Hindus request equality at Zurich airport

A LEADING Hindu society has called upon Zurich Airport to provide a designated ‘Hindu Prayer Room’ for passengers travelled through the terminus, a key global transit hub. 

Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has said it would be a terrific service if the airport authorities could create a quiet facility where devotees of the religion, one of the world’s largest faiths, could perform their daily worship routines. 

Members of the Christian and Islamic faiths are already well served at the airport, while an Ecumenical Chaplaincy offers full religious ceremonies, including weddings, baptisms, funerals and confessions. 

Zed offered his advice, and that of senior Hindu scholars, to the Board Chairman Andreas Schmid and CEO Stephan Widrig in a statement issued in Nevada. He requested that traditional statues, scriptures and music be available to allow Hindus to practice their faith in the interest of fairness and equality. 

With around one billion followers across the world, Hinduism originated in the Indian sub-continent thousands of years ago and encapsulated a broad variety of spiritual beliefs and cultures. It places a high degree of emphasis on prayer, mantras and worship, and has been described as the world’s oldest religion, while it is the third largest by numbers.