INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Ajeet Singh had to be forged on Tuesday to return to work at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis for the first time since a former employee shot dead eight people, including four members of the strongly united Sikh community. Indianapolis.
“I was afraid to come back,” Singh said. “I do not know why this happened yet. Was it random or was it because of who I am? ”
While the cause of last week’s disaster is being investigated, leaders and members of the Sikh community say they feel collective trauma and believe more needs to be done to combat bigotry, bias and the violence they have suffered for decades in the country. In the midst of intense pain, they are channeling their pain towards gun reform demands and stricter hatred statutes, and are calling on outsiders to be educated about their Sikh neighbors.
“We are again and again disproportionately faced with senseless and often highly targeted attacks,” said Satjeet Kaur, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based group that has urged researchers to examine bias as possible reason for the shootings.
“The impact on the community is traumatic,” he continued, “not just families facing senseless violence, but also the community at large because it’s a community trauma.”
In the days following the shootings, the coalition facilitated a call with federal officials in which Indiana Sikh leaders requested the appointment of an American Sikh liaison to the White House Office of Public Engagement, among others. requests.
A monotheistic faith founded more than 500 years ago in the Punjab region of India, Sikhism is the fifth largest religion in the world with about 25 million followers, including about 500,000 in the United States.
Kaur said that as a relatively young faith with a low population in the Western world, Sikhism is not generally taught in schools to the same extent as other world religions nor is it integrated into policy-making. in misunderstandings and ignorance. Anti-Sikh discrimination can manifest itself in everything from harassment in the school yard to verbal attacks to shocking acts of violence.
Last year, a man accused of running over the Sikh owner of a Denver liquor store after telling him and his wife to “return to your country” was charged with a hate crime. and 16 other crimes, including an attempted murder.
The latest killings destroyed painful memories for Rana Singh Sodhi, an Indian immigrant living in Arizona. He has spent nearly two decades preaching love and tolerance after his brother was shot dead four days after 9/11 by a man who mistaken him for a Muslim because of the turban. Balbir Singh Sodhi was the first of dozens of Sikhs to be subjected to hate crimes after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“It’s very painful,” Rana Singh Sodhi said. “I hope that one day … people will love each other and enjoy life, working together and living together in this beautiful country.”
There are between 8,000 and 10,000 Sikh Americans in Indiana, where they began settling more than 50 years ago and opened their first house of worship, known as the gurdwara, in 1999.
Most FedEx warehouse employees are community members. Gurinder Singh Khalsa, of the Indiana-based Sikh Political Action Committee, said many Sikhs live on the west and south sides of Indianapolis, making the location of the facility’s airport a convenient location. to work.
On Monday his committee said it had set up a working group to look for answers on the shooting and pressure government officials to take action. An important goal, Khalsa said, is to help people returning to work feel safe.
That would be a relief for people like Gaganpal Singh Dhaliwal, who said two of his aunts had just arrived at his warehouse Thursday night when the shooting began. His mother also works there. They all survived, but she is crying for classmates and friends.
Dhaliwal expressed his hope that the tragedy will inspire others to better understand religion and cultural practices: “To all my fellow Americans, whether Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Jews, non-religious, everyone: Google the word “Sikh” today …. Spend five minutes of your time being aware of other people around you who may not seem like you. ”
He is already beginning to see some signs of high awareness, especially on flags floating half-mast outside Indianapolis homes and businesses and an “outpouring” of support for fundraising for the families of the victims. He urged more people to build bridges with their community.
“If you see a person like me wearing a (turban) on their head, on your street, in your grocery store, at your workplace, go talk to them,” Dhaliwal said. “Tell them you know who the Sikhs are, or hug them and say,‘ Hey, it’s welcome in the United States. ’Right now we’re a community that needs a lot of support and knows that we have a place in this place called America. “.
The killings have spread across the country. Pardeep Singh Kaleka, executive director of the Greater Milwaukee Interfaith Conference and the son of one of seven deadly victims of a 2012 mass shooting at a gurdwara in the suburb of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, said there were concerns about the increased threat of violence.
Small communities traumatized by violence ask themselves, “Was I the target of my race?” Said Kaleka. “Did they target me in my ethnicity, in my religion? Did they point me to something I can’t control? ”
And in California, Tejpaul Singh Bainiwal, a member of Stockton Gurdwara Sahib and a student of early American Sikh history, said he was facing a variety of emotions, including “anger, pain, despair and a sense of belonging.” It was frustrating, he said, that much of the public focus has been on the shooter’s mental state rather than the community that hurt so deeply.
“I’m sick of the same old narrative,” said Bainiwal, who was born and raised in the United States but has been told to “fit in.”
In Indianapolis, the Sikh community is focused on helping those in distress, who hope to get about two dozen quick visas so that relatives abroad can travel to perform funeral rites over the next two weeks. The proceedings will begin with cremation and then continue for up to 20 days of reading the 1,400-page writings of Guru Granth Sahib, Dhaliwal said.
Earlier last week, Sukhpreet Rai’s house boiled over with happy talks and cooking activities amid Vaisakhi celebrations, a major Sikh holiday festival and an upcoming family birthday. He has now been silenced by two of his relatives, Jasvinder Kaur and Amarjit Sekhon.
“We were supposed to celebrate a birthday and be together as a family,” Rai said. “We’re together and we have each other, but it’s for something different: it’s for a funeral.”
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Associated Press writers Anita Snow and Gary Fields contributed to this report.
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Associated Press religious coverage is supported by Lilly Endowment through The Conversation US. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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Casey Smith is a member of the body of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit services program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.