"There's no question it's part of a broader pattern of violence and harassment against Sikhs that we're seeing," said Simran Jeet Singh, the religion professor. "I can speak to that as someone who's working on these issues, and from anecdotal experience. I've been called more names on the street in last two weeks than last two years."
August 5th, 2015 marks the three-year anniversary of the shooting inside the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek. On that tragic day, six people lost their lives, and four others were injured when Wade Page opened fire on a sunny Sunday morning. This weekend, memorial events are planned to honor the victims who lost their lives in this shooting.
He told The Huffington Post, "When I first saw my Facebook friend's photo of this GAP subway advertisement defaced by vandals with racist messages, I wanted the world to see how millions of brown people are viewed in America today."
The term “mistaken identity” is problematic. When a reporter says that an incident was a case of “mistaken identity,” they are suggesting the idea that someone else should have been attacked instead of a Sikh.
t is heartening to see local governments be involved in addressing hate within their community by fostering more awareness and appreciation among its residents.
A year after tragedy, Ruby and Rumita have found renewed hope in humanity after witnessing first-hand the strength that can rise from the ashes of destruction.
On the one year anniversary of Oak Creek, in the midst of news of increasing violence in our country, may we share in the spirit of everlasting optimism – and hear the call to serve.
But as we reflect on the meaning of this tragedy one year later, we can choose to focus on what we do know for certain: the beauty of the six victims’ final act on Earth.
Two days after the event, I noted that the major news networks (not including CNN) had dedicated scant coverage to the shooting compared to Aurora, leaving it "destined to disappear into the realm of the nothing-to-be-done, nothing-to-be-discussed."
“All things being relative, I’m in a good spot,” Murphy explained. “Obviously, I realize how fortunate I am to even be alive. I don’t know why, and I don’t think I’ll ever know why....
Singh says one of the main pillars of the Sikh religion is that all human beings are created equal in God’s eyes regardless of their race, religion, and gender. He says he’s proud that Sikh-Americans can champion the cause of civil rights on behalf of other people.
Worshippers at a Sikh temple in southwest Fresno, close to where an elderly Sikh man was attacked while walking on South Cherry Avenue a week ago, say they want to encourage a spirit of unity in the community.
An improved approach to data collection will help us better understand the problem of hate bias in our society, and a better understanding will lead to an increased ability to address this problem.
"The data sucks," said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the issue. "Hate crime data as the FBI reports is underreported by an ungodly amount."
Monday, my 6-year old granddaughter asked me why I was so sad. “Because a man took guns into a gurdwara and killed six people,” I answered. Her response was simple: “Doesn’t he know it’s not good to kill people?”
“Sikhs have a responsibility to talk about their faith practice with outsiders, he says, “but it’s freaking me out.” The audience of 25 chuckled at his confession and then listened intently as he walked them through the historical roots of Sikhism...
We may never understand what kind of hate and anger drives a person to take the life of another, but we know it must stop. There is no room for hate crimes in any society,....
Sikh community members, city leaders and others gathered at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek Wednesday evening, November 21st for the very first “Heritage Day” event. The goal of the event was: “Uniting communities and cultures by breaking barriers.”
BeProud's mission is simple yet challenging: to end hate. Hate crimes affect us to our very core, but as recent tragedies have made clear, news coverage after the fact is not enough. Nothing will change if we do not stop hate before it grows.
American society tends to delude itself into believing that ignorance is the exclusive source of hate-violence. Part of the reason for this is that this idea is more comforting than the reality. It’s comforting for us to think that people would be compassionate towards one another if they were more educated.
The testimony of James Jacobs, a professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts, provided an interesting observation of the opposing arguments against the application of hate crime law in the US system, citing redundancy in law and lack of resources in enforcement and corrections as justification to dismiss hate crime legislation.
“Well, I think our orientation as a community has been to stress that we are opposed to religious hostility and hate crime-type violence directed against any community, whether it be the Muslim community or the Jewish community or any other religious community in America,” Singh said.
