A troubling campaign against Hindu identity is underway in the United States. This time, the Hinduphobia comes not from fringe extremists, but from an unlikely alliance of white Christians and Islamist voices.
A new interfaith tour titled “The Weaponization of Hinduism,” backed by the New York State Council of Churches and anti-Hindu Muslim groups, is stoking fear in Hindu-American communities. For the small but economically powerful minority, this is more than theology – it’s a targeted threat to their identity and place in the American Dream.
Hindus: Small in Numbers, Monumental in Contribution
Hindus make up less than 1% of the U.S. adult population, with around 3.6 million individuals, according to recent Pew data. But despite their minuscule population share, Hindu Americans are economically and intellectually among the most successful immigrant communities.
Many Hindus arrived on high-skilled visas: as early as 2011, over half of H-1B visas went to Indians, and Hindu Indian-Americans accounted for a disproportionately high percentage of them.
More than 58% of adult Hindus in the U.S. hold postgraduate degrees, and over 50% live in households earning more than $100,000 a year. Hindu-Americans are tax-paying and law-abiding citizens. They run businesses, become doctors, engineers, and professors to enrich the nation that helped them achieve their First World status. However, in return, some Christian and Islamist groups now frame them as a “threat,” criticizing not just their faith, but their contribution.
Rising Hinduphobia: Hate That Targets Their Roots
Data shows that anti-Hindu incidents are growing in America. Most incidents remain under-reported and underplayed. While the FBI listed just 12 such incidents in 2020, placing Hindus near the bottom of religious bias categories, things have changed in the last 5 years.
Hindu temples face defacement, and Hindu identity faces harassment in America – the trend is on the rise in the USA and Western nations.
In California, a state with a large Hindu population, anti-Hindu bias even ranks second among all religious hate crimes, according to state civil rights data. Meanwhile, community organizations like the Gavishti Foundation’s Hinduphobia Tracker are documenting temple vandalism, swastika graffiti, and verbal assaults. Hindu hate is real, organized, and deeply personal. However, the root cause of the hatred comes from religious bias fuelled by Islamists!
When Churches and Mosques Join Hands – Against Hindus
A staggering irony: an interfaith tour in California by Christian and Muslim organizations is being framed not as peace-building, but anti-Hindu agitation.
The event’s title, “Weaponization of Hinduism,” itself smacks of bigotry. It refers to the earlier “Dismantling Hindutva” propaganda run in the West to defame RSS, ISKCON, and other organizations. Now, leaders from the New York State Council of Churches are joining a Muslim coalition to brand the Hindu faith as “dangerous nationalism.”
For a community that prides itself on pluralism – embracing American traditions while preserving its spiritual roots — this is deeply hurtful.
Hindu Americans want to be seen as part of the American mosaic, not as outsiders to be targeted.
Some reports suggest that this alliance between Christian nationalists and radical Islamists could be part of a larger white nationalist-jihadi coalition. Whether that’s fully true or not, the very language being used – “weaponizing Hinduism” – treats a peaceful, plural faith as an existential threat.
How Much Hate Is Acceptable Before We See Action?
Hindu Americans are Productive, Pluralistic, Patriotic.
Yet, they are under growing ideological attack in a country they helped build.
This rising anti-Hindu sentiment is not just a theoretical worry – it’s being stoked by powerful institutions. For a community that contributes so much to the U.S. economy and embodies the ethos of the American Dream, it is unacceptable that their faith becomes a political target.
If America still stands for freedom of religion, its leaders must call out this hate — not under the name of interfaith dialogue, but as a direct assault on democracy itself. Hindus in America are not only asking for respect: they demand protection.
