NEW YORK (Diya TV) — The Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA) is raising questions after discovering that the supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, was listed as a supporter of a controversial conference held in the United States four years ago. The conference, titled “Dismantling Global Hindutva” (DGH), took place at Rutgers University in 2021, was showcased online virtually and received major criticism for promoting what many called an “anti-Hindu agenda.”
CoHNA flagged that Akhundzada’s name appeared among the “academic supporters” of the DGH conference. The group shared its findings on X, calling the revelation “deeply concerning.” The DGH conference, organized by several American academics, aimed to discuss what they described as “Hindutva ideology.”
The Hindu advocacy group argued that the inclusion of the Taliban’s leader — officially referred to as the “Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” — exposes the hypocrisy of those claiming to promote academic freedom. “For over four years, a Taliban leader has been proudly included in a list we presume was checked and curated by various academics,” CoHNA said in its statement.
The 2021 conference received support from several universities and individual academics across the U.S, including the University of Pennsylvania, who through their in-house attorney told Diya TV at the time the conference was their intellectual property, thereby forcing Alphabet (Google) to take down all excerpts of the conference from our YouTube channel.
The organizers publicly shared a list of “academic supporters” to highlight the backing they received. However, among those names, CoHNA shared, was Hibatullah Akhundzada — the man who leads one of the world’s most repressive regimes.
Akhundzada has led the Taliban since 2016 and assumed full control of Afghanistan after the group regained power in 2021. He is widely recognized as the country’s supreme religious and political authority. Known as the “Commander of the Faithful,” Akhundzada’s word is considered law in Afghanistan.
According to a 2023 Voice of America (VOA) report, very few people have met him in person. Only a decades-old passport photograph — showing a man with a black beard and white turban — is publicly available.
His inclusion on a list of supposed “academic supporters” of an American university conference has left many observers shocked. “These are the kinds of ‘academics’ who support the dismantling of Hindutva,” CoHNA wrote in its X post.
The Coalition questioned whether U.S. universities have exercised proper oversight in associating their institutions with such controversial events. “Would the universities that lent their names and brands to the conference care to take a look at what is being sponsored under the guise of academic freedom?” the group asked.
The 2021 DGH event drew heavy criticism from Hindu groups around the world for what they viewed as a one-sided portrayal of Hinduism. Organizers of the conference defended it as an exercise in academic debate, claiming it was aimed at understanding the political aspects of Hindutva, not Hinduism itself.
However, CoHNA and other Hindu organizations have long argued that the conference blurred the line between criticism of political ideology and discrimination against Hindu identity.
The issue has sparked renewed concern among Hindu advocacy groups about bias in U.S. academia. They have called on Rutgers University and other institutions involved in the 2021 conference to review the list of supporters and clarify how such names were included.
As of now, neither Rutgers University nor the professors mentioned have issued a statement addressing CoHNA’s claims.
