Archbishop of Canterbury Strongly Urged to Come Out Openly in Support of Roma People

Rajan Zed and Jewish leader, Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, in a statement in Nevada said that as European Union and countries of Europe have reportedly failed to bring Roma people at par with rest of the population, it was the moral duty of religious leaders to take up their cause. It was plainly immoral to silently watch the powerless Roma endure blatant injustice, being continuously faced by them for about one thousand years.

Perturbed by the continuous human rights violations faced by Roma people of Europe, Rabbi Jonathan B. Freirich, of Nevada and Universal Society of Hinduism president, Rajan Zed, have joined forces to make efforts to ameliorate their condition.

Strongly urging the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan D. Williams to come out openly in support of Roma and work to stop human rights violations suffered by them, Zed and Rabbi Freirich pointed out that Roma were facing brazen structural discrimination right in Dr. Williams' backyard. Being one of the top religious leaders having considerable influence in United Kingdom and other parts of the world, it was moral obligation of Archbishop of Canterbury to give voice to the Roma cause.

No religion told us to turn blind eye to the sufferings of the powerless and voiceless, Zed and Rabbi Freirich argued. They also implored other religious leaders of the Europe and world to show support to this largest minority of Europe who numbered around ten million and were the most disadvantaged.

Alarming condition of Roma is a social blight for Europe and the rest of the world as they reportedly regularly face social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, unusually high unemployment rates, etc., Rajan Zed and Rabbi Jonathan Freirich stress.

Roma issue should be one of the highest priorities of human rights agenda of Archbishop of Canterbury. It is reportedly like an undeclared apartheid and it is almost total societal exclusion of Roma, Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, adds.

January 17, 2009.

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