Appeal to protest against US based online clothing denigrating Hindu Dharma

Appeals devout Hindus to register their protests on the following contact details of the Yizzam online store

Email: [email protected]

Fill a Form: http://www.yizzam.com/contacts

FHA Denigration Protest Team <[email protected]> wrote:

To whom it may concern,

We at Forum for Hindu Awakening have received some complaints from Hindus about some of your products, T-shirts and clothing items that are available on your website as given below.

• http://www.yizzam.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=hanuman
• http://www.yizzam.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=india
• http://www.yizzam.com/catalogsearch/result/index/?limit=24&q=hindu

Forum for Hindu Awakening is a nonprofit organization that strives to awaken society to the unique spiritual science behind Hindu Dharma concepts and practices, to motivate people to live and preserve them, and to facilitate the spiritual progress of humanity. One of the ways we do this is by addressing misrepresentations of Hinduism. We are sending this letter to inform you of a denigration that was brought to our attention by concerned Hindus. This denigration is happening through having images of revered Deities on T-shirts and various clothing items. We understand that you may have started this line of products as a novelty for your customers. However what you may not be aware of is that this is a denigration of Hinduism and its Deities and symbols.

You have printed images of the most revered Hindu Deities, Lord Vishnu, Lord Brahma, Deity Hanuman, Deity Shiv, and other Hindu Deities on these T-shirts and clothing items. These clothes are put into the washing machine for washing, with other soiled clothes. When a T-shirt is no longer used, it will be thrown into the trash. Thus the sanctity of the Deities images will not be maintained. As per Hinduism, Deities are eternal principles of God that carry out different functions in the universe. Hindus treat their religious symbols, chants and Deities with utmost respect. Deities are adorned on an altar to worship and offer prayers, thus having Their images anywhere else like on T-shirts and other clothing items is denigrating Hinduism and hurting feelings of billions of Hindus across the world.

Printing images of Hindu Gods on clothing sends a wrong message to the world that it is okay to have these images on T-shirts and other clothing items. Hence, the reverence and respect for Deities will be harmed. We urge you to consider the above points and remove all the products that have Hinduism related designs. We stress that our aim in bringing up these points is to educate and ensure that Hinduism gets accurately represented to society. Hinduism has been misrepresented at many levels. Though it is an ancient tradition, Hinduism has a lot to offer the modern world and we want children and adults alike to be able to understand and study it without it being misrepresented. You can take one step towards ensuring that Hinduism does not get misrepresented by removing the T-shirts and other clothing items with Hinduism related designs as mentioned above.

Sincerely,
Forum for Hindu Awakening

Yizzam CustomerCare <[email protected]> wrote:

Hello Forum for Hindu Awakening,

We strive to do the best by all our stakeholders. I’m deeply apologetic that you consider our use of the images a denigration. The designs are very popular as an extension of peaceful co-existence. They are very popular with members of the yoga community as well.

Our intention is never to offend. With that said we carry Christian items with the Virgin Mary AND items catering to couples of the same sex. We have many items that support contradicting world views. Our goal is to allow for the spread of good ideas and discussion. I will let our management know about your philosophy.

Sincerely,
Paul
Yizzam

FHA Denigration Protest Team <[email protected]>

Dear Paul,

Thank you for your prompt response. Our concern about trivialization of Hindu Deities remains, for the reasons mentioned in our earlier email. While we understand that you have T-Shirts with the Virgin Mary and also with the Buddha, would you tell us why don’t you have a single item on Islam ? Is it because the response you would get to that would not be so peaceful as what you are getting from us ?

Hence, we urge you to respect our concerns raised in a peaceful manner and remove the items trivializing Hindu Deities.

We await the response from your management to our concerns.

Sincerely,
Forum for Hindu Awakening