Dear Friend,
The Sikh-American community has had an anxious few weeks after the terror attacks in Paris and California. Our community is particularly sensitive to these attacks due to significant misconceptions of Sikhism which has led us to become victims of a brunt of the backlash.
Just this week there was a shooting at a store owned by a Sikh man, a Gurdwara was vandalized in Los Angeles, and another elderly Sikh gentleman was attacked in Bakersfield.
The hateful rhetoric and policy proposals that challenge religious freedom from a select few political leaders has only worsened the situation.
The National Sikh Campaign has been working hard to ensure that we raise awareness of Sikhism to proactively prevent these attacks.
However, now more than ever, it is important for faith leaders to come together and help raise awareness of not just their own faiths, but each other's faiths. The reality is that America is a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, non-religious people and more.
We all live together and work together to build this country and it is important that we have faith in each other.
This is why, after months of behind-the-scenes planning, we are extremely excited to launch, at the White House, an interfaith coalition that we have created and led entitled, "Know Your Neighbor," which calls on all Americans to share their own beliefs as well as understand and respect those of others.
The official launch ceremony of Know Your Neighbor is taking place on December 17th at the White House. We are leading 15 faith-based organizations in this initiative. The launch will include keynote addresses from officials from the Obama Administration in addition to a panel discussion on the importance of this initiative. There will be a White House live webcast (whitehouse.gov/live) of the event and we are hoping you join us!
Thank you,
Gurwin Ahuja
Executive Director