Cannot agree with you more. I get the crap that a person cannot convert to Hinduism and that Hinduism is a way of life ... If so why prevent ppl who hv faith ? There was another similar incident a few months back about Princess of Thailand and Jaganath puri.

It's any idea which ought to have more currency with many more religions, Aswath. Certainly, simply differences of opinion about the Divine have been the historical source of multitudes of wars.

My wife was brought up in a Swedenborgian Church. Swedenborg was a 17th century philosopher and spiritualist. One of his fundamental teachings is the value of all religions.

From Swedenborg's "Divine Providence", #330:

It is a foolish heresy that only those are saved who are born within the Church. Those who are born outside the Church are men as well as those born within it, being of the same heavenly origin, and are equally living and immortal souls. They also have a form of religion from which they acknowledge that there is a God, and that they ought to live well; and he who acknowledges God and lives well becomes spiritual in his own degree and is saved.