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.

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