If you thought only America was having problems with religious nutbags making normal life unpleasant, than you can take some comfort that you’re not the only one suffering. In India, Hindu Nationalists are becoming emboldened, and like their Christian counterparts, they are always clutching their pearls at anything that offends them, which is just about everything.

In West Bengal, a local zoo is being harassed for daring to give one of their tigers a name that Hindu extremists do not like. Worse still, the zookeepers had the temerity to put this beast in an enclave with another tiger with the name of a 16th century Muslim ruler named Akbar. There you have it: religious people are dangerous babies who want the whole world to bow down to their little temper tantrums.

If that wasn’t ridiculous enough, Akbar had been renamed after their original had been criticized by other Hindu extremists. And now, to avoid harassment, the two tigers are being kept in separate enclaves.

When is the world going to stop kowtowing to these idiots? I can’t imagine anything more stupid than protesting the names of these majestic animals. I mean what’s next? Are the Zoroastrians going to demand that the car company Mazda to abandon their brand?

I realize the ability to conceive is still very important in many cultures, but this guy is ridiculous; an Indian man cut off his tongue with a razor blade as an offering to his Hindu God, hoping this sacrifice would allow his wife to become pregnant.

Whether or not the man was aware modern science allows potentially infertile couples the opportunity to conceive through artificial insemination or fertility drugs is unknown. One thing is for sure; the only thing he’s managed to do is prove human beings do incredibly dumb things when they’re desperate, including sacrificing body parts in the vain hope their imaginary friends will grant them wishes. Try science next time dude; it’s pretty fucking awesome, and it works.

Because it’s almost literally halfway across the world, we don’t hear a lot of news about all the crazy stuff that happens in India. As far as most westerners are concerned, India is supposed to be a peaceful place, filled with sacred cows, gurus, and outsourced telemarketers. But all is not well in the world’s largest democracy, and they face the same challenge many other developing nations do; the growing power of religious fundamentalism.

Subodh Kerkar didn’t realize he would be receiving death threats for his sketches of Hindu god Ganesh, but it seems as though a fundamentalist group called Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has warned him they would cut off his fingers for his blasphemy (you can visit their website, but I assure you it’s nothing but nonsense).

The group takes a hard core stance regarding modernism and secularism, which they regard as dangerous. It was founded in 2002 after hardliners felt that the fundamentalism of Islam and Christianity needed their Indian counterpart, and like these two denominations, it is xenophobic, racist, and violently opposed to blasphemy.

I don’t find it surprising at all  so many religions are developing fundamentalist tendencies, especially in light of the growing popularity and power of modernism. These religions rightly feel that education, science, and ethics erode superstitious belief. My concern is these dangerous and ignorant fools will continue to threaten individuals who are simply trying to express themselves. It’s why we need to continue to fight for the rights of all individuals to speak their own minds; it’s the only way to beat these assholes.