Editing Religious persecution (section)

===Persecution of Hindus===
{{Main|Persecution of Hindus}}

[[File:Sun temple martand indogreek.jpg|thumb|right|Ruins of the [[Martand Sun Temple]]. The temple was completely destroyed on the orders of Muslim Sultan [[Sikandar Butshikan]] in the early 15th century, with demolition lasting a year.<ref>''Hindu temples were felled to the ground and for one year a large establishment was maintained for the demolition of the grand Martand temple. But when the massive masonry resisted all efforts, it was set on fire and the noble buildings cruelly defaced.''-[[Firishta]], Muhammad Qãsim Hindû Shãh; [[John Briggs (East India Company officer)|John Briggs]] (translator) (1829–1981 Reprint). Tãrîkh-i-Firishta (History of the Rise of the Mahomedan Power in India). New Delhi</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Keay |first=John |author-link=John Keay |year=2000 |title=India: A History |publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press |isbn=978-0-87113-800-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/indiahistory00keay |page=288}}: "The normally cordial pattern of Hindu–Muslim relations was interrupted in the early fifteenth century. The great Sun temple of Martand was destroyed and heavy penalties imposed on the mainly Brahman Hindus".</ref>]]

For example, Hindus have been one of the targeted and persecuted minorities in [[Pakistan]]. Militancy and sectarianism has been rising in Pakistan since the 1990s, and the religious minorities have "borne the brunt of the Islamist's ferocity" suffering "greater persecution than in any earlier decade", states [[Farahnaz Ispahani]]—a Public Policy Scholar at the [[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|Wilson Center]]. This has led to attacks and forced conversion of Hindus, and other minorities such as Christians.<ref name="Ispahani2017p165">{{cite book|author=Farahnaz Ispahani|title=Purifying the Land of the Pure: A History of Pakistan's Religious Minorities |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o36uDQAAQBAJ |year=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-062165-0|pages=165–171}}</ref><ref name="LockwoodWomen">{{cite book|author=Bert B. Lockwood|title=Women's Rights: A Human Rights Quarterly Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EhMqAAAAYAAJ |year=2006|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8373-6|pages=227–235}}</ref><ref name="Rehman2000p158">{{cite book|author=Javaid Rehman|title=The Weaknesses in the International Protection of Minority Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHRMEoS7-YQC |year=2000|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=90-411-1350-9|pages=158–159}}</ref> According to Tetsuya Nakatani—a Japanese scholar of Cultural Anthropology specializing in South Asia refugee history, after the mass exodus of Hindu, Sikh and other non-Muslim refugees during the 1947 partition of British India, there were several waves of Hindu refugees arrival into India from its neighbors.<ref name="nakatani1">Tetsuya Nakatani (2000), ''Away from Home: The Movement and Settlement of Refugees from East Pakistan in West Bengal India, ''Journal of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies, Volume 12, pp. 73–81 (context: 71–103)</ref> The fearful and persecuted refugee movements were often after various religious riots between 1949 and 1971 that targeted non-Muslims within West Pakistan or East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The status of these persecuted Hindu refugees in India was in political limbo until the passage of [[Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019]] by the Indian Government. Systemically in Pakistan, Hindus are persecuted under the government's Blasphemy Law (with often consequence of death irrelevant of the legal claim's accuracy), and as per the rhetoric of mainstream politicians interpreting vague constitutional law, have second-class rights in the nation regarding places of worship and facets of their religion.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Similar concerns about religious persecution of Hindu and other minorities in Bangladesh have also been expressed. A famous report by Dr. Abul Barkat, a famous Bangladeshi economist and research, projects that there will be no Hindus left in Bangladesh in 30 years.<ref>{{Cite web|last=qayam|date=20 November 2016|title=No Hindus will be left in Bangladesh after 30 years: researcher|url=https://archive.siasat.com/news/no-hindus-will-left-bangladesh-30-years-researcher-1069472/|access-date=11 April 2021|website=The Siasat Daily – Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=20 November 2016|title='No Hindus will be left after 30 years'|url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/11/20/abul-barkat-632-hindus-left-country-day|access-date=11 April 2021|website=Dhaka Tribune}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|agency=PTI|date=22 November 2016|title=No Hindus will be left in Bangladesh after 30 years: professor|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/No-Hindus-will-be-left-in-Bangladesh-after-30-years-professor/article16675228.ece|access-date=11 April 2021|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> The USCIRF notes hundreds of cases of "killings, attempted killings, death threats, assaults, rapes, kidnappings, and attacks on homes, businesses, and places of worship" on religious minorities in 2017.<ref>[https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/BANGLADESH-2018-INTERNATIONAL-RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM-REPORT.pdf Bangladesh 2018 International Religious Freedom Report], US State Department (2019), pp. 11–12</ref> Since the 1990s, Hindus have been a persecuted minority in Afghanistan, and a subject of "intense hate" with the rise of religious fundamentalism in Afghanistan.<ref name="abosep4698" /> Their "targeted persecution" triggered an exodus and forced them to seek asylum.<ref name="emadip316" /> The persecuted Hindus have remained stateless and without citizenship rights in India, since it has historically lacked any refugee law or uniform policy for persecuted refugees, state Ashish Bose and Hafizullah Emadi, though the recent Citizen Amendment Act passed by India is a form of solace for those Hindus having entered India before 2015.<ref name="abosep4698">Ashish Bose (2004), ''Afghan Refugees in India'', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 39, No. 43, pp. 4698–4701</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite journal | last=Emadi | first=Hafizullah | title=Minorities and marginality: pertinacity of Hindus and Sikhs in a repressive environment in Afghanistan | journal=Nationalities Papers | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=42 | issue=2 | year=2014 | doi=10.1080/00905992.2013.858313 | pages=315–317| s2cid=153662810 }}</ref>

The [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] (1971) resulted in one of the largest genocides of the 20th century. While estimates of the number of casualties was 3,000,000, it is reasonably certain that Hindus bore a disproportionate brunt of the Pakistan Army's onslaught against the Bengali population of what was East Pakistan. An article in [[Time (magazine)|''Time'' magazine]] dated 2 August 1971, stated "the Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred."<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,878408,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311141813/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,878408,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 March 2007 |title=World: Pakistan: The Ravaging of Golden Bengal – Printout |magazine=Time |date=2 August 1971 |access-date=25 October 2013}}</ref> Senator [[Ted Kennedy|Edward Kennedy]] wrote in a report that was part of [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations]] testimony dated 1 November 1971, "Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked "H". All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from [[Islamabad]]". In the same report, Senator Kennedy reported that 80% of the refugees in India were Hindus and according to numerous international relief agencies such as [[UNESCO]] and [[World Health Organization]] the number of East Pakistani refugees at their peak in India was close to 10 million. Given that the Hindu population in East Pakistan was around 11&nbsp;million in 1971, this suggests that up to 8&nbsp;million, or more than 70% of the Hindu population had fled the country. The [[Pulitzer Prize]]–winning journalist [[Sydney Schanberg]] covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the suffering of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the conflict. In a syndicated column "The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored", he wrote about his return to liberated Bangladesh in 1972. "Other reminders were the yellow "H"s the Pakistanis had painted on the homes of Hindus, particular targets of the Muslim army" (by "Muslim army", meaning the [[Pakistan Army]], which had targeted Bengali Muslims as well), ([[Newsday]], 29 April 1994).

Hindus constitute approximately 0.5% of the total population of the United States. Hindus in the US enjoy both ''de jure'' and ''de facto'' legal equality. However, a series of attacks were made on people Indian origin by a street gang called the "[[Dotbusters]]" in [[New Jersey]] in 1987, the dot signifying the [[Bindi (decoration)|Bindi]] dot sticker worn on the forehead by Indian women.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Marriott|first1=Michel|last2=Times|first2=Special To the New York|date=1987-10-12|title=In Jersey City, Indians Protest Violence|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/12/nyregion/in-jersey-city-indians-protest-violence.html|access-date=2023-01-02|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The lackadaisical attitude of the local police prompted the South Asian community to arrange small groups all across the state to fight back against the street gang. The perpetrators have been put to trial. On 2 January 2012, a Hindu worship center in New York City was firebombed.<ref>[http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre8010ie-us-crime-newyork/ "New York firebomb attacks hit mosque, Hindu site"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113084911/http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre8010ie-us-crime-newyork/ |date=13 January 2012 }}. ''News Daily''. 2 January 2012</ref> The [[Dotbusters]] were primarily based in New York and New Jersey and committed most of their crimes in [[Jersey City, New Jersey|Jersey City]]. A number of perpetrators have been brought to trial for these assaults. Although tougher anti-hate crime laws were passed by the New Jersey legislature in 1990, the attacks continued, with 58 cases of hate crimes against Indians in New Jersey reported in 1991.<ref name="pluralism">{{cite web|url=http://www.pluralism.org/ocg/CDROM_files/hinduism/dot_busters.php|title=On Common Ground: World Religions in America – The Pluralism Project|access-date=26 January 2014|archive-date=23 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060923053125/http://www.pluralism.org/ocg/CDROM_files/hinduism/dot_busters.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Persecution of Hindus also contemporarily has been seen in the Indian-controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir. In the [[Violence in Kashmir|Kashmir]] region, approximately 300 [[Kashmiri Pandits]] were killed between September 1989 to 1990 in various incidents.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=19/01/90: When Kashmiri Pandits fled Islamic terro|url=https://www.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/19kanch.htm|access-date=11 April 2021|website=www.rediff.com}}</ref> In early 1990, local Urdu newspapers ''Aftab'' and ''Al Safa'' called upon Kashmiris to wage [[jihad]] against India and ordered the expulsion of all Hindus choosing to remain in Kashmir.<ref name=":0"/> In the following days masked men ran in the streets with [[AK-47]]s, shooting to kill Hindus who would not leave.<ref name=":0"/> Notices were placed on the houses of all Hindus, telling them to leave within 24 hours or die.<ref name=":0"/> Since March 1990, estimates of between [[Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits|300,000 and 500,000 pandits have migrated outside Kashmir due to persecution]] by [[Islamic fundamentalists]] in the largest case of ethnic cleansing since the partition of India.<ref>{{Cite web|date=30 March 2003|title=Kashmiri Pandits in Nandimarg decide to leave Valley|url=http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=131481|access-date=11 April 2021|website=Outlook}}</ref> Many [[Kashmiri Pandit]]s have been killed by [[Islamist terrorism|Islamist militants]] in incidents such as the [[Wandhama massacre]] and the [[2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rediff On The NeT: Terrorists kill 23 Kashmiri Pandits in the valley|url=https://www.rediff.com/news/1998/jan/27kash.htm|access-date=11 April 2021|website=www.rediff.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Tribune, Chandigarh, India – Jammu & Kashmir|url=https://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040428/j&k.htm|access-date=11 April 2021|website=www.tribuneindia.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=6 December 2006|title=CNN.com – ASIANOW – At least 58 dead in 2 attacks in Kashmir – August 1, 2000|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/08/01/india.kashmir.massacre/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206120548/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/south/08/01/india.kashmir.massacre/|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 December 2006|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref> The incidents of massacring and forced eviction have been termed [[ethnic cleansing]] by some observers.<ref name=":0"/>

In Bangladesh, on 28 February 2013, the [[International Crimes Tribunal (Bangladesh)|International Crimes Tribunal]] sentenced [[Delwar Hossain Sayeedi]], the Vice President of the [[Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami|Jamaat-e-Islami]] to death for the war crimes committed during the 1971 [[Bangladesh Liberation War]]. Following the sentence, the Hindus were attacked in different parts of the country. Hindu properties were looted, Hindu houses were burnt into ashes and Hindu temples were desecrated and set on fire.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bagerhat Hindu Temple Set on Fire|url=http://dev-bd.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=241410&cid=2|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130407194310/http://dev-bd.bdnews24.com/details.php?id=241410&cid=2|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 April 2013|access-date=20 March 2013|newspaper=bdnews24.com|date=2 March 2013}}</ref>{{Additional citation needed|date=June 2023}} This trend has continued, sadly; Islamist groups in Bangladesh, nearing the 50th anniversary of the Bengali Hindu Genocide, set fire to and vandalized several Hindu temples along with 80 houses.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Paul|first=Ruma|date=28 March 2021|title=Bangladesh violence spreads after Modi visit, attacks on Hindu temples, train|work=Reuters|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-india-protest-idUSL4N2LQ01T|access-date=11 April 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Islamic radicals accused of attacking Hindu village in Bangladesh – UCA News|url=https://www.ucanews.com/news/islamic-radicals-accused-of-attacking-hindu-village-in-bangladesh/91806|access-date=11 April 2021|website=ucanews.com}}</ref>