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The accidental benevolence of Donald Trump

January 26, 2016 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

While in 2012, the Republican Party offered sympathy and support to the Sikh American community, by 2016, this sentiment has ostensibly been disregarded — and even reversed — by the dominating Republican candidate for President who openly disparages a Sikh article of faith. And, there has been little tangible response from the Republican Party or the other Republican candidates to this incident or other similar protests. One wonders how or why this shift occurred.

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, News Bits, Politics • Tags: Arashdeep Singh, Donald Trump, Iowa, Ishwar Singh, Muscatine, Nikki Haley, Oak Creek, Republican National Convention, Republican Party, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, xenophobia

On being “one of them”

July 9, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On Medium, in an address after the mass murder of nine black congregants at the hands of a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina, writer John Metta talks about the difficulty in having conversations about race: Despite what the Charleston Massacre makes things look like, people are dying not because individuals are racist, but because individuals are helping support a racist system by wanting to protect their own non-racist self beliefs. People are dying because we are supporting a racist system […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Charleston, hate crimes, John Metta, Ku Klux Klan, mass shooting, Medium, Oak Creek, Racism, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, South Carolina, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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FBI Director: “we are at a crossroads” with race relations

February 24, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In a recent speech at Georgetown University on February 12, FBI Director James B. Comey spoke about race relations as it pertains to law enforcement, citing recent events in which law enforcement has engaged communities of color. “Much of our history is not pretty,” Comey said. “At many points in American history, law enforcement enforced the status quo, a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups.” FBI Director James Comey. (Source: Washington Post via @mboorstein) While Comey speaks […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes • Tags: FBI, FBI Hate Crime Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, James B. Comey, Oak Creek, race relations, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

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"President Obama delivers a traditional Indian greeting before he speaks on Jan. 27 in New Delhi, India. The president, who was guest of honor at India's Republic Day celebrations, wrapped up his visit by talking about the freedom to practice one's religion, the rights of women and the need to provide every child with equal opportunity." (Photo: European Pressphoto Agency. Source: USA Today.).

Obama cites Oak Creek massacre in New Delhi speech, site of 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom

February 12, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

While he didn’t visit the Sikh faith’s holiest site during his trip to India two weeks ago, President Obama did create a bit of a stir as he openly advocated for religious freedom and peaceful coexistence of faiths in India, citing in his speech the mass murder of Sikhs in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in 2012: Obama said no society is immune from man’s darkest impulses, as he raised the 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin that killed six […]

Categories: 1984, Civil Rights, Politics • Tags: Ami Bera, Barack Obama, hate crimes, India, Narendra Modi, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

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1984 Through Indian Eyes: Part III — Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur

August 15, 2014 by American Turban Guest Contributor

1984 through Indian Eyes: Literary Accounts of Operation Blue Star and the Anti-Sikh Pogroms By Lori Way Part III – Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of Operation Bluestar in Amritsar, India, in June, 1984, and the anti-Sikh pogroms that took place the following November in New Delhi, Lori Way continues her series of essays discussing works of literature focusing upon these events. See also Part I and Part II of her series […]

Categories: 1984, Literature • Tags: Gunisha Kaur, Harleen Kaur, hate crime, hate crimes, Her Name is Kaur, Lori Way, Meeta Kaur, Oak Creek, Operation Blue Star, Operation Bluestar, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

Members of the Dashmesh Sikh Gurudwara at the rose planting ceremony, August 5th, 2014 (photo by Lori Way).

Fort Wayne, IN, commemorates Oak Creek shooting with 6 Days of Seva

August 13, 2014 by American Turban Guest Contributor

Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a town located about four hours southeast of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. A small but growing Sikh population there recently commemorated the second anniversary of the mass shooting at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in which six people were murdered by a white supremacist. Over six days, the community honored each of the victims with a seva (selfless service) project. Lori Way, a regular contributor to this blog and a Sikh Coalition Volunteer Advocate in Fort Wayne, […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Events, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: 6 Days of Seva, Fort Wayne, hate crime, hate crimes, Indiana, Lori Way, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin

America’s white supremacists

December 3, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The website Salon prints an excerpt of sociologist Michael Kimmel’s book Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, in which the author describes larger patterns fueling America’s white supremacists: Most are in their mid-thirties to early forties, educated at least through high school and often beyond. (The average age of the guys I talked with was thirty-six.) They are the sons of skilled workers in industries like textiles and tobacco, the sons of the owners of small […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Literature • Tags: Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era, hate crimes, Michael Kimmel, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wade Michael Page, White supremacy, Wisconsin

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Amardeep Kaleka. (Source: Amardeep Kaleka Facebook page)

Amardeep Kaleka, son of WI Gurdwara shooting victim, explores run for Congress

October 31, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Amardeep Kaleka, son of Sikh Temple of Wisconsin President Satwant Singh Kaleka who was killed by a white supremacist during last year’s mass shooting in Oak Creek, has announced that he is planning a run for US Congress as a Democrat, hoping to challenge his district’s incumbent Representative Paul Ryan (who also was Republican Mitt Romney’s running mate during the Presidential election last year): Kaleka said he wants to bring accountability and transparency back to Washington. He blamed the government […]

Categories: Hate Crimes, Politics • Tags: Amardeep Kaleka, Democratic Party, Milwaukee, Mitt Romney, Oak Creek, Paul Ryan, Rob Zerban, Satwant Singh Kaleka, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, US Congress, Wisconsin

Workers install seven domes now adorn the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek earlier this month, as tributes to the lives lost in last year's shooting rampage by a white supremacist. (Source: WISN-TV)

Guru Gobind Singh’s Zafarnama and Oak Creek, Wisconsin

August 27, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

What manliness you have shown by extinguishing a few sparks? You have made the conflagration brighter and more furious. — Guru Gobind Singh to Aurangzeb, Mughal emperor of India, 1705. In 1705, the tenth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Gobind Singh, wrote a letter in Persian entitled Zafarnama (“Epistle of Victory”) to Aurangzeb, the Mughal emperor of India who engaged in a campaign to eradicate the Sikh people, resulting in the execution and deaths of the Guru’s four young sons […]

Categories: Civil Rights, Hate Crimes, Reflections • Tags: Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh, hate crimes, Oak Creek, Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, Zafarnama

Considering the experience of Sikhs in America.

Tag: Oak Creek

The accidental benevolence of Donald Trump

On being “one of them”

FBI Director: “we are at a crossroads” with race relations

Obama cites Oak Creek massacre in New Delhi speech, site of 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom

1984 Through Indian Eyes: Part III — Her Name Is Kaur, edited by Meeta Kaur

Fort Wayne, IN, commemorates Oak Creek shooting with 6 Days of Seva

America’s white supremacists

Amardeep Kaleka, son of WI Gurdwara shooting victim, explores run for Congress

Guru Gobind Singh’s Zafarnama and Oak Creek, Wisconsin