Resources | | Page 2

"Bias Motivation Information" section of the FBI's Hate Crime Incident Report 1-699. (source: FBI)

Tracking anti-Sikh hate crimes is a needed first step

June 12, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Last week, to much jubilation among civil rights groups, an advisory committee to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recommended that the FBI begin specifically recording hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindus, and Arabs (starting in 2015, as I understand), as it does for other targeted groups. It was for good reason that this announcement would be so celebrated considering the significant and lengthy effort to bring this incremental change. However, it is important to place this addition to the FBI’s […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies, Resources • Tags: Department of Justice, FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Form 1-699, hate crime, National Victimation Survey, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Sikh Coalition, United States Bureau of Justice Statistics

Hate-motivated attack on Piara Singh emphasizes need for tracking

May 10, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

After yet another hate crime against a Sikh American — this time on an 82-year-old man in Fresno, California — Simran Kaur of the Sikh Coalition raises the issue of the absence of tracking by the FBI of hate crimes against Sikhs: You read that right. Although Sikhs continue to experience hate crimes because of their distinct religious identity, the FBI has no distinct category to track such crimes. While hate crimes against other racial and religious groups are tracked, […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Resources • Tags: California, FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Form 1-699, Fresno, hate crimes, Piara Singh, Sikh Coalition, Simran Kaur

Leave a comment

Sikh Coalition Advocates in front of the White House, June 2012. (source: Sikh Coalition)

Become a Sikh civil rights advocate, apply by April 5, 2013

April 1, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Sikh Coalition is inviting applications for its third annual Sikh Advocate Academy, an all-expenses paid training program held from June 16-22, 2013, in Washington, D.C.: Our objective is to train and cultivate a corps of dedicated volunteers who will enhance the Sikh American community’s fight for civil rights both locally and nationally. Through focused planning and execution, our goal over the next five years is to build a “trained and certified” corps of grassroots advocates who consistently support the […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events, Resources • Tags: Sikh Advocate Academy, Sikh Coalition

Leave a comment

The 2011 FBI Hate Crimes Statistics Report provides data about the 6,222 incidents reported to the database in 2011. (source: FBI Hate Crimes Statistics 2011)

The FBI Hate Crimes database offers little help to authorities

March 18, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As stories have emerged this year about continued hate crimes against Sikhs in Port Orange, Florida, and Green Bay, Wisconsin, ironically, in the current state of the FBI Hate Crimes Statistics reporting, these crimes (in addition to the mass murder of six Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August) would not be explicitly identified as hate crimes targeting Sikhs, and may not even appear in the FBI’s Hate Crimes statistics at all. Similarly, this also is the case for attacks […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies, Resources • Tags: FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, hate crimes, Sikh Coalition

Sikh games available for Android devices

February 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Sikh-themed applications (apps) are establishing a presence in the world of smartphones and tablets. Most of the apps currently available are associated with providing access to Gurbani (hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh sacred scripture) — either as a reference that can be stored on a mobile device, a translation reference, or as a means to listen to recordings. Increasingly, these apps are replacing traditional hard copies of Sikh scriptures during worship services. There is also a movement […]

Categories: Resources • Tags: Android, ChardiKala, Share Charity, Sikh video games, SikhiToTheMax, smartphone app, SuperSant, Vismaad

Leave a comment

"The bodies of Shindiver Grover, 52, his wife Damanjit, 47, and their two sons, Sartag, 12 and Gurtej, 5, were found in their first-floor apartment in Johns Creek, Ga., at around 11:30 a.m. Monday, according to local reports." (Source: NY Daily News. Photo credit: CBS Atlanta)

Atlanta, GA, Sikh family found dead in apparent murder-suicide

February 5, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Tragic news broke today that a Sikh family in Atlanta, Georgia, was found dead in their home. The bodies of father Shindiver Grover (52), mother Damanjit Grover (47) and their two sons, Sartaj (12), and Gurtej (5), were discovered in their apartment when Damanjit did not report for work on Monday. Police are still investigating what is called a “complicated” crime scene, but believe it was a murder-suicide: The nature of the murder – the city’s first since it was […]

Categories: News Bits, Resources • Tags: Atlanta, Damanjit Grover, Georgia, Gurtej Grover, Johns Creek, murder-suicide, Sartaj Grover, Shindiver Grover, Sikh Family Center

Cover of "Guru Har Krishan - Eighth Sikh Guru" (source: Sikh Comics)

New graphic novel about Guru Harkrishan released by Gyan Khand Media

February 4, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

A few days ago, I received a copy of Gyan Khand Media’s new graphic novel about the eighth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Harkrishan (1656-1664), entitled “Guru Har Krishan – The Eighth Sikh Guru”: He led the Sikhs for two and a half years and spent part of that time in Delhi tending to the sick and poor during an epidemic of smallpox. Thousands were healed by Guru Har Krishan. The disease subsided in Delhi but the Guru took the […]

Categories: Art, Literature, Resources, Sikhism • Tags: Bhupendra Singh Ahluwalia, Daljeet Singh Sidhu, Graphic novel, Guru Har Krishan, Guru Harkrishan, Gyan Khand Media, sikhcomics.com

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 1,018 active hate groups in the United States in 2011. (source: Southern Poverty Law Center)

The Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map

January 22, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a “nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society,” counted 1,018 hate groups in the United States in 2011: This list was compiled using hate group publications and websites, citizen and law enforcement reports, field sources and news reports. Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing. Websites appearing to be merely the work of […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Reports/Studies, Resources • Tags: California, Elk Grove, Gurmej Atwal, hate crime, Hate Crime Statistics, hate groups, New Jersey, New York, Oak Creek, Sacramento, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Southern Poverty Law Center, Surinder Singh, Wisconsin

Leave a comment

Tiglath-Pileser III, king of Assyria in the 8th century. (source: Wikipedia)

A hitchhiker’s guide to the turban

January 9, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The blog A Kaur’s Thoughts presents an interesting condensed survey of the global history of the turban, beyond its relevance to the Sikh faith: By, “…1000 A.D., the turban had evolved from a strictly utilitarian piece of clothing into something used to connote nobility and power,” said Brannon Wheeler, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Washington, (2). “Just as shoes evolved from a practical foot covering into an item of clothing that reveals a person’s class and […]

Categories: Resources • Tags: A Kaur's Thoughts, history of the turban, Turban

Leave a comment

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Category Archives: Resources

Tracking anti-Sikh hate crimes is a needed first step

Hate-motivated attack on Piara Singh emphasizes need for tracking

Become a Sikh civil rights advocate, apply by April 5, 2013

The FBI Hate Crimes database offers little help to authorities

Atlanta, GA, Sikh family found dead in apparent murder-suicide

New graphic novel about Guru Harkrishan released by Gyan Khand Media

The Southern Poverty Law Center Hate Map

A hitchhiker’s guide to the turban