Homophobia, Antisemitism, Hinduphobia: The Many Hates of Pieter Friedrich
- authored by CoHNA Staff
For years, self-styled journalist Pieter Friedrich has been hounding Hindu Americans who have dared to, publicly, take pride in their faith and heritage. Over the past few months, this has meant that he has been traveling from one city to another across the United States, appearing before city councils and other public forums to make inflammatory accusations against Hindu advocacy organizations. His recent appearances in Atlanta, Palo Alto, and elsewhere have targeted many orgs including Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA). His false and defamatory claims are designed to silence Hindu voices in civic life.
City leaders and lawmakers who engage with him, and the public at large, deserve to know more about this individual’s background and the history of bigotry that underlies his so-called “activism.”
Peiter Friedrich’s Dangerous Rhetoric
Friedrich has a documented pattern of attacking Hindu Americans in public office. Capping a series of outrageous tactics, in 2022, he chanted “death to Raja Krishnamoorthi” and “Nazis out, Raja must go” at a protest targeting the Hindu American Congressman. This prompted civil rights icon Reverend Jesse Jackson to publicly condemn Friedrich. In Jackson’s own words: “To put it bluntly: saying ‘Nazis out, Raja must go’ & ‘Death to Krishnamoorthi’ is racist, bigoted, incendiary rhetoric that does not belong in our political or civic discourse.”
Krishnamoorthy is hardly the only Hindu to have been targeted. Friedrich has labeled the first ever Hindu Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and now first Hindu Director of National Intelligence as a “toady of Modi” and “RSS princess”. He has accused her of being a foreign agent of the Indian government, despite her not being of Indian descent. Friedreich has used similar dual loyalty tropes to smear any Hindu American politician that does not adhere to his world view, including Maryland Deputy Governor Aruna Miller and Congressional candidate Sri Preston Kulkarni.
Beyond Hindus – Peiter Friedrich’s Documented Bigotry
While American Hindus have borne the brunt of his lies and hate for the past several years, Friedrich’s own archived writings reveal deeply troubling views against multiple minority groups.
His antisemitism is on full display in his now defunct blog. In October 2003, he wrote, “the modern-day nation of Israel is cursed by God” and claimed “there is no longer any such a thing as a Jew in the Biblical sense, unless by ‘True Jews’ we mean Christians.”
The blog also exposed his hatred for the LGBTQ+ community. Multiple posts, now deleted, from the same period contain anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and racist claims that are too offensive quote but can be read online and in the screenshot above. In another section he talks about a “well stocked gay and lesbian section” as being reason enough to boycott a bookstore.
So it is indeed ironic to hear the man today travel around the country claiming Hindu groups and individuals are an imminent threat to freedom of speech.
Peiter Friedrich’s Opposition to the Messiah of Ahimsa
Aside from attacking modern day Hindus who dare to have a public profile,Friedrich has made a career of attacking Mahatma Gandhi, a man whose life inspired leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so many others. In 2020, Friedrich gave a speech celebrating the destruction of a Gandhi statue in Davis, California. In another one of his blogs, this one titled “Gandhi Has to Go,” he called for more such destruction. No surprisingly we saw a spate of Gandhi statues being vandalized at Hindu temples across North America, including in Queens, New York in 2022
A clear pattern of smearing American Hindu civic advocates
Friedrich has traveled to Atlanta, Palo Alto, Newark, Santa Clara, Roseville, Troy, Frisco, and Dallas with the same playbook: equate Hindu American civic participation with extremism, smear organizations like CoHNA as foreign agents, and attempt to silence Hindu voices in public life. He has sought to portray legitimate community organizations as threats and undermine the fundamental American principle of religious pluralism.
Pieter Friedrich is neither a credible journalist nor a genuine human rights advocate. He is an individual with a documented history of antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-Hindu bigotry who has made a career of attacking Hindu Americans and their civic participation. He must be treated with the disdain he deserves.