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The Boy With Long Hair, by Pushpinder Kaur, is a coloring book published by the Sikh Foundation. (source: The Sikh Foundation)

SALDEF reports high rate of bullying of Sikh children in southern CA

February 21, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

67% of Sikh American children surveyed were bullied or harassed within the last school year and 31% have been threatened with physical violence or harm. These numbers are staggering compared to national averages and an indication of the serious challenges that our children continue to endure on a regular basis. — Jasjit Singh, Executive Director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), reports from a survey taken by SALDEF of Sikh American students in southern California. A […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reports/Studies • Tags: bullying, California, Jasjit Singh, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Southern California, The Boy With Long Hair

A mock advertisement was recently placed on a retail website that was actually a satirical statement about the TSA's security procedures. (source: Amazon)

Still the TSA after all these years

February 19, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

What does one do when an officer of a government agency does not follow their own policy and in the process violates your rights? If we are speaking about the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA), we often don’t know. On the Huffington Post, Simran Jeet Singh shares a recent episode when a TSA officer forcefully patted down Singh’s turban — a religious article of faith for Sikhs: I’ve made this cross-country journey hundreds of times in my life and have […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Racial profiling, Simran Jeet Singh, Transportation Security Administration, TSA

An open letter to French President François Hollande

February 15, 2013 by American Turban Guest Contributor

Mallika Kaur is a lawyer who focuses on gender and minority issues in the United States and South Asia. She has been to France as a young girl with Professor Karanbir Singh Sarkaria, her mathematician father, who went there—turbaned and bearded—almost every summer for over a decade, as a regular invitee to a famed research institute. He no longer travels to France. Neither does she. Mallika holds a Juris Doctorate (JD) from Berkeley Law and a Master in Public Policy (MPP) from the Kennedy School […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: François Hollande, France, law 2004-228, Mallika Kaur, turban ban

President Barack Obama delivers his 2013 State of the Union address on February 12. (source: Muck Rack)

President Obama, the State of the Union, and the Americans of Oak Creek

February 13, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Last night, it was likely for the first time in the history of State of the Union addresses that the word “Sikh” was uttered by the President of the United States when speaking to a joint session of Congress about his legislative agenda. In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama paid tribute to Oak Creek, Wisconsin, hero Lieutenant Brian Murphy: We should follow the example of a police officer named Brian Murphy. When a gunman opened […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Politics • Tags: Barack Obama, Lt. Brian Murphy, Oak Creek, President of the United States, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, State of the Union, Wisconsin

Philadelphia's Bible Riots of 1844 reflected a strain of anti-Catholic bias and hostility that coursed through 19th-century America. (Granger Collection, New York. Source: Smithsonian)

Contrasting religious dominance with religious freedom

February 11, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A recent study by The Barna Group surveying the topic of religious freedom in the United States suggests that a large proportion of Evangelical Christians believe that their religious freedom is under threat because of a perception that “some groups have actively tried to move society away from traditional Christian values.” An article in Patheos (via @jbarooah) summarizes the study and addresses the perception, providing recommendations for Evangelicals around understanding the difference between dominance and freedom: First, we need to […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Interfaith • Tags: Barna Group, Evangelicalism, Patheos, religious dominance, religious freedom

Would mental health services or gun control have prevented the Oak Creek massacre?

February 8, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Wednesday, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker announced plans to invest $30 million towards mental health in his state to address gun violence, particularly after the mass shooting of Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, last August: “Initially, the discussion centered on those tragedies,” he said. “But it’s really much bigger than that, it’s much broader than that, it’s not just in reaction to that. There is a tremendous need in terms of addressing mental health in our society.” The intention behind […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Connecticut, gun control, hate crimes, mental health, Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Scott Walker, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Stamford, White supremacy, Wisconsin

Sikh wins religious accommodation case against AZ Department of Corrections

February 6, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

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. According to the Sikh Coalition, after 10 years of employment with the Department, Ikhbinder Singh Bassin was told in December that he would be terminated unless he shaved his beard and removed his kara (steel bracelet) within 10 days, […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Arizona, Arizona Department of Corrections, Balbir Singh Sodhi, California, Employment Discrimination, Ikhbinder Singh Bassin, Jan Brewer, Sikh Coalition, Trilochan Singh Oberoi, Workplace Religious Freedom Act

Artwork by Khushboo Gulati for Ensaaf's Decade of Disappearances Art Contest (source: Ensaaf Facebook page)

2012 murder-suicide in Selma, CA, has origin in Kashmir human rights crimes

February 1, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

An article in Guernica by Shubh Mathur tells the story behind last year’s murder-suicide in Selma, California, of Avtar Singh, who murdered his wife and three sons before turning his weapon on himself. Prior to his murderous act, Avtar Singh was being confronted about his dubious past as a major in the Indian army: The story of his crimes and the manner in which he evaded justice for sixteen years is a grim chronicle of Indian crimes against humanity in […]

Categories: 1984, Art, Civil Rights • Tags: Avtar Singh, California, Decade of Disappearances, Ensaaf, impunity, Kashmir, Selma

On the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert discusses the increase in recruitment activity by the Ku Klux Klan (source: Comedy Central).

White supremacy references not included in DHS keyword searches

January 31, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A recent article in Forbes Magazine reports on the keywords that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) monitors on social networking sites: …the DHS has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor various social networking sites. The list provides a glimpse into what DHS describes as “signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.” Among the words that were listed, there is a notable absence of any terminology related to white supremacy or “white […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Daryl Johnson, DHS, Forbes, Ku Klux Klan, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, United States Department of Homeland Security, White supremacy, Wisconsin

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Civil Rights