One year ago, a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. was attacked by a single white supremacist, who killed six worshippers and injured several more. Pardeep Kaleka, a Sikh temple board member recalls the events that day.
“I was on my way to the temple with my kids,” Kaleka said. “On my way there I was seeing police squad cars drive past me as I was approaching the temple.”
He was bringing his children to Sunday school, when he said there were calls from people inside the temple to police and paramedics, saying that there had been a shooting and were urging them to hurry.
“My mom was one of those callers,” Kaleka said. “She was hiding in the closet.” His father, Satwant Kaleka, was one of those worshippers lost in this killing spree. He is just one of the six people who will be honored in ceremonies held over the anniversary weekend.
The FBI states that of the 6,222 hate crimes reported in 2011, 19.8 percent were motivated by religious bias. But some religious groups and political figures feel that many incidents are underreported and that the issue of religious discrimination is under recognized.
A letter to President Barack Obama written by 37 House Democrats this month requested the action for a Religious Diversity Summit to raise awareness for religious hate crimes and advocate change.
“The targeting of religious minorities in America is reaching a crisis point,” said the letter, asking that the summit be held in Washington to “build and focus a national dialogue that will develop and commit us to common strategies to combat bigotry against all religious communities.”
Keith Ellison, U.S. Rep. for Minnesota’s fifth congressional district and the first Muslim elected into Congress, is one of the signatures, along with other Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist and Christian House members.
“The recent increase in violence directed toward religious minorities warrants the attention of the president of the United States,” said Rep. Ellison. “A summit on religious tolerance at the White House with prominent interfaith leaders would show the world that in America there is no exception to liberty and justice for all.”
Movement toward progress
Of the percentage of hate crimes in the 2011 FBI report, the majority of religious bias were largely anti-Jewish and then anti-Islamic, but there is no specific tracking of hate crimes against Sikhs and other minority religions.
For nearly 2 ½ years, the civil rights group Sikh Coalition lobbied with hundreds of members of Congress to expand standard hate-crime incident reports and adequately recognize hate crimes for Sikhs, Hindus and Arabs. This past June, the FBI agreed to add those categories for religious bias in their reports, which many groups hope will increase awareness of different religions and cultures among law enforcement.
“Hate crimes in this country are massively underreported,” Rajdeep Singh, Sikh Coalition Director of Law and Policy told Mint Press News. “Hopefully in the next couple of years we’ll have some accurate data about the extent of hate crimes against Sikhs.”
After the tragic September 11 attacks led by Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, the Sikh Coalition was established in the context of backlash against Sikhs and other minority groups who experienced hate crimes, work discrimination, school bullying and racial profiling.
The Muslim-American community has “experienced quite a lot of discrimination, and even violence, in the state of attacks on mosques for example, throughout this country. Some of them have been destroyed, vandalised,” Singh said.
With many Americans often identifying Sikhs as Muslims, they too are the target of many extremist groups, but Singh says it is only part of where discrimination stems from.
“I think it’s simplistic for people to assume that Sikhs are targeted simply because of anti-muslim bias. I think even if somebody understands and knows someone is a Sikh, the fact that they have dark skin, the fact that they wear a turban, the fact that they keep a beard, the fact that they don’t look like what a typical American is supposed to look like, can only be factors in explaining why they’re targeted,” he said.
According to Singh, the first recorded hate crime against Sikhs occurred in the early 1900s. There are currently 500,000 or more Sikhs in the United States, and it is the fifth largest organized faith in the world.
To share Sikh beliefs in the community and commemorate last year’s temple shooting, memorial events such as a candlelight vigil, religious readings from the Sikh holy book, silent observances and a fundraising 6-kilometer run will take place.
The run is called the “chardhi kala,” meaning to have “relentless optimism.”
“It’s a universal thing that everybody can believe in,” Kaleka said. “Basically if something bad does happen to you, find the good in it. Learn from it, and go in high spirits.”
That principle has been a foundation for the families, temple members and Sikhs since the shooting, and carries them throughout all hardships and struggles in a discriminating society.
The need for unity
Between the years of 2003–2006 and 2007-–2011, the U.S. Department of Justice reports the rate of religious hate crime more than doubled, from 10 percent to 21 percent.
Since the Sikh temple shooting, security of the property and the worshippers have been affected. According to Kaleka, more people are arming themselves and carrying firearms while other measures have been taken as far as providing security cameras in numerous areas, an always present security guard and increased consciousness when locking doors.
Last year, fire-bombings in New York exploded on the mosque of the Muslim Imam Al-Khoei Foundation and a privately housed Hindu temple, and a man violently attacked his cellmate in a Texas prison because he was Jewish.
Hate crimes occur almost every day in some form, whether it’s on a large or small scale, but sometimes the “smaller” incidents aren’t deemed worthy of reporting by the victim, who assumes little or no action will be taken.
“From time to time we still hear about vandalism and intimidation,” Singh said. “I don’t think a lot of people report incidences where people verbally harass them or intimidate them. In many of those cases, it may not even be criminal to taunt them, call them a terrorist or tell them to go back to their country.”
House lawmakers and various religious groups feel this is part of why a Religious Diversity Summit is needed.
“All communities need to better understand the process of reporting hate crimes to various law enforcement agencies,” said Jay Kansara, Hindu American Foundation Associate Director of Government Relations. “The summit can serve to help people better understand the cultures and religious background of different communities.”
Singh feels the White House office could be used to talk about the need for more dialogue “led by our national leaders on the need for religious appreciation, pluralism, interfaith [and] understanding,” to help frame the discussion and issues in ways that people will pay attention to.
The expectations of the proposed summit hopes to engage community members, religious leaders, and local and federal government officials in addressing discrimination and hate against minority religions, while finding a way to promote the best practices for accepting and celebrating diverse faiths in communities.
“We believe a summit will open the door for constructive conversations throughout the country,” the letter to President Obama concludes, “And help in the development of a plan of action to address these issues.”