published in March 2021. Kavita was a 13-year-old abducted Hindu girl who was forcefully converted and married to her abductor. Subsequently, the house of her poor parents was burnt on 3/14/2021 for raising the issue and going to the police. Ajay Lalwani, a Hindu journalist who reported this incident, was killed on 3/21/21. This is just the tip of the iceberg. How many other Hindus/ Sikhs/ Christians would now dare to speak up if their daughters are abducted or face discrimination and persecution?

Why did this series of three heinous hate crimes against the Hindu minority not make headlines in NYT, BBC, or CNN? Why were these persecuted families not given asylum in western countries just like Malala? Are Hindus not equal human beings?

We do see scattered reporting whenever there is large-scale ghastly violence when many people are killed, many houses are burnt, or many temples are vandalized on the same day. However, there is significant underreporting and awareness despite an enormous decline in the population of Sikhs, Buddhists, and Hindus in these three Islamic countries. The media bites its tongue while reporting the ongoing heinous crimes against Hindus and Sikhs. They are more worried that it may cause Islamophobia rather than being truthful, stating the facts, and showing the pain of never-ending atrocities. The media mustn’t conflate criticism of hate crimes by Islamists as Islamophobia.

Have you wondered why persecuted Hindus or Sikhs have no viable option other than India? Sporadic incidents of violence against Muslims in India generate far more media attention than the extinction of Hinduism and Sikhism from Islamic Afghanistan, reduction of their population from 28 to 9 percent in Islamic Bangladesh, or forced conversion and marriages of 1000 plus underage girls every year in Pakistan.

Hate crimes against Hindus and targetted killings of Hindus in India is also common, but is almost completely ignored. You should follow Hindu post, OpIndia, and stop Hindu hate advocacy network for few months to see hate crimes against Hindus which are ignored by corporate media and human rights organizations.

Few George Floyd-like incidents of racism in the USA would generate enormous media response, but millions of “George Floyds” of non-Abrahamic faiths in Islamic countries are ignored.

It is nauseating to see the hypocrisy of support for Lautenberg agreement of the USA to help persecuted Christians and Jews, but criticism of more inclusive CAA (Citizenship amendment Act), which gives fast track option of citizenship to persecuted minorities of six religious groups (Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians) from three neighboring Islamic countries. Western media propagated fake narratives by omitting the fact that the other preexisting laws give everyone, including Muslims of all other countries, to apply for citizenship under the regular process.

There was hardly any criticism of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh for the persecution of six religious minority groups leading to their exodus in most of the articles on CAA. There is a negligible number of articles interviewing persecuted Hindus who have left these countries to become refugees in India, despite thousands of such refugees. These articles didn’t mention that the Pakistani army persecuted 2–3 million people in Bangladesh and made more than 10 million people homeless, forcing them to become refugees in India in 1971. Such facts are usually brushed under the carpet, as you can see in this NPR report. Read more details about the 1971 genocide on the Hindu America Foundation webpage on the human rights violation by Pakistan.

I am appalled by the double standards in the media. Why are some people more equal than others depending on their religion, even in the eyes of “liberal western media”?

Selective reporting promotes gaslighting of Hindus. Any Hindu who speaks up for human rights violations and persecution of Hindus is maligned and falsely accused of spreading hate and Islamophobia. As a result, most Hindus feel uncomfortable and scared to speak up against the violation of Hindus’ human rights and persecution.

References:

https://www.hinduamerican.org/blog/5-things-about-hindus-sikhs-afghanistan

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/1/1/the-decline-of-afghanistans-hindu-and-sikh-communities

https://www.thequint.com/explainers/explainer-history-of-afghan-sikhs-in-afghanistan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinduism_in_Afghanistan

https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/nearly-99-hindus-sikhs-left-afghanistan-last-three-decades

https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/sikhs-and-hindus-of-afghanistan-how-many-remain-why-they-want-to-leave-6524825/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/save-afghanistans-sikhs-and-hindus-11624549960

https://www.justice.gov/eoir/page/file/1381101/download

https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/news/uk-house-panel-reveals-pak-minority-womens-pitiable-condition

https://www.news18.com/news/india/hindu-woman-returns-to-parents-custody-after-forced-marriage-torture-in-pakistan-4010474.html

https://www.opindia.com/2021/03/pakistan-torched-house-of-kavita-oad-kidnapped-forcefully-converted-to-islam-sindh-2-arrested/