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Amazon.com removes Lord Ganesha skateboards after Hindus protest
 
Amazon.com, said to be world’s largest online retailer, has seemingly removed skateboards carrying images of Hindu deity Lord Ganesha from its website after Hindus protested.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, thanked Amazon.com for understanding and feeling the concerns of Hindu community, which thought images of Lord Ganesha on skateboards were highly inappropriate.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, however, said that an official apology from Amazon.com and its President Jeffrey P. Bezos to the upset Hindu community was still due as this was not the first time for the company to offer such products which were deemed offensive by Hindu devotees.
 
Moreover; bedcovers, bed sheets, bedspreads, picnic beach sheets,  cigarette cases, waist pants; carrying the images of Hindu deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Lakshmi and Kali were still being sold at Amazon.com; which we urge the company to show some maturity and immediately withdraw, Rajan Zed stated.
 
Zed suggested Amazon.com and other corporations to send their senior executives for training in religious and cultural sensitivity so that they had an understanding of the feelings of customers and communities when introducing new products or launching advertising campaigns.
 
Rajan Zed noted that  Hindu deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Lakshmi and Kali were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to put your feet-legs on or wear on your legs or sleep-sit on it or to hold your cigarettes. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the faithful.
 
Rajan Zed pointed out that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
 
Zed further said that it was shocking to visualize that a company like Amazon.com, for its mercantile greed, would apparently sell anything without caring for the feelings of a considerable segment of world’s population.
 
Amazon.com, Inc., a Fortune 500 company founded in 1994, and headquartered in Seattle (USA), claims to offer earth’s biggest selection.

Merrimack College urged to add “Hindu” to its Jewish-Christian-Muslim Center
 
Hindus are urging renowned Merrimack College in North Andover (Massachusetts) to add “Hindu” to its Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations Center to be inclusive for its Hindu students and the community.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that by including Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought, Merrimack would be implementing its own “Mission Statement” which sought to “increase mutual understanding among peoples of diverse beliefs”.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that Merrimack, by displaying this inclusivity, would be fulfilling its own claim: As a College in the tradition of the Augustinian Order Merrimack is inspired by the vision of St. Augustine that “There is no one in the human race to whom we do not owe love” (Letter 130:13).
 
How a well-known educational institution could accomplish its “mission” “to enlighten minds” when its inter-religious relations center excluded various major world religions? Rajan Zed asked.
 
Zed urged Michael K. Crowe, Dr. Christopher E. Hopey and Joseph Kelley; Trustees Chair, President and Center Director respectively of Merrimack; to work on restructuring its Center for the Study of Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations and include Hinduism in it. If they needed any assistance in Hinduism, he or other scholars would be glad to help, Zed added.
 
Moreover, it would be an opportunity for Merrimack to deliver on its “commitment” of spiritual development of students and its “dedication to the Augustinian values of hospitality, community and the pursuit of truth”, Rajan Zed indicated.
 
Founded in 1947, Merrimack College on a 220-acre campus attracts students  “from all across the United States and around the globe” to its 90-plus graduate and undergraduate academic programs and claims to rank among the top 10 colleges in the North region of USA.