A casino in Las Vegas found itself in hot waters after displaying statues of various Hindu and Jain deities, instantly drawing flak from religious leaders and social media users. The night club's website had tried to lure customers to "our DEITY dancer experience" while highlighting the goddesses "who add the perfect touch of high-class debauchery."
Religious leaders from five different faiths, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Jainism, together approached The Foundation Room to have the statues removed from the nightclub.
In a joint statement, the group of religious scholars, including Nevada's Greek Orthodox Christian Priest Stephen R Karcher, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, prominent Buddhist Priest Matthew T. Fisher, well-known Jewish Rabbi Elizabeth Webb Beyer and renowned Jain leader Sulekh C Jain, said that "placing highly revered Hindu and Jain deities to adorn a casino night-club was very disrespectful, out-of-line, and could be disturbing to the adherents of these faiths."
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said Hindu deities belong in temples or home shrines and not in night-clubs for dramatic effects or to serve any other vile purpose. Sulekh Jain suggested the statue of Lord Mahaveer be donated to Jain temples in the States and the Jain community would gladly pay for the transportation.
Las Vegas casino draws netizen's ire
Several photos were shared on Twitter, displaying the distasteful depiction of sacred deities in night clubs. One Twitter user Abhishek Jain had shared photos of people indecently posing with the idols of Lord Mahavira and sharing them on social media. In one picture, Lord Parshvanatha in Foundation Room Chicago was pictured with a masquerade ball mask in his lap. Moreover, an idol of Lord Ganesha was placed in a place where cocktails were being served and another photo showed Ganesha's idol with a wine-glass in the front.
There was a social media outcry over the insensitive depiction, which hurts the sentiments of Jains and Hindus around the world. Netizens were quick to demand The Foundation Room to take prompt action and even issue an apology.
Casino owners issue apology
The Foundation Room, the owners of the Resort and Casino in Las Vegas where the sacred idols were placed, has since removed the statues from the venue and issued an apology and assured to never repeat such insensitive depiction.
"The Foundation Room's two-decade plus tradition of promoting racial and spiritual harmony through love, peace, truth, righteousness and non-violence is more important than ever. We deeply apologize to those who are offended by recent images and we will work diligently to ensure such insensitive depictions don't happen again. Specifically, we are removing the statue Mahavira from our premises. We have always strived to promote dialogue to bring us closer together and are committed to this sentiment moving forward," the statement read.
The statement did not mention if the statue of Lord Ganesha was removed from the venue.
