What happened, give us the details please.

A sad day indeed for Sikhs.  A few years back a Polish white racist immigrant and two of his Canadian racist buddies kicked a sikh elder to death at a temple in Vancouver BC.

It is time to bury hate and preach the language of love.

The media is not helping at all. By portraying one set of people as terrorists,  this only add fuel to the fire.

9/11 was carried out by a group of middle eastern men.  I did not see one Brown South Asian in the bunch.  But when I saw 9/11, I knew that instant that we brown people will get the blame plus backlash and we will be paying the price.

The racist white American mind cannot comprehend that Arabs are mostly white people.  They cannot comprehend that people like.

Helen Thomas, Danny Thomas, Frank Zappa, Ralph Nader, George Mitchell, Bobby Rahall, John Sununu, Paul Anka etc are all Arabs. 

These Arab people are enjoying the fruits of American success because they are in part seen as being American whites.

It has nothing to do with us brown people yet we are experiencing the backlash.

I fyou are white and Christian you are a citizen, If you have a muslim sounding name or looks like a muslim you are a terrorist go figure

My prayers are with the families of those killed. Racism runs deep and brown people are becoming easy targets since 9/11.

Men from Saudi Arabia committed the most serious crimes against the American people and brown people are paying a heavy price despite the fact that not one single brown person was involved in 9/11.

Fact remains that Saudi Arabia is still the one best friends of the USA.

A place of worship is scared, be it a Mosque, a Temple or Church.

This is truly a sad day for the Sikh community.

My condolences go out to them.

They live by the sword..

Returned from Guyana to Toronto on July 16, 2012. At Terminal 3, there was this sikh fella fully dressesd with turban, kirpan(sword on his side) clearly visible and his other style of clothing parading himself around as if daring everyone. Pompus might be a better word. I looked at him and thought to myself, this type of behaviour is asking for trouble in a predominant white society. Weeks later, ppl got killed in the USA.

I would be expecting the sikh contingent in the Canadian Parliament to make demands of the representative white population of Canadian. They already request that Punjabi language be recognised as an official language. 

An African based Christian Church in Ontario that worships differently than European Christian Churhes was asked to change their mode of worship because it offended other tenants.

In Toronto, Sikhs in a community have banded together and requested that  a landlord terminated the lease of an African based Christian Church. Simply, they are offened.

Tolerance is not one of the tenents of the Sikh faith. If it is as they claim, then they need to find the words and practice it.

In Canada, sikhs have a history of killings among themselves in their gurdwaras. Prejudices and molestations are vanguards in their practices.

Not so long ago a group of racist bigots attacked and beat a sikh in Astoria while this was happening one of them called the gurdward and within minutes a group of sikhs were on sight , they placed the beaten brother in their car and drove around and found the attackers and beat the living shit out of them. DA did not press charges because he knew he would end up with a full scale protest.

I listen and hear lots non indian non asian americans making some scathing remarks about indians and chinese taking over NY neighborhoods and I always remind them that Sikhs have been in the USA since the late 1790's as California's biggest agriculturalists.

Whenever there is severe economic pressure racist biggots alwayys use immigrants as their target. We have seen it with Hitler , Idi Amin and so many other places .

Over the past 15 years young asians and south asians  have adapted to being very american in every respect so as to be more accepted and less targetted or discriminated against, it is so sad to see them lose their ancestral names and traditions.

Gunman: Former solider Wade Michael Page is said to be a frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band. Wade thought he was attacking the Taliban becuse of the Sikhs turbans.  

http://www.myspace.com/endapathyband

Wade Michael Page made a terrible mistake when he was looking for his terrorists target.

It looks like a case of mistaken Identity.  On some of these Neo-Nazi websites like stormfront those Nazis are really angry that the racist shot the wrong people.  Some of these racists are even saying that they should collect some money for a donation to the temple to show that they did not intend to harm sikhs.

he already dead....like yuh want kill him again

This piece of crap  (I would have used the S word but I respect Amral) was a psychological operations specialist in the US military.  I don't know what this means. If anyone knows what that means post it.

It's a case of mistaken identity and its an isolated incident. I disagree with the racist antic because white people attack their own all the time, especially the Columbine incident and others that follow. These people are not terrorists, who kill every day by the name of God. They love their country and will defend it at all cost against from real terrorists. People are still hurting from the 911 incident, and we must never forget. My only regret is that he mistakenly shot the wrong people. A soldier who defended America will have to face justice for his mistakes.

 A mosque in southwest Missouri burned to the ground early Monday in the second fire to hit the Islamic center in little more than a month, officials said.

The fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin was reported about 3:30 a.m. Monday, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s department said the building was a total loss. No injuries were reported and no charges have been filed.

Imam Lahmuddin, who leads the mosque and was in the building until late Sunday, said he was “sad and shocked” by the fire.

“I’m still in front of the building looking at the damage and nothing can be saved,” Lahmuddin said in a telephone interview Monday. “But since we are people of faith we just can remember that this is a thing that happened because God let it happen, and we have to be patient, particularly in the month of Ramadan, control our emotions, our anger.”

Its no secret that the Sikhs were mistaken for Muslims.

Almost on a daily basis  one of our Mosques is being attacked across the USA.

CAIR Offers $10K Reward After Mo. Mosque Destroyed by Fire
Mosque previously targeted by arsonist; CAIR calls for stepped-up police protection at religious institutions

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 8/6/12) -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today called for stepped-up police protection at Muslim institutions and other houses of worship nationwide after a fire destroyed a Missouri mosque that had previously been targeted by an arsonist and after yesterday's deadly shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.

Video: Joplin Islamic Mosque in Flames Again

CAIR is also offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever may have caused today's fire. The Washington-based Muslim civil rights organization is in touch with the FBI about the case.

Fire officials are investigating the second fire at the Islamic Society of Joplin this summer. The blaze, which engulfed the entire structure, was reported early Monday. Mosque officials tell CAIR the facility, valued at an estimated $600,000, had been targeted by bias-motivated incidents a number of times in the past.

A small fire at the same building in July was determined to be arson. At that time, CAIR called for state and federal hate crime investigations of the fire.

CAIR: Video of Apparent Arson Attack on Missouri Mosque

Yesterday, CAIR issued a statement expressing the Muslim community's solidarity with Sikhs following a deadly shooting at a house of worship of that faith in Wisconsin.

Video: CAIR Stands with Sikhs After Wis. Shootings

The alleged perpetrator of that act of domestic terrorism reportedly had a "9/11 tattoo on one arm." CAIR noted that Sikh men who wear beards and turbans as part of their faith are often targeted by bigots who mistake them for Muslims.

SEE: Gunman's Tattoos Lead Officials to Deem Sikh Shooting Terrorism
Gunman Had 9/11 Tattoo on One Arm (CNN)
Alleged Sikh Temple Shooter Former Member of Skinhead Band

"These disturbing incidents point to the urgent need for increased police protection for Muslim and Sikh houses of worship nationwide," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. "If left unchallenged, religious intolerance can and does harm innocent people."

Because of these two most recent incidents targeting American houses of worship, and because of previous attacks on American mosques, CAIR is urging religious leaders nationwide to review advice on security procedures contained in its "Muslim Community Safety Kit."

CAIR: Mosque Attacks Common Nationwide

Today, we are all American Sikhs

People gather outside a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, where a gunman killed six people Sunday.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Valarie Kaur's Sikh grandfather faced discrimination when he came to U.S. 100 years ago
• Sikhs could not be citizens then, she says, and have struggled to live as free Americans
• Kaur: Turban shows commitment to God and service but marks Sikhs for hate crimes
• Kaur: Americans are not ignoring violence against Sikhs and are rallying in support

Editor's note: Valarie Kaur is the founding director of Groundswell, an initiative at Auburn Seminary that combines storytelling and advocacy to mobilize faith communities in social action. Her documentary "Divided We Fall" examines hate crimes against Sikh Americans after 9/11. Kaur studied religion and law at Stanford University, Harvard Divinity School and Yale Law School, where she now directs the Yale Visual Law Project. Follow her on Twitter: @valariekaur.

(CNN) -- Today, the day after the tragic shootings near Milwaukee, the fog will begin to lift. Just as after Columbine and Aurora, we will hear the names of the suspect and victims. We will learn more about the motive and imagine the nightmare that unfolded within those walls. In the past, hearing these horrific details would be enough to bring us together in national unity. But that will not be enough today.

Today, we are called to do more. We are called to do the hard work of listening.

If we really want to unite in response to this national tragedy, we need to know whom we are embracing. For many, this means learning about Sikh Americans for the first time -- and listening closely to what's at stake. For me, the mass shooting is not just about how to keep guns out of the hands of a murderous few. It's also about my community's sacrifice in the struggle to live as free and proud Americans.

As a Sikh American whose grandfather sailed by steamship from Punjab, India, and settled in California 100 years ago, my family's story spans the struggle of Sikhs in America. Donning a turban and long beard, my grandfather tamed the hard floor of the Central Valley on a John Deere tractor in the early 1900s. Sikh pioneers such as my grandfather could not own land or become citizens because of the color of their skin, but they stayed and farmed, weathering race riots and decades of second-class treatment until the law permitted their children and grandchildren to become citizens.

Valarie Kaur

Like many Sikhs, I grew up with deep roots in America and also fell in love with the heart of the Sikh faith: devotion to one God, who requires us to uphold equality between women and men and all peoples, and perform seva, service to our community as an expression of our faith. Our house of worship is called a gurdwara, where we recite and sing the poetry of our sacred scriptures. Many Sikhs wear five articles of faith, including kesh, long uncut hair that most men and some women wrap in a cloth turban.

Nearly every person who wears a turban in America is Sikh.

Tragically, the turban meant to represent a commitment to service and justice has since marked Sikh Americans as targets in hate violence. Our family, alongside Sikh families who arrived in a wave of immigration after the 1960s, became American in law but not necessarily in the eyes of our neighbors. I was old enough to remember racial slurs and shattered windows after the Iran hostage crisis, the first Gulf War and the Oklahoma City bombing. Still, none of this could prepare me for 9/11.

 

<cite class="expCaption">Why did gunman open fire on Sikh temple?</cite>

 

<cite class="expCaption">Temple shooting devastates Sikhs</cite>

 

<cite class="expCaption">Sikh community mourns victims</cite>

In the hours and days after 9/11, turbaned Sikh Americans became automatically suspect, perpetually foreign and potentially terrorist -- confused with Muslims, and so immediate targets in anti-Muslim violence.

Hate violence swept the country, and on September 15, 2001, a Sikh man was gunned down in front of his gas station in Mesa, Arizona. My family knew Balbir Singh Sodhi; it felt as though an uncle had been murdered. But the killing was not broadcast widely on national news.

A few days later, I grabbed my camera, left college and began a journey across America that would last a decade, capturing on film the stories of Sikh Americans profiled, beaten, stabbed, shot but persevering in faith and resilience. The FBI reported a 1,600% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes in the year after 9/11.

Over the last decade, I became part of a new generation of Sikh Americans who organized and became lawyers, artists, journalists and elected officials, in part to advocate on behalf of a community repeatedly swept up in waves of anti-Muslim rhetoric, violence and racial profiling. In a poor economy and critical election season, we have recently watched ideologues use anti-Muslim bias to turn a profit in dollars and votes. When discontents can easily access guns, many of us feared more hate violence.

Whether or not the shooting in a Milwaukee suburb is a hate crime, the news has reverberated through every Sikh American home. We saw our own gurdwara on the television screen; we imagined our own aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, caught in the gunfire. And we shared an all-too-familiar sense of helplessness, grief and the sadness of a community that has long struggled to live, work and worship peacefully in this country.

But this time, something new happened: The whole nation paid attention. Thousands of people posted messages of love and support in the face of unspeakable tragedy. They knew that the Sikh community gathered to pray on a Sunday morning just like millions in churches across the country. They knew that the terrible loss of life so recently after the shootings in Aurora shocks the conscience and violates our deepest values. They knew that this is not a Sikh tragedy but an American tragedy.

Today and in the days to come, I believe Americans are hungry for the next step. We are ready to come together in a groundswell of healing, hope and renewed commitment to a world without violence. We are ready to come together in true national unity, we are ready to listen.

There is a Sikh gurdwara in nearly every city in America. Come this Sunday morning. Listen and be with us. Americans' support -- every candle, every prayer -- will be felt by Sikh Americans across the country. Together, we can all be Sikhs; we can all be Americans -- and know what that means.

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Valarie Kaur.

 

 

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My heart-felt condolences go out the Sikh community, but people are still hurting from the 9/11 incident. We have to understand the contemplation from a freedom fighter and the mistaken victims.

Guess he should have stuck to raping and killing Iraqi women and children. Killing civilians is permitted there, not here. The great country loving defender should have stayed and killed there and would have earned medals. Now the poor chap was shot by his own. 

You're adding insult to injury by assuming what the shooter should have done. You never look at the motive and fear the shooter may have had when he committed the act. Every life has value and so does American.

I doan know how to place this. I do feel sorry for America. Somehow they have been infiltrated by citizens and so called citizens who continue to drive their country to anarchy by practicing and maintaining customs that are contrary to American values. Christian Values.

Many of these people couldn't survive in their home countries due to prejudices, yet they immigrate with their own sets on inbred prejudices.  

Those who really know anything about the sikhs must know they are prejudiced religion group. They are more infavour of inbreding. Bullyism in Britain have also cost them dearly. In the Punjabs, they behave as if they have majority. They are easy to take up the cause of jihad, namely the assination of indira ghandi and the air india bombing. All sikh groups support sikh terrorists actions.

I doan condone the killings, but simply draw the paralell. If one wishes to kill other people in an inconsiderate manner, perhaps such acts come back for visitations.

The Neo- Nazis on their website stormfront are saying that it is a conspiracy by the American government to get them in trouble.  They say that they don't really know who this shooter is and also they do not have any problems with Sikhs who they see as good people who usually marry their own. 

I won't mind!!  sorry did not read the entire article.

This response is utterly disgraceful and show how the PNC supporters have no sympathy for people of Indian origin.

Other racist/Indo haters like Strom have no sympathy for people of Indian origin. Notice how some PNC and AFC posters have ignored this thread. Their dead silence speak volumes.