UKHC
Sarah Teather has in the House of Commons raised the issue of the plight of temples in UK because of the unfair immigration rules in UK. She said: ?That this House notes with concern the implications for Hindu temples of the new Home Office immigration rules affecting ministers of religion, effective from 31st August 2004, which require all such ministers to demonstrate fluency in the English language to level 4; notes that this hampers the recruitment of poojaris, in particular, whose roles are highly specialised and who are trained in India; further notes that the role of a poojari is to perform the daily rites for the Hindu gods in the temple and arti, which involves caring for the gods on a daily basis with prayers and meditation; further notes that these daily rites are central to the Hindu religion; further notes that the role of a poojari does not involve preaching to the congregation and that this role is generally performed by swamis, sadhus or Hindu preachers, who have knowledge of English; further notes that poojari'sjob requires knowledge of Hindu texts written in Sanskrit and knowledge of Gujarati and Hindi for sung worship, but not English; regrets that the Home Office would appear to have introduced regulations based on a Judaic-Christian model of worship without considering the implications for other faiths; and calls upon the Home Office to amend its regulations to provide an exception to poojaris because they do not preach.?
Meanwhile, some temples have had the immigration application, for their choice of able Sanskrit scholar priests, rejected, as happened with regard to the Swaminarayan Temple in Sarah Teather'sconsituency.
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