HSC exposes those involved in CSFH attack: Urges students and community members to be careful of these controversial individuals

NJ, USA. The Hindu Students Council (HSC) has investigated the antecedents of those behind the recent attacks on it, and has come up with detailed information about those who are involved with the Campaign to Stop Funding Hate (CSFH) as well as the report. Among those are Biju Mathew, Ra Ravishankar, Raja Swamy, Samip Mallick, Murli Natrajan (also known as Balmurli Natrajan) and Ashwini Rao.

Except Mallick, all of the above are either members of or active contributors in the Forum of Inquilabi Leftists (FOIL). FOIL describes itself as “…a clearinghouse for radical Indian activists in the United States, Canada and England… [organized to]…help build projects that make [its] radical politics more material…”. Inquilabi means “revolution” in Urdu and messages posted on FOIL lists routinely praise the violent Maoists in Nepal and India. One message posted on FOIL’s mailing list on 3 Feb 2005 was a call by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN (M)) for a violent “confrontation with US imperialism.” The CPN (M) has been listed as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” organization in the Terrorist Exclusion List of the US Department of State. Messages on FOIL’s mailing list routinely cheer violent groups like CPN (M). Furthermore, FOIL and its youth group, Youth Solidarity Summer (YSS, in whose conference the report was released), have avowed political agendas that are on the very fringe, especially in their stances toward Hinduism and Judaism. Its members have published articles and given talks laced with anti-Semitism, even going so far to call the Anti-Defamation League a protector of “Zionist interests in the U.S.”, and calls any Hindu attempt to fight defamation in the same manner as being tied into “the Zionist leash.”

Biju Mathew, one of the founders and a member of FOIL and CSFH, is also a longtime Hindu baiter in USA. While Mathew’s Christian background puts his constant baiting of Hindus in poor taste, it must be noted that Stanford University canceled an event at which Mathew was supposed to be the speaker, after its campus newspaper, led by its editor Camille Ricketts (now with the Wall Street Journal) and reporter Patrick Leahy, reported that Mathew had a link to the Unabomber’s Manifesto on his website. Such support for propaganda advocating violence is a matter of concern for all of us and questions the ideology of such individuals. Mathew has also been a contributor in the weekly organ of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) called People’s Democracy. The CPI-M was under scrutiny for the massacre of innocent villagers in Nandigram on March 14th 2007.

Ra Ravishankar, another member of FOIL posting emails about HSC on various lists, has made a bizarre claim that “marrying is tantamount to supporting the heterosexist agenda of the US state.” In addition, in one of his other articles in FOIL’s mouthpiece Ghadar (meaning “rebellion” in Urdu), Ravishankar takes a rather cynical stance, describing HSC’s Holi’s celebrations as “seemingly innocuous”, implying a treacherous purpose behind such festivities.

Turning to Samip Mallick, Mallick has been an active member of Association for India‘s Development (AID). AID, posing itself as a “developmental organization”, worked on various projects with the DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) and SFI (Student Federation of India). Both SFI and DYFI are associated with the Community Party of India-Marxist and their members have been convicted of violence and murder.

It is unclear how people such as those mentioned above hope to be the leaders of youth in America. Indeed, the group called Youth Solidarity Summer (YSS) itself is not controlled by youth, but by much older people like Biju Mathew, Ashwini Rao and others. This calls into question their integrity and it is not clear why the authors of the report chose to suppress the identity of FOIL, but instead hid behind a name suggesting that an organization run by youth was behind the attack on HSC.

We urge students and the general community to be aware of the credentials of FOIL, YSS and its members and keep away from dangerous ideologies of violence and hatred that they associate with and propagate.

HSC is a non-profit 501(c)(3) youth organization with chapters at over 81 universities around the world. Established in 1990, HSC is an international forum providing opportunities on college campuses to learn about Hindu heritage and culture; foster awareness of issues affecting Hindus; and provide Seva (service) to the community. HSC presents many opportunities for spiritual, professional, and personal development via campus study groups, seminars, lectures, workshops, conferences, and camps. For more information on HSC, write to hsc at hscnet.org or visit the HSC website at http://www.hscnet.org.

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