[Buddha-l] holy shoes

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

www.easterneyeonline.co.uk <http://www.easterneyeonline.co.uk/>

UK, SEPTEMBER 9, 29905: A British Hindu charity, Hindu Human Rights, won 
its campaign to stop the sale by a French company of shoes with an image 
of Lord Ram printed on them (pictured), only to trigger an almighty 
debate about how to destroy them, reads this report from the UK. Minelli 
sent the remaining 500 women's shoes to Hindu Human Rights recently to 
be destroyed, with a letter apologizing for any offence caused by it 
selling the shoes in France since May. It took a month-long letter 
campaign and a hundred strong demonstration outside France's embassy in 
London on June 12 by HHR for Minelli to contact the group and halt 
sales. But Arjun Malik, a spokesman for the campaign group, said it has 
been inundated with letters, e-mails and telephone calls, from among 
others Hindu temples, with warnings about how to destroy the shoes 
respectfully. Mr. Malik said: "We have opened a can of worms. People's 
emotions have been heightened. "We were thinking of inciner ating the 
shoes, but some people have said that it is wrong to burn the image of 
Lord Ram. "We thought of cutting the image out of the shoes and then 
burning the shoes. Again, some people say that would be defacing the 
image. "Some suggested drowning the shoes, but, obviously, it is illegal 
to do that in a river. "We can't just throw the shoes in the bin, 
either. "We need to think of some kind of puja [religious ceremony] 
before we destroy them. The last thing we want is to be accused of 
sacrilegious behavior."

Hindus with suggestions on how to properly dispose of the shoes can 
contact HPI at ar at hindu.org and we will pass them on to Hindu Human Rights.

-- 
>From HPI. Devotional dead end.

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms