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Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

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"Harshaan Ahluwalia, 2, dribbles a soccer ball during a friendly soccer match in solidarity with young players who wear turbans Saturday, June 15, 2013 in Montreal. Quebec's soccer federation announced it is ending its much-criticized turban ban Saturday." (Photo credit: Paul Chiasson | THE CANADIAN PRESS. Source: The Globe and Mail.)

The secularism-religious freedom divide

August 20, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

To the north, Canada’s province of Quebec is seeking to prohibit religious symbols such as the wearing of the turban, yarmulke or headscarf by public employees in a political maneuver believed to be veiled in secularism. The move by Quebec’s provincial government follows in the footsteps of the Quebec Soccer Federation, who earlier this summer attempted to ban the wearing of the turban in amateur soccer in the province (the ban was lifted after national and international criticism and objection). […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Interfaith, Politics • Tags: Canada, freedom of religion, Immanent Frame, Kathleen Skerrett, Multiculturalism, Quebec, Religious symbolism, Secularism, soccer, Turban

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Slide from a security training test used by the US Defense Department and other agencies showing the hypothetical Indian American woman named "Hema." (Source: The Huffington Post)

Free “Hema”

August 15, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Huffington Post’s Matt Sledge reports about a security training test created by an agency of the US Defense Department called the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), which gives a profile of a hypothetical Indian American woman (named “Hema”) and, based on rather typical characteristics, instructs trainees to consider her a high security threat: A security training test created by a Defense Department agency warns federal workers that they should consider the hypothetical Indian-American woman a “high threat” because she […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Defense Information Systems Agency, Hema, Indian American, Matt Sledge, National Security Agency, Racial profiling, The Aerogram, The Huffington Post, United States Department of Defense

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Sikh boys refused entry to a go-karting attraction in Livermore, California, because they were wearing patkas. (Source: Sikh24)

No-karting for Sikh boys in CA

August 13, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In late July, at a theme park in Livermore, California (called Boomer’s Parks), several Sikh boys wearing patkas (a version of a turban for young Sikh boys) were not permitted to ride on go-karts because the owners of the attraction, Palace Entertainment, have a strict policy prohibiting loose hair or any kind of head-covering: “We’ve had a safety policy in place for quite some time at all our parks that prohibits hats, baseball caps, Yarmulkes,” [Palace Entertainment spokesperson Michele Wischmeyer] […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: AMC Theatres, Boomer's Parks, California, Kirpan, Livermore, Palace Entertainment, patka, Turban

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Demonstrators protest against violence towards women. (Source: Washington Post)

The role of the religious in ending violence against women

August 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

By coincidence, an article in The Washington Post by Satpal Singh of the World Sikh Council offers a corollary to the recent post about contextualizing God using male-oriented pronouns. Satpal Singh discusses the issue of the status of women and the role that faith must play in promoting gender quality: As a first step, we must stop accusing God of misogyny and of creating women as inferior to men. We must stress in our religious services that God does not […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Reflections, Sikhism • Tags: Satpal Singh, Sikh women, Washington Post, Women, Women in Sikhism, Women's rights, World Sikh Council

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Junior Sikh Coalition invites submissions for art book

August 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Junior Sikh Coalition is an initiative of the Sikh Coalition to help develop leaders in local communities, providing young Sikhs with experience in organizing, advocacy, diversity education and civil rights. In a new project, the Junior Sikh Coalition is harnessing the power of art in advocacy with an unprecedented art collection called the Nirbhau Nirvair Poetry & Art Book to bring attention to issues such as bullying and hate crimes. Young Sikhs across to country are invited to submit […]

Categories: Art, Civil Rights, Literature • Tags: Junior Sikh Coalition, Nirbhau Nirvair Poetry & Art Book

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SALDEF Leadership Development Program graduates. (Source: SALDEF)

Apply to the SALDEF Leadership Development Program

July 24, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

SALDEF (Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) is inviting applications for the third iteration of its Leadership Development Program, a “two-part program designed to inspire, train, and support a diverse, motivated, and entrepreneurial group of young Sikh leaders as they prepare for a lifetime of community engagement and leadership.” Further: The purpose of this transformational program is to empower Sikh American youth in becoming effective leaders committed to exploring and realizing both their personal potential and that of the […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Resources • Tags: LDP, Leadership Development Program, SALDEF, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund

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Candlelight vigil in Thomas Township, Michigan, on August 15, 2012, after the mass murder of six Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, by a white supremacist ten days earlier. (Source: MLive)

US House Representatives call for religious diversity summit

July 18, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The targeting of religious minorities in America is reaching a crisis point and we believe your leadership is crucial to stemming this rising tide of violence. — Citing the mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, almost one year ago and hate crimes against Muslims, Hindus and Jewish communities since, 37 US House Representatives signed a letter earlier this week requesting that President Barack Obama hosts a summit on religious diversity to help address these […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: Barack Obama, Oak Creek, Religious Diversity Summit, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, US House Representatives, Wisconsin

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Bhagat Singh Thind as a member of Company #2 Development Battalion #1, 166th Depot Brigade, of Camp Lewis in Astoria, Oregon. (Source: bhagatsinghthind.com)

US citizenship versus military service

July 17, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Rajdeep Singh, of the Sikh Coalition, writes in The Hill about the irony wherein observant Sikh Americans are prevented from serving in the US military today, when almost 100 years ago, an observant Sikh served in the US Army but was denied the right to be considered as an American: Although his [right to citizenship] challenge was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1923 on the ground that he was not a “white person” under those laws, another American […]

Categories: Civil Rights • Tags: Bhagat Singh Thind, Rajdeep Singh, Sikh Coalition, United States Armed Forces, US Army, US military

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Split image of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman. (Source: Keene Trial Consulting)

Of racism, the victim and the perpetrator within

July 17, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Sikh Americans continue to reflect about racial inequity after Saturday’s not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial in the murder of Trayvon Martin. Simran Jeet Singh discusses means of racial oppression and the dichotomous way such oppression operates within each of us — as both victim and perpetrator: The reality is that the global society is complicit in structural discrimination, and we have all become actors in that process. Sure in some way we are all Trayvon Martin. Each of […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: George Zimmerman, Racial profiling, Racism, Simran Jeet Singh, Trayvon Martin

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