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Reid: Just Think of Gandhi
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ShareJuly 12, 2007 1:46 PM
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf: It was hard to tell what exactly the protesters were shouting at Thursday morning in the normally austere U.S. Senate Chamber, but it was beyond doubt where their ire was directed.
They were not shouting about the war in Iraq or taxes or some other measure on the Senate floor, but at the Hindu man delivering this morning's morning prayer. The Guest Chaplain was Rajan Zed of the Indian Association of Northern Nevada and he was dressed in a bright orange robe with a detailed orange scarf and a red dot on his forehead as he tried to lead the Senate in a prayer -- the first Hindu ever to lead the Senate in prayer.
But two women and a man in the public gallery above the Senate floor started screaming. The C-SPAN cameras never got a look at the protesters, but they could be heard saying, "You shall put no other God before God!"
It is unclear at this point if they were there to protest Zed or if they were just tourists with something against Hindu prayer.
Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who was acting President of the Senate for the morning, called repeatedly for order and Capitol Hill Police eventually ejected Ante Nedlko Pavkovic, Katherine Lynn Pavkovic, and Christan Renee Sugar from the chamber and have charged them with "disruption of Congress."
The C-Span cameras stayed trained on Casey and Zed and eventually Zed went on with his prayer, imploring the Senate to work together through "the deity supreme."
"May we meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the soul the heaven. may he stimulate and illuminate our minds. lead us from the unreal to the real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality ... may no obstacle arise between us."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was on the floor for the disruption and after the prayer, he went on with morning business, talking briefly about the Defense Authorization bill currently on the Senate Floor.
But then Reid, a Mormon from Searchlight Nevada, launched into an impromptu speech about faith and India. He talked about seeing Indian students walk to class when he was a student at Utah State and developing a repore when he would give them rides to class. They eventually had him over for some Indian food.
Reid then talked about a little statue of Gandhi he keeps in his Senate office.
"If people have any misunderstanding about Indians and Hindus, all they have to do is think of Gandhi. here's a man who has changed the world, a man who believed in peace," Reid said.
"If there were ever a time with this international war on terror that we're fighting now where people have to understand how important peace is, think of Gandhi, a man who gave his life for peace. a tiny, little man in physical stature, but a giant in -- in morality," he said.
July 12, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (8)
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People throwing a fit about a Hindu prayer in the US Senate, are no different than the Taliban. 1 in 6 people on this planet is a Hindu. We believe in "Live & Let Live" instead of "Live & Let Die" or "Die & Let Die". What ever happened to religious tolerance? This is a sad case of a shameful combination of "Ignorance & Arrogance". We have a decent size Christian community in India, with whom we largely live in harmony and mutual respect. You need to learn about other religons and cultures. You have two choices - either wake up and learn about the world you live in or accept that you are extremists in suits & tuxedos.
Posted by: Hindu American | Jul 12, 2007 3:06:08 PM
During a July 2006 campaign stop in New Hampshire, Mr. Reid Democratic coleague Joe Slow Biden made the following remark to an Indian-American political activist:
"In Delaware, the largest growth of population is Indian Americans, moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I’m not joking."
Later, on January 31, 2007, Biden, in an interview with the New York Observer, said about (then) possible presidential candidate Barack Obama. “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” he said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Draw your own conclusions...
Posted by: Val | Jul 12, 2007 4:28:37 PM
So, they weren't arrested for interrupting the prayer, or for religious reasons per se, so much as for "disruption of Congress".
Well, they sure as hell did that now, didn't they.
I don't care what you're screaming about, or why; pick a better time & place to make your statement.
Reid's smarminess wasn't exactly what was called for, but something was needed to clarify that these three nutjobs weren't widely supported.
Posted by: Gekkobear | Jul 12, 2007 5:16:20 PM
So, are we now "One nation under godS?"
Posted by: S. A. M. | Jul 15, 2007 9:32:02 PM
And why is it that prayer in the name of JESUS is NOT allowed?
Posted by: S. A. M. | Jul 15, 2007 9:33:47 PM
And we are fighting a war on terror against "intolerant" taliban? What are these protestors? US should put to place there own "intolerant" extremists & terrorists who are terrorising an innocent preist who was invited there.
Posted by: Raj | Jul 21, 2007 1:37:57 AM
These screamers belong with the Al-Quaida terrorists at Guatanomo!
Posted by: LK | Jul 21, 2007 1:41:38 AM
While their outbursts were inappropriate and disrespectful, I can't quite bring myself to draw comparisons between them and the friggin' taliban.
Mind-numbing.
Posted by: J | Feb 16, 2009 9:22:49 PM
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