Author: K.P. Nayar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: January 17, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1040117/asp/nation/story_2796269.asp
After successfully taking on a footwear
manufacturer who displayed images of Lord Shiva on high-heeled sandals
and a plumbing supply company which showed Nataraja as a scantily-clad
woman taking a shower, Hindus in the US are girding their loins for a new
battle.
This follows a directive from a
small South Florida community to its minority Hindu residents to remove
saffron and yellow religious flags from the frontyards of their homes.
Leila Persuad, a retired teacher
who migrated to the US from Guyana, and her husband Chola were told last
year to pull down the flags tied to bamboo poles erected on their frontyard.
So was Chris Latchman, another resident
of Rivermill, a community of 377 homes in South Florida.
Their resistance to the order has
the support of the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU).
The directive is based on a resolution
of the board of the Rivermill Homeowners Association last year to ban religious
symbols from the entire community's frontyards. Exceptions will be made
during festivities such as Christmas.
Mike Magnanti, president of the
association's board, has been quoted in the local media as saying that
many Rivermill residents had complained that a Hindu religious flag looks
like "a torn, tattered towel in a tree" and is, therefore, an eyesore.
"If she (Persuad) wants to put it
in front (of her house) during a holiday period, that is OK. If she wants
to display it during the full year, she needs to put it in her backyard,"
he said.
Persuad and Latchman, who have so
far refused to comply with the order, say the flags are symbols of their
faith and are meant to show their pride in being Hindus.
They now face fines and court appearances.
Bill Singh, another Hindu in Rivermill,
has not yet been told to bring down the flag in his frontyard. He, too,
is adamant that he will not follow any such order and will go to court
instead. "It is my belief. It is my religion. I am taking this very seriously,"
he told the local media.
Persuad and Latchman have, however,
lowered their flags, hiding them among some bushes. "I hid it instead,"
Latchman said. "I don't like to hide it, but I just do it to prevent any
aggravation."
One member of the homeowners association
board who opposed the directive regretted that it was not being enforced
without discrimination. He said Hindus are being told to pull down their
flags, but Jews are allowed to keep religious symbols near their front
doors throughout the year.
According to Jim Green, a lawyer
for ACLU, the homeowners association "might have the power to pass such
a discriminatory regulation (but) whether such a discriminatory regulation
would be enforceable in the state or federal courts is another question".
He promised the organisation may take on the association on this issue.
