Browsing Tag: Arizona

Sikh community of Phoenix celebrates 15 years of Monthly Meals Seva to the Homeless of Phoenix

Hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Indians over the past year have asked for asylum after paying as much as $35,000 to be smuggled halfway around the globe.

The Sikh Coalition shared news today of a victory in a recent religious accommodation case in Arizona, in which a Sikh correctional officer employed by the Arizona Department of Corrections was threatened with dismissal unless he removed his articles of faith.

...the Sikhs of Arizona truly rose up and started to work for Sikh awareness when one of their very own, S. Balbir Singh Sodhi of Mesa Arizona was fatally hurt four days after 9-11. It was first ever fatal and serious hate crime against the Sikhs.

Representing 25 different faiths, the movement has become a great vehicle for Sikh awareness among members of different faiths through their selfless seva of Langar.

"It will get better, but it will be bad for awhile."

Assembling every year and holding a candlelight vigil at the spot where Balbir Singh fell, the Sikh people have been trying to speak against hatred while keeping awareness about their identity alive.

It’s not Sikh either. I hope this struggle in Alabama inspires other people of faith and religious institutions— Christian, Sikh and otherwise— to take pro-active steps to push forward immigrant rights and justice, rooted in our faith and our knowledge of the Divine in every human being.

The rivaling stories on the memorial touched off a bitter, years long struggle in Arizona over how Sept. 11 should be publicly remembered. Here, as in the rest of the United States, there are opposite and diverging opinions about tolerance and patriotism, hate and peace. And on the Phoenix memorial, those opinions are etched in steel, side by side.

Governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer invited the family of Balbir Singh Sodhi’s, America’s first victim of hate-crime after 9/11, to her office and vetoed the House Bill number 2230 in their presence which would have removed Sodhi’s name from state memorial built to mark the tragedy of 9/11 and its victims.

Rana Singh Sodhi said he still opposes Kavanagh's bill, which would require panels on the memorial to be removed by Sept. 11, 2011, the 10-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks. By agreeing to introduce follow-up legislation in January to correct the slight against Balbir Singh Sodhi in the original legislation, Kavanagh is admitting the original bill is flawed.

Arranged by Gurdwara Sahib, Guru Nanak Dwara of Phoenix, Arizona, the local Sikhs served Langar to five hundred members of Inter-faith community on the evening of October 14th, 2010.

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked some of the toughest provisions in the Arizona immigration law, putting on hold the state's attempt to enforce federal immigration policy.

Arizona’s discriminatory position on immigration may spread to other states. In fact, at least ten other states are considering laws similar to Arizona’s, including Maryland.

This law is based on the viewpoint that anyone of color or with an accent may be in the United States illegally. It enables the police to act on this stereotype and profile anyone in Arizona who may have a darker skin complexion, appears foreign, or speaks differently.

Though most Sikh members are undocumented, many are living in Korea legally. A few community members have received F2 visas through marriages, some of which are contract marriages, and some have business visas.