In a flashback to an item noted earlier this month, the city of Phoenix, AZ, was extremely grateful for the prayer at a City Council meeting led by Hindu Rajan Zed.

[Zed] started and ended the prayer with “Om”, the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work. Zed sprinkled few drops of sacred water from river Ganga in India around the podium before the prayer.

Zed also provided the Mayor and the AZ Secretary of State with a copy of the religious text Bhagavad-Gita.

Meanwhile, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State continues to complain about Christian prayers in other cities, as has the ACLU in the past.  Even when they appear to support a broad policy, the focus falls on Christianity, as in response to prayers in Wichita:

“Invocations before government meetings only serve to promote religion,” [said Vickie Sandell Stangl, [local AU] president, noting that the majority of the invocations have been Christian. “Public business should be free of religious sentiment.”

A variety of locals even noted that Wichita has had a wide variety of religious beliefs represented, from Native American to Wiccan, yet the AU found it necessary to focus on the Christian ones.