TOI correspondent from Washington: A 19-year-old neo-Nazi teen’s reported use of cross-sex hormones has added a contentious dimension to an attempted mass shooting at a Hindu temple in Illinois, while in a separate incident, a 16-year-old with access to guns murdered three children and a teacher in a school in Oregon as America’s epidemic of gun violence continues unabated.US politicians and public officials issued familiar mealy-mouthed platitudes invoking “thoughts and prayers” for victims and their families as the core issue of easy access to guns was sidelined by fervent debates over parenting, mental illness, gender transition, etc.Reports that Alexandro Paporakis, the Illinois gunman whose jammed rifle thwarted a carnage at a Hindu temple near Chicago and who was receiving cross-sex hormone therapy and that a judge had ordered treatment to continue in custody was the digression US gun enthusiasts leaned into to argue guns are not the problem.Court reporting also cited anxiety, depression and other medical treatment the teen was going through, although these issues and reported gender transition were not seen as evidence of a motive, at least initially, for the alleged attack.Investigators have pointed instead to white-supremacist ideology and explicit racial motive based on a manifesto expressing hatred toward Indians, Jews and Black people.The Illinois case has also acquired a personal dimension for local Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, who said he and his family were present when the alleged attack was attempted Sunday.“I am horrified that a white supremacist attempted to carry out a mass shooting targeting Indian Americans at the Hindu temple in Aurora where my family worships,” the Illinois Democrat said, warning that anti-Indian hatred and white supremacy had become dangerous and authorities must take threats seriously before innocent people are killed.Six Indian-origin lawmakers – all Democrats – dubbed the “Samosa caucus” have faced virulent attacks from the MAGA nativist hardliners, some of them demanding only those born in the USA should be allowed to run for office.Among those who have faced such hostile race-baiting is Washington Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who has also faced attacks from many Indians for framing the Illinois incident more broadly in terms of attacks on South Asians, rather than explicitly describing the target as a Hindu temple, as her own party leader, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, did.Critics argue that describing a specifically anti-Hindu attack as anti-South Asian risks obscuring the religious identity of the intended victims.“Look at the chicanery of this lady. The word “ Hindu” gets stuck in her throat. Attacks by white supremacists are against Hindus, not “South Asians”. The targeted temple is Hindu, not South Asian. What a phoney,” former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal wrote on X.More than 50 American lawmakers and public officials condemned the Illinois attack, most of them explicitly identifying the target as the Hindu temple.Even the Pakistani-American lobbying group PakPAC did so, saying it is “deeply troubled to learn about a plot targeting a Hindu Temple in Illinois … No form of hatred is acceptable; we are all Americans. Freedom of worship is an American value. Hatred based on religion and national origin is against our American values.”Indian commentators also lashed out at several MAGA-associated conservative influencers whose provocative commentary in recent months about Indian immigration and Hindu temples in America has drawn accusations of stoking anti-Indian sentiment.They argue that portraying Hindu temples as symbols of unwanted demographic change – as is being done in Texas, where right-wing extremists have demonised a Hanuman temple – is contributing to a climate of suspicion.
