Hindus laud New Zealand Police for launching guide to major religions
Hindus have commended New Zealand Police for launching a guide to practices of major religions of the country.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that this 60-page publication titled “A
Practical Reference to Religious Diversity” provided a wonderful resource to the members of police force to effectively
do their duties without hurting the religious sentiments of citizens belonging to various faith traditions. It also
assisted the general public in understanding the traditions of religions other than their own and thus helping in
building bridges.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that police forces of all the countries of the world should
come up with such guides to help their personnel in effective and compassionate policing and to create better
understanding between various religious communities by knowing about each other’s faith systems. In view of fast
changing demographics world over, basic understanding of other peoples’ faith was very important for cohesive and
harmonious societies. Basic information about major world religious traditions should be provided in police academies
also, Zed added.
This guide covers Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, and Maori spirituality; giving overview of
religion, death and related issues, gender roles and family, physical contact and other sensitivities, religious
practices and policing, etc. Rajan Zed suggested that attempts should be made to include the practices of rest of the
classical world religions (however small the number of their adherents be in New Zealand) in the next edition of the
guide, thus adding Bahaism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shintoism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism.
Zed also applauded New Zealand Police for making changes to their uniform code to accommodate Sikh police officers.
Ends