Religion News Service: A celebrated temple in India is also a symbol of the country’s anti-Muslim campaign

By Safa Ahmed

Behind the inauguration festivities for a temple in India lurks a Hindu nationalist desire to eradicate Muslims.

On Jan. 22, hundreds of thousands of Hindus in India will consecrate the Ram Temple, an ornate, three-storied structure built over more than three years in Ayodhya, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The ceremony will include sacred fires and the singing of Vedic hymns, while in the U.S. Hindu communities will celebrate with car rallies, festivals and parades. A massive billboard showing the temple already overlooks Times Square, one of 40 such displays across the country.

But behind the global festivities lurks a darker reality. The inauguration of the Ram temple implicitly commemorates one of the saddest chapters in Indian history: the hate-fueled destruction of the 500-year-old Babri Masjid.

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