Browsing Tag: Solidarity

After watching their teammate get turned away due in part to her religious beliefs, the rest of the Overland High School girls soccer team in Aurora, Colo., displayed the true meaning of unity.

Sikh Americans, who were targets of domestic terrorism in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, this past August have been particularly active in condemning the attack and organizing opportunities for community healing.

I kept thinking of all these emotions the whole hour long bus ride to work, mostly I was thinking how to thank the bus driver for the compassion he showed me, and how much it meant to me as a Sikh American. When we reached the final stop I waited to be the last person to get off. I stopped before getting out of the bus and told the bus driver:

It’s a faith community that has opened it doors wider rather than adding locks in the aftermath of an August mass-shooting at a Wisconsin temple that’s been labeled a hate crime.

I am a third-generation Sikh American, and as the ceremony drew to a close, I tweeted, “May this not be the last moment the nation watches and mourns with us. May this be the start of lasting solidarity.”

In a country where religious intolerance and communal hatred dominate the news nowadays, here is something that goes to show that all is not rotten and ugly.

There was not one murmur of anger, hate or even a sense of victimization. Instead, I felt their communal commitment to remain peaceful even in the face of violence. The community would not let that force win by pulling them into bitterness or vengefulness. There was no sense of inner struggle, whatsoever.

And no matter who Page believed his targets were, he committed violence against religious liberty. The freedom to practice one’s religion openly and without fear is fundamental to all Americans. Page tried to take that away, and people of all faiths or none must resist such attempts. The violence against Sikhs in Wisconsin was a hate crime, and all Americans must stand in solidarity with the Sikh community.

The Spring of Solidarity will stretch from March to June and will be a time in which New York City's multitude of faith communities can work together for the common good.

The Sikh community sent a strong message to the English Defence League (EDL) on Saturday, 3rd September, that they have not succeeded in their aim of causing divisions within the Asian communities when a delegation from ‘Sikhs Against the EDL’ took part in the counter protest against the EDL in Tower Hamlets.

Darrell Steinberg, Democratic president pro tem of the California Senate, went to a Sikh Temple in West Sacramento Mar. 13 along with several other Californian leaders and officials to express their solidarity with the local Sikh community who are shocked and outraged at the killings.

A top California lawmaker expressed outrage Sunday over the "cowardly and despicable" shootings of two Sikh men on an afternoon stroll and asked that a day be chosen for the community to demonstrate solidarity. "Let us pick a day together when we are all Sikh Americans, we are all Californians and we all stand together,"