Dear Editor,
Stabroek News editorial on “freedom of thought and of religion,” (08.03.21) is a timely reminder of the fact that this freedom must not be taken for granted.
Even though in the Guyanese society we are not given to extreme forms of behaviour in matters of religion and belief, there have been instances where these freedoms were breached and compromised.
About ten days earlier, on March 12, Stabroek News reported the vandalisation of the Durga murti at the Radha Krishna Mandir on Camp and Quamina Streets, Georgetown. It is a well known fact that sacred images are an integral part of Hindu worship and have been so for many thousands of years. The Hindus of Guyana are greatly perturbed by this unprovoked act of iconoclasm.
We know that some religions denounce what they call “graven images” and that iconoclasm, the destruction of sacred images, was and is a major part of their warfare conducted against faiths that have a different understanding of the role of the sacred image.
