The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coun­cil of Evan­gel­i­cal Church­es (TTCEC) is de­scrib­ing a re­cent ap­palling act of vi­o­lence, the Bharatiya Vidya Ab­hyas Man­dali, known as the Watts Street tem­ple, as a de­spi­ca­ble act of van­dal­ism.

On Wednes­day, sev­er­al mur­tis with­in a sa­cred court­yard were de­stroyed, with three life-sized mur­tis of Hin­du deities Shi­va, Hanu­man, and Dur­ga be­ing de­cap­i­tat­ed.

In a state­ment the TTCEC said, “ This sense­less act of sac­ri­lege has left the com­mu­ni­ty in shock and dis­be­lief. The Trinidad & To­ba­go Coun­cil of Evan­gel­i­cal Church­es stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, and un­equiv­o­cal­ly con­demns this ab­hor­rent at­tack on the Watts Street tem­ple. Re­gard­less of one’s re­li­gious be­liefs or prac­tices, vi­o­lence and des­e­cra­tion against places of wor­ship are in­tol­er­a­ble and must be con­demned in the strongest terms. We ex­tend our heart­felt sym­pa­thies to the mem­bers of the Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty, who have been deeply af­fect­ed by this act of van­dal­ism.”

It added that this des­e­cra­tion strikes at the very heart of re­li­gious free­dom and tol­er­ance.

“ It is deeply con­cern­ing that such in­ci­dents are not iso­lat­ed oc­cur­rences, but part of a dis­tress­ing se­ries of tar­get­ed at­tacks on places of wor­ship. These acts of vi­o­lence have no place in our so­ci­ety.”

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Coun­cil of Evan­gel­i­cal Church­es urged law en­force­ment au­thor­i­ties to swift­ly in­ves­ti­gate this heinous crime and bring the per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice. Fur­ther­more, it called up­on all cit­i­zens to stand to­geth­er in sol­i­dar­i­ty against re­li­gious in­tol­er­ance and ha­tred.

“ Now more than ever, it is im­per­a­tive that we fos­ter a so­ci­ety where in­di­vid­u­als of all faiths can wor­ship peace­ful­ly, free from fear and dis­crim­i­na­tion. Let us reaf­firm our com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing the prin­ci­ples of re­spect, tol­er­ance, and co­ex­is­tence, ir­re­spec­tive of re­li­gious af­fil­i­a­tions or be­liefs. To­geth­er, let us con­demn these rep­re­hen­si­ble acts and strive to­wards build­ing a so­ci­ety where the sanc­ti­ty of all places of wor­ship is re­spect­ed and pro­tect­ed. May peace, un­der­stand­ing, and har­mo­ny pre­vail in Trinidad and To­ba­go,” it said.