New York, Hindu priest Rajan Zed's historical opening prayer in the US Senate and the protests in the house have created crackling interest on the Internet, with some describing the prayer as "an insult to god" and others asking the Indian American chaplain to forgive the protesters.

The prayer held on July 12 has also resulted in hundreds of protest calls to the office of the senate chaplain and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

On YouTube, a 90-second video clip of the prayer has been one of the "top favourites" as well as the "most discussed" and "most linked".

Google search with "rajan zed" brought 120,000 results and Google Blog Search yielded 1,571 results, some of them in Dutch, French, Italian and Spanish.

The positive ones read: "He is the first Indian after Vivekananda to have an effect on the American public on the subject of Hinduism ...Hindu prayer in session is American values on faith in practice at their very best."

A few of the critical ones went: "...insult to God...", "Senate opening invocation by a Hindu chaplain represents an official stamp by the government on paganism, a move which may draw god's anger", "Intolerance from A to Zed", "I seriously doubt that Americans want to change the motto, 'In God we Trust', to 'In gods we trust'".

However, the email Rajan Zed received, mostly from Christians, are encouraging.

"Please forgive them (the protestors)", "I would like to apologise on behalf of the American people", "I am a member of the Lutheran Church. Please accept my apologies. They know not what they do," "The unfortunate intolerance of those people at the senate earlier is not representative of 99.999 percent of Americans," "As an American, I am proud of the inclusiveness of our society. As an Episcopalian, I am embarrassed by the demonstration."

The American Jewish Committee of New York said it was "deeply troubled by the verbal assault" on Zed, while the Foundation for Pluralism of Dallas said it was "very proud of this milestone (Hindu prayer) in our history..."

The Interfaith Council of Northern Nevada is organising a reception in Reno, where Zed lives, to honour him, on Aug 1, where besides political leaders, the clergy of various religions including Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Baha'i will speak and offer prayers.

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