As Hinduphobia peaks in the US, Christian and Islamist groups push new campaign against Hindus: How NY State Council of Churches and IAMC have joined forces to target Hindus

Amidst surging Hinduphobia in the United States, a Christian nationalist outfit and the Islamist group, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), have joined forces to further vilify the Indian American Hindus and their faith. The New York State Council of Churches (NYCOC), through its Religious Nationalisms Project (TRNP), has announced a series of interfaith seminars from 20th to 23rd November, in North Carolina’s Bay Area. The events titled “The Weaponization of Hinduism in Northern Carolina and India and the Relationships to Global Religious Nationalisms” are being co-organised by the Islamist group IAMC. The additional sponsorship for these anti-Hindu events comes from the White Christian Nationalisms Task Force of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. As per the promotional material of the scheduled events, the seminars will be held at several locations, including the United Methodist churches in Roseville, Alameda, and Santa Rosa; First Church Berkeley (United Church of Christ). One of the seminars will also be held at a Sikh Gurudwara Sahib in San Jose. This series of seminars will be on the theme of Religious Nationalisms, with “a special focus on Hindutva as a central case study.” The events will have three presenters: The Reverend Peter Cook, The Reverend Neal Christie, and The Right Reverend Joshua Lickter. American Hindu rights groups call out Christian-Muslim collaboration to peddle Hinduphobia The collaboration of a church-linked Christian outfit and a rabid anti-Hindu Islamist IAMC has sparked outrage among American Hindus. The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) criticised the anti-Hindu tour and highlighted that it comes at a time when hatred against Hindus is increasing in the US. The HAF also questioned the city authorities why such an event is being allowed in California and why public funding is involved in such an anti-Hindu propaganda event. “A New York based Christian church group joining the Indian American Muslim Council on a “tour” in spewing provocative lies against Hindus when anti-Hindu hate is at its zenith is absolutely unacceptable. Why does your office fund this @GovKathyHochul? Is this ok in California @CAgovernor?” the HAF wrote on X. Suhag Shukla, the Executive Director of the HAF, said, “The New York State Council of Churches is joining a Muslim group to tour California—not to promote solidarity & peace—but to target peaceful Hindu Californians. This isn’t interfaith solidarity, this is an ambush. @GovKathyHochul, your NY Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is funding NYCOC when anti-Hindu hate is peaking. How is this ok?” Meanwhile, the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) also echoed the criticism of the anti-Hindu seminars and accused the NYCOC-IAMC-organised tour as a tool to “pontificate to practising Hindus on what their faith should and should not be.” IAMC and its anti-Hindu/anti-India activities and past Hinduphobic collaboration with the New York State Council of Churches The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) is a Washington-based Islamist outfit which has been involved in anti-India activities and pushing an anti-Hindu agenda for many years. In 2021, IAMC, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), campaigned to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern”. During the India-Pakistan conflict in May this year, when the Indian Armed Forces eliminated Islamic terrorists and their infrastructure deep inside Pakistan, the IAMC and CAIR condemned India’s Operation Sindoor. The Indian American Muslim Council is reported to have links with the banned Islamic terror outfit, Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Besides, the Indian American Muslim Council has ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) through its founder, Shaik Ubaid. The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group. The IAMC has also been involved in promoting antisemitism. The IAMC has also formed the Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) group, which is an open anti-Hindu and anti-India organisation based in the US. Not to forget, in 2021, ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ also endorsed the anti-Hindu event ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference. It also came up with a “special toolkit” to propagate against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his State visit to the US in June 2023. In June 2023, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi was seen sitting alongside Sunita Vishwanath during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute. In October 2023, the X account of HfHR was withheld in India in response to a legal demand. In the past, the IAMC had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist caus

Nov 17, 2025 2

As Hinduphobia peaks in the US, Christian and Islamist groups push new campaign against Hindus: How NY State Council of Churches and IAMC have joined forces to target Hindus
New York State Council of Churches joins hands with IAMC to target Hindus

Amidst surging Hinduphobia in the United States, a Christian nationalist outfit and the Islamist group, the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), have joined forces to further vilify the Indian American Hindus and their faith. The New York State Council of Churches (NYCOC), through its Religious Nationalisms Project (TRNP), has announced a series of interfaith seminars from 20th to 23rd November, in North Carolina’s Bay Area.

The events titled “The Weaponization of Hinduism in Northern Carolina and India and the Relationships to Global Religious Nationalisms” are being co-organised by the Islamist group IAMC. The additional sponsorship for these anti-Hindu events comes from the White Christian Nationalisms Task Force of the California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church.

As per the promotional material of the scheduled events, the seminars will be held at several locations, including the United Methodist churches in Roseville, Alameda, and Santa Rosa; First Church Berkeley (United Church of Christ). One of the seminars will also be held at a Sikh Gurudwara Sahib in San Jose.

This series of seminars will be on the theme of Religious Nationalisms, with “a special focus on Hindutva as a central case study.” The events will have three presenters: The Reverend Peter Cook, The Reverend Neal Christie, and The Right Reverend Joshua Lickter.

American Hindu rights groups call out Christian-Muslim collaboration to peddle Hinduphobia

The collaboration of a church-linked Christian outfit and a rabid anti-Hindu Islamist IAMC has sparked outrage among American Hindus.

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) criticised the anti-Hindu tour and highlighted that it comes at a time when hatred against Hindus is increasing in the US. The HAF also questioned the city authorities why such an event is being allowed in California and why public funding is involved in such an anti-Hindu propaganda event.

“A New York based Christian church group joining the Indian American Muslim Council on a “tour” in spewing provocative lies against Hindus when anti-Hindu hate is at its zenith is absolutely unacceptable. Why does your office fund this @GovKathyHochul? Is this ok in California @CAgovernor?” the HAF wrote on X.

Suhag Shukla, the Executive Director of the HAF, said, “The New York State Council of Churches is joining a Muslim group to tour California—not to promote solidarity & peace—but to target peaceful Hindu Californians. This isn’t interfaith solidarity, this is an ambush. @GovKathyHochul, your NY Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is funding NYCOC when anti-Hindu hate is peaking. How is this ok?”

Meanwhile, the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) also echoed the criticism of the anti-Hindu seminars and accused the NYCOC-IAMC-organised tour as a tool to “pontificate to practising Hindus on what their faith should and should not be.”

IAMC and its anti-Hindu/anti-India activities and past Hinduphobic collaboration with the New York State Council of Churches

The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) is a Washington-based Islamist outfit which has been involved in anti-India activities and pushing an anti-Hindu agenda for many years. In 2021, IAMC, along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), campaigned to designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern”.

During the India-Pakistan conflict in May this year, when the Indian Armed Forces eliminated Islamic terrorists and their infrastructure deep inside Pakistan, the IAMC and CAIR condemned India’s Operation Sindoor.

The Indian American Muslim Council is reported to have links with the banned Islamic terror outfit, Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Besides, the Indian American Muslim Council has ties with Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) through its founder, Shaik Ubaid. The IAMC is a Jamat-e-Islami-backed lobbyist organisation claiming to be a rights advocacy group. The IAMC has also been involved in promoting antisemitism.

The IAMC has also formed the Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) group, which is an open anti-Hindu and anti-India organisation based in the US.

Not to forget, in 2021, ‘Hindus for Human Rights’ also endorsed the anti-Hindu event ‘Dismantling Global Hindutva’ conference. It also came up with a “special toolkit” to propagate against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his State visit to the US in June 2023.

In June 2023, Congress scion Rahul Gandhi was seen sitting alongside Sunita Vishwanath during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute. In October 2023, the X account of HfHR was withheld in India in response to a legal demand.

In the past, the IAMC had reportedly collaborated with and even paid money to various groups in the USA to get India blacklisted by the USCIRF (United States Commission on International Religious Freedom). IAMC had been caught spreading fake news and misinformation to further the Islamist cause in India. It had also been slapped with the UAPA in 2021. The IAMC often publishes dubious reports and propaganda materials slandering American Hindus and Hindus in India, under the pretext of countering ‘Hindu nationalism’.

From seminars to surveys, reports to speeches, the IAMC has long been vilifying the American Hindus and their faith. In September 2024,  IAMC conducted a ‘survey’ [pdf] with the ulterior motive to brand the religious minority group as ‘racist’, ‘intolerant’ and ‘Islamophobic.’ OpIndia reported how the IAMC survey passed off vague and subjective opinions from its respondents as absolute truth.

Unsurprisingly, the upcoming ‘Weaponization of Hinduism’ seminars are not the first anti-Hindu collaboration of the NYCOC and the IAMC. In August 2024, the Federation of Indian Associations NY-NJ-CT-NE decided to include a Ram Janmabhoomi Temple float in the India Day Parade to mark the 78th Independence Day of India. This, however, did not go well with the IAMC and the New York State Council of Churches, who, along with other Islamists, pro-Khalistan and other anti-Hindu groups, wrote a letter to the New York Governor Kathy Hochul and then Mayor Eric Adams, peddling lies to oppose the inclusion of the Ram Mandir float in the parade.

These organisations have claimed that VHPA, an offshoot of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) “has been designated as a militant religious organisation by the Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook”. However, OpIndia reported back then that while it is true that VHP and Bajrang Dal were designated as “militant religious organisations” on 4th June 2018, the names were effectively removed from the list by 25th June 2018. It was a mistake to call these two organisations “militant”, and the CIA itself had rectified it in less than a month.

In June 2025, the NYSCOC and TRNP joined the IAMC in issuing a statement slandering an event hosting several Hindu activists in Dallas. These anti-Hindu groups linked Hindutva with violence and religious hatred. They also hurled sweeping allegations about religious freedom and tolerance in India, insinuating that somehow Christians and Muslims are under threat in the Hindu-majority country.

Amidst rising racism against Hindus and Indians in America, anti-Hindu elements attempting to ride the wave and further their nefarious designs

From the 1907 anti-Indian mob violence in Washington, the 1910 Detroit Times “Hindoos (Hindus) Continue to Flock to the US” article referring to Hindus as ‘Oriental scum’, the discriminatory Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, the Dot Busters group in 1980s which targeted Hindus Americans based on their religious and racial identity and assaulted them, to the individual cases of religiously-motivated hate crimes against Hindus post 2001, attempts at revisingCalifornia’s K-12 history-social science curriculum to include stereotypical representation of Hindus and Hinduism in textbooks, Hindus in the US, have faced hatred, discrimination and violence.

Earlier, these Hinduphobic attitudes found manifestation in anti-Asian racism and labelling of Hindus as ‘caste-ridden savages’ and ‘heathens’, and attacks. It manifests today in temple desecrations, school bullying, media propaganda and online hatred. A 2022 Network Contagion Research Institute report documented a 1,000% increase in anti-Hindu slurs online, blending white supremacist “replacement” fears with Islamist narratives accusing Hindus of “genocide” in India.

Just months back, White and Christian supremacists ignited the H1-B visas debate after Donald Trump nominated American-born Indian Sriram Krishnan as senior policy advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

What began as an online attack slandering Sriram soon snowballed into a full-fledged campaign against H1-B visas for highly-skilled Indians. This was followed by derision and insults directed at Hindus and Hinduism.

The Christian supremacists have normalised slandering and mocking Hindu deities, labelling them ‘demonic’ and ‘false gods’. In September this year, Alexander Duncan, the Republican Senate candidate for Texas, called Lord Hanuman a ‘false god’ and objected to the construction of his statue in the US, saying that America is a ‘Christian’ nation, although by law, America is not a Christian nation.

Weeks back, Donald Trump’s Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, who Trump has unleashed as his attack dog to vilify India over its Russian oil purchases, resorted to slandering the Brahmin community. In an interview with Fox News, Navarro invoked caste and accused the Brahmins of India of “profiteering at the expense of the Indian people.”

OpIndia has been consistently reporting how the Anti-Hindu lobby in the US has been actively running a sinister campaign to push a caste discrimination narrative aimed at undermining and villainising the Hindu community in the US, particularly the Brahmins. Many universities, including Harvard University, Colby College, Brown University, and California State University, have even added caste to their non-discrimination policy. In 2023, the California State Senate in the US passed legislation (SB-403) that banned caste-based discrimination in the State, although it was later vetoed. Not to forget the 2019 CISCO caste discrimination case, which was widely used to vilify the Hindu community as casteist and incompatible with American values. This case was dismissed after no wrongdoing was found.

In 2021, the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple in New Jersey was raided by the American authorities after a lawsuit alleging forced labour and caste discrimination was filed. The American legacy media targeted the Hindu temple and its authorities; however, this too turned out to be a case of all propaganda, not facts, intended to malign the reputation of Hindus in America. The US authorities recently closed the investigation in this case as none of the allegations were found to be true.

In 2024, the anti-Hindu lobby opposed House Resolution 113, which condemned Hinduphobia in the US.

In recent years, hate crimes against Indian Americans have also been on the rise. According to the FBI’s 2020 data, hate crimes against Indian Americans are up by 500 per cent.

Besides, politics and social media, even the American media and academia perpetuate anti-Hindu bias through selective outrage and erasure. OpIndia has on numerous occasions reported how newspapers like the New York Times, among others, have also been complicit in spinning and amplifying anti-Hindu narratives.

OpIndia earlier reported how the DEI programs have been normalising hatred against Brahmins in the US. In their attempts to foment the same hate Nazis had for Jews, several DEI programs were creating prejudices against Hindus, particularly the so-called “upper-caste” Hindus like Brahmins, who are already at the receiving end of hate campaigns of the anti-Hindu elements.

The vandalism of Hindu temples in the US has become a disgraceful norm in the US. In September 2024, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Sacramento, California, was desecrated with anti-Hindu and anti-India graffiti. This act of vandalism came just days after a similar incident occurred at the BAPS Mandir on Long Island, New York. While Khalistani terrorists have been the frequent perpetrators of these anti-Hindu crimes, now the Christian supremacists are also intensifying opposition to Hindu symbols, statues and temples.

It was reported last year that in California, anti-Hindu incidents ranked second only to antisemitism, with 23.3% of religious hate calls tied to Hinduphobia. In July 2025, a video of a White American berating an Indian man with “Why are you in my country? I don’t like you guys here. There are too many of you guys here. Indians! You guys are flooding all the white countries. I am tired of it. Americans are sick of this sh**. I want you to go back to India…”

Recently, in Irving, Texas, three masked men carrying “Don’t India My Texas” signs showed up in a suburb where thousands of Indian tech professionals reside.

There has been a rising tide of racism and religious hatred against the Hindus in the US. While not all crimes against Indian Americans are driven by religious hatred, the online hate against Hindus has also contributed to this. It must not be forgotten that even the H1-B visas debate began with ‘Indians are taking over our jobs’, but soon turned into blatant Hinduphobia.

The hatred and racism against Hindus and Indians in the US have become so rampant that even the Hindu leaders in the Republican Party are not immune to such attacks. From vilifying FBI Director Kash Patel and US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard for wishingeveryone a happy Diwali, mocking the Trump administration for celebrating Diwali in the White House, attacking JD Vance’s Hindu wife Usha Chilukuri, and questioning Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hindu faith, to making absurd ‘Indians poaching wildlife in Canada and America’ claims, Indians and Hindus are facing attacks of all kinds just for existing.

These Hinduphobic attacks are not confined to mere online trolling and mockery, rather it extend to politics, academia and day-to-day life in the US. In a recent exposé, it emerged that the leaders of a Republican Party-affiliated group, Young Republicans, exchanged racist, anti-India, anti-Black, pro-Nazi, and homophobic messages in a Telegram group chat. From furthering hygiene stereotypes against Indians to suggesting that Indians are not trustworthy, the Republican leaders of the now-disbanded group demonstrated how India-hate has been normalised in the American political circle. The White racists and Christian supremacists have also been villainising Indian Americans to lend credence to their ‘White Replacement Theory’. Besides, ‘Nuke India’ calls by this lot online has also become a new ‘cool’ among American racists and Hinduphobes.

The growing pressure from White Christian nationalists to not come across as any less Christian hardliner is such that even US Vice President JD Vance had thrown his Hindu wife under the bus to prove his strict adherence to Christianity. From crediting Usha for helping him rediscover his Christian faith and respecting her faith to now wishing that she convert to Christianity, Vance changed his colour faster than a chameleon all to seek validation from Christian supremacist supporters.

Earlier this year, Rutgers University’s Centre for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) put out a report and a roadshow around a familiar thesis that is “Hindutva in America”. It framed Hindutva as a far-right project, treated diaspora groups as RSS fronts, and claimed that Hindutva is a menace to American pluralism. Last month, they held a panel discussion with Sahar Aziz, Professor of Law at Rutgers, and two speakers, doctoral student Nikaytaa Malhotra and anti-Hindu “historian” Audrey Truschke panel discussion based on the report.

OpIndia reported earlier about Audrey Truschke’s track record of whitewashing heinous crimes committed by the Mughal tyrants against Indians. Through her books, articles and speeches, Truschke has constantly been vilifying the Hindus, Hinduism and India. In September, Religion Dispatches published Truschke’s propaganda piece titled: “WHAT IN THE WHAT?? Hindu Nationalism, Explained”, wherein she fuelled hatred against Hindus by lying about the roots of violence in the West.

Amidst rising Hinduphobia in the US in myriad forms, the Islamist and Christian outfits coming together to further exacerbate the already concerning situation in the US is intolerable. Hinduphobia is being institutionalised in the US with the tacit support of the ruling administration all while Hindu Indian-Americans remain law-abiding citizens contributing to the growth of the country they live in.

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