[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by fotze

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...show_article=1

NEW DELHI (AP) - Angry crowds in several Indian cities are burning effigies of Richard Gere.


It's happening after Gere swept a popular Bollywood actress into his arms and kissed her several times during an AIDS-awareness event.

Photographs of Gere embracing Shilpa Shetty and kissing her on the cheek at an HIV/AIDS awareness event in New Delhi were splashed across front pages.

India is a country where sex and public displays of affection are largely taboo.
In Mumbai, members of the right-wing Hindu nationalist group Shiv Sena beat burning effigies of Gere with sticks and set fire to glamourous shots of Shetty.

I wonder if this stems from the hindu's belief in never harming animals and Gere's past treatment of gerbils?

This is nothing new for public displays of affection . . . . Valentines Day is a phenomenon sweeping across India, sparking protests:

As a Valentine's Day card smoldered, more than 100 members of the Hindu extremist group Shiv Sena chanted "Death to Valentine's Day" and "People who celebrate Valentine's Day should be pelted with shoes!"

Valentine's Day has in the past two decades made strong inroads in India as the country has slowly opened itself up to the outside world - its economic boom bringing in not just foreign investment but also aspects of Western culture virtually unknown here a quarter century ago.

Across the country, stores stock heart-shaped balloons and chocolates, restaurants offer Valentine's Day specials and young lovers find refuge from prying eyes in the parks.

It's a state of affairs that enrages Hindu and Muslim hard-liners, who on Wednesday vented just as they do every Valentine's Day - burning cards, holding rallies and even threatening to beat couples caught canoodling in public, a strict no-no for those who claim to defend traditional Indian values.

"This is a conspiracy to misguide the young people of our country," said Jai Bhagwan Goel, chief of the Shiv Sena's north India branch.

http://www.christianpost.com/article...'s_Day.htm

Cowperson