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Rasheed Ahmed’s piece in New India Abroad pretends to be investigative journalism but is nothing more than a calculated ideological hit job against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA).

All his life, as Mirza Ghalib observed, the poet kept making the same mistake: the dust was on his own face, yet he kept cleaning the mirror. That same self-deception runs through Ahmed’s article.

It opens with a guilty verdict, branding a decades-old American 501(c)(3) nonprofit as a sinister “foreign appendage” and “national security risk” without a single proven violation of U.S. law—no crimes, no scandals, no charges. Just guilt by Indian cultural connection. Ordinary Hindu activities like temples, youth camps, language classes, and disaster relief are twisted into evidence of “Hindu supremacism” and “transnational repression.”

This is not criticism; it is character assassination designed to make Hindu-American civic life appear inherently dangerous while demanding scrutiny never applied to other communities and organizations including his own.

The article follows a mechanical smear formula: saturate the text with loaded terms like RSS, Hindutva, and supremacism to poison the well; link VHPA through historical and cultural ties; collapse every distinction between religion, culture, and politics; then reinterpret benign work as sinister intent. Language programs become “infiltration.” Charity becomes ideology. No actual evidence is needed—proximity alone convicts. This tactic, pushed by networks like the IAMC, reverses the burden of proof, forcing Hindu organizations to endlessly defend themselves against a predetermined narrative of suspicion.

 

Also Read: The politics of denial: Hindi on the shelf, Hindus shown the door

A simple Hindi-language book event at Germantown Library, focused on literacy and culture with no political content, was canceled after a so-called “civil-rights coalition” mobilized pressure. The mere presence of Hindu organizers triggered alarm. IAMC and its ilk’s  hypersensitivity recasts normal cultural activity as provocation, bullying institutions into submission before facts matter. Multicultural societies cannot survive if one group’s taboos dictate what others may teach or celebrate.

Let’s look closely at IAMC, an Islamist group with alleged ties to SIMI, a banned terrorist organization in India has no business preaching everyone about VHPA. Have a look at what it does now. A cursory glance at their website points out truly who they are and who they partner with. And not so surprisingly, one of them is already designated as a terrorist organization in one of the states in the USA, which explains their whole game plan. Act as an intellectual arsonist against any and every Hindu charitable, advocacy, cultural and educational work without any provocation whatsoever. VHPA doesn’t need a certificate from a trashy group which is already in bed with such a terrorist organization to mention a few.

VHPA’s transparent IRS filings document millions sent to Indian partners for legitimate humanitarian work—orphan education, Gujarat earthquake rebuilding including Muslim homes, tsunami relief, COVID oxygen supplies, and U.S. disasters including aid that benefited Muslim charities. Cross-border philanthropy is standard for American nonprofits.

“Critics” cherry-pick a few controversial speakers where VHPA is merely a partner and scream extremism, as if one or two events define the soul of the organization. Major Muslim advocacy groups have repeatedly rolled out the red carpet for convicted terrorist supporters, unindicted co-conspirators in major bombing cases, and even active Hamas operatives—figures with direct ties to designated terror networks—while enjoying near-total immunity from the same standards of scrutiny.

Also Read: From the library to the legislature: What VHPA’s and CoHNA’s own records reveal

This grotesque double standard is not oversight; it is rank hypocrisy weaponized to shield one side and demonize the other. VHPA’s real record—fifty plus years of education, temple support, family programs, and selfless service—deserves honest assessment on its sustained conduct. The glaring double standard reveals the agenda.

The entire “national security threat” narrative collapses under examination. It rests on a Rutgers Center report from an entity under congressional investigation for antisemitism and terrorist sympathizing, an outdated and quickly deleted 2018 CIA footnote, and a non-binding USCIRF advisory.

VHPA, fully compliant with U.S. law, has never been charged with anything. Meanwhile, real supremacist patterns—Dearborn’s Muslim mayor telling a Christian pastor to “get out,” Hamtramck’s Pride flag ban, proposed Sharia enclaves, and the deadly trail of Islamist attacks from 9/11 to the 2025 New Orleans massacre—are routinely downplayed. Labeling peaceful Hindu Americans a security risk for running temples and charity is not pluralism. It is deliberate viewpoint discrimination aimed at chilling First Amendment rights.

Finally, the article’s repeated use of “Hindutva” versus “Islamophobia” exposes the deepest hypocrisy. Hindutva is simply the cultural and civilizational self-assertion of Hindus in their ancestral homeland—pride, continuity, and resistance to historical erasure. Islamophobia, by contrast, is the rational, evidence-based concern born from 1,400 years of doctrinal supremacism, jihad, and repeated violence, including countless plots on American soil.

If critics truly want to reduce such fears, Muslim communities must dismantle domestic extremism, stop weaponizing accusations of bigotry against free speech, fully assimilate to American values over Sharia, and demonstrate genuine reciprocity. Hindutva is self-defense through pride; Islamophobia is a natural response to unaddressed threat.

VHPA is judged on its own merit, by its actual conduct, transparency, and legal compliance—not its Hindu identity or Indian ties. The real danger is not this law-abiding American organization, but the weaponization of selective suspicion to marginalize an entire community while shielding others including its own. It is time to stop cleaning the mirror and confront the dust on one’s own face.

 

The writer is a retired scientist, currently serving as the VP Education for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad America (VHPA)

 

 

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of New India Abroad.) 

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