SUGAR LAND, TEXAS, September 12, 2024 (Houston Chronicle): Leaders of the Ashtalakshmi Temple in Sugar Land are hiring security guards and installing cameras after members of the Humble-based Awakening Generation Church protested a 90-foot statue of the Deity Hanuman and told visitors Jesus is the only God. “We never planned for security, we never thought we would need it,” Dr. Ravi Tamerisa, one of the temple founders, said in a phone interview. Tamerisa said the temple spent $550 to hire security officers to guard the statue over the past week. The temple board is now assessing whether hiring full-time security is feasible and what steps to take next. They are also planning to install security cameras. On Aug. 25, a week after the statue had been officially unveiled, 25 members of the Humble-based church gathered near the statue, praying and preaching until a temple leader said he would contact the police.

Tamerisa said that although the church group had been non-violent, the aggressive proselytizing left them worried about future disturbances. “The church people were not violent, just protesting,” Tamerisa said about the church group. “They started circling the statue in an anticlockwise direction, saying that they wanted to save everyone and that Jesus was the only God. We told them that according to our teachings ‘we respect all religions and worship our own.’” Tamerisa said members of the temple had been especially offended by the group’s decision to circle the statue in a counterclockwise direction, as clockwise circumambulating is a sacred part of Hindu worship. He said temple leaders planned to discuss the issue with Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, a nonprofit dedicated to fostering interfaith dialogue and cooperation while providing social services to the community.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/fort-bend/article/sugar-land-temple-hire-security-church-group-s-19752755.php

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