“When Will America Wake Up?”: VHP’s Vinod Bansal on Attacks on Hindu Temples
Vinod Bansal cites recent Ohio temple attack and earlier incidents, urges US authorities to ensure security and take action
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 4th Oct: Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) national spokesperson Vinod Bansal has raised serious concerns over what he described as repeated attacks and acts of vandalism targeting Hindu temples and Indian cultural centres in the United States.
In a post, Bansal said the incidents could no longer be treated as ordinary vandalism, pointing specifically to an attack on the Shri Swaminarayan Vadtaldham Temple in Richmond Heights, Ohio, on October 2.
According to Bansal, stones were thrown at the temple while priests and devotees were present inside. He said windows were damaged and CCTV footage from the incident was available for investigation. He also questioned what he described as silence from the local administration.
Bansal said the Ohio incident was neither the first nor an isolated case involving Hindu religious and cultural sites in the US. Citing incidents from recent years, he recalled that a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Shri Tulsi Temple complex in Queens, New York, was damaged in August 2022.
He further pointed to an incident in December 2023, when objectionable slogans were written at the SMVS Shri Swaminarayan Temple in Newark, California.
According to Bansal’s post, vandalism incidents were also reported in September 2024 at the Melville temple in New York and at some BAPS temples in California. He also cited a March 2025 incident in which a BAPS temple in Chino Hills, California, was defaced with hateful messages.
Bansal additionally referred to reported incidents involving a temple in Spanish Fork, Utah, where he said there was firing, a temple sign in Greenwood, Indiana, where a hateful message was allegedly written, and a temple in Cary, North Carolina, where a religious idol was reportedly damaged.
Raising questions over the response to such incidents, Bansal asked when the US would take stronger notice of repeated attacks targeting Hindu temples.
He also questioned whether the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which he accused of repeatedly highlighting allegations against India, would speak about such incidents involving Hindu religious sites in the United States.
Bansal called for action against those responsible for what he described as anti-Hindu hatred and religious attacks. He sought impartial investigations, arrests of the perpetrators and concrete security protocols to protect Hindu temples.
“Hindu society will not silently accept attacks on its religious, cultural and places of worship anywhere in the world,” Bansal said in his post, urging the US administration to treat the security of Hindu temples seriously and take immediate steps to prevent such incidents from recurring.
