As the debate over the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” wages on in the media with plenty of misinformation and a whole lot of fear-mongering, we finally get some worthwhile news from The Daily Show on the subject.
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I’ll admit…when I first saw emails and facebook posts titled “Save The Gurdwara”, I immediately dismissed it, thinking it was yet another mismanaged Gurdwara falling in to bankruptcy or one group trying to overthrow another. But after I read the website and confirmed some of the details with contacts in Austin, I was shocked by what had occurred.
By now most of you know that in 2007, the city of Austin, Texas approved the building of a permanent Gurdwara on land the Sikh community had purchased back in 2003 and where they’ve since been having regular weekly services in a makeshift home. Shortly after construction began, a couple who recently moved nearby the Gurdwara (the Bollier’s), filed an injunction to block construction on the grounds that it would be an eye-sore, increase traffic, and lower property value. In March 2009, a district court denied the couple’s injunction in favor of the Austin Sikh community and construction of the Gurdwara was allowed to proceed. Unfortunately, this victory would be short-lived. Sixteen months after the original victory and construction now complete, an appeals court has overturned the lower court’s ruling and has ordered the entire structure to be torn down – needless to say, the Austin Sikh community is devastated!
As many of us would, I immediately thought this was a blatant act of racism, but as I read the website several times, I noticed there is no accusation of this being racially-motivated. I applaud the Austin sangat for taking the “high road” and not pulling the race card until there is clear evidence of racism or bigotry, but I must say…it sure does smell like it! I mean, “Lower their property’s value?”…really?
Somewhere in all the disappointment and frustration of this situation, I am still impressed with how Sikhs manage to come together in a time of need. Emails are circulating through all the networks, people are dedicating their facebook pictures and statuses to the “Save the Gurdwara” movement, and some of our talented MC’s have written songs to help rally and inspire the community.
The French government is at it again. France’s lower house just passed a law that would m
ake it illegal for women to wear the full Islamic veil (burqa or niqab) in public. It would fine women 150 euros for not complying. Sundari posted on this issue back in February, and now this attack on religious freedom has come one step closer to being the law of the land as the bill passed 335 to 1 in the National Assembly this week. The bill would have to be ratified in September by the Senate to become law.
Proponents of the law say the National Assembly vote is a victory for democracy and French Values. Justice Minister Michele Alliot-Marie stated it was a victory for, “Values of freedom against all the oppressions which try to humiliate individuals; values of equality between men and women, against those who push for inequality and injustice.”
What about the value to practice your religion freely and express your identity (religious or otherwise) through what you wear? Madeline Bunting, in a great column in the UK’s Guardian today, stated: “Women wearing the skimpiest of mini-skirts sit down on buses next to other women in saris, business suits, salwar kameez. None of these cultural codes expressed in dress are regarded as the business of the state. Nor should they be.”
The Washington Times printed this photo of Elena Kagan yesterday with the caption “Elena Kagan and Sharia”:
The fear continues.
There are two issues facing our nation–high unemployment and undocumented people in the workforce–that many Americans believe are related. Missing from the debate on both issues is an honest recognition that the food we all eat – at home, in restaurants and workplace cafeterias (including those in the Capitol) – comes to us from the labor of undocumented farm workers. [link]
Tired of being blamed for stealing jobs from unemployed Americans, and hoping to spark realistic discussion of immigration reform, United Farm Workers is teaming up with Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert for a cheeky campaign called Take Our Jobs.
The union has created a website where you can sign yourself up for fieldwork. Experienced field hands will train legal residents and hook them up with the many seasonal harvest openings in California, Florida, and elsewhere.
Farm workers are tired of being blamed by politicians and anti-immigrant activists for taking work that should go to Americans and dragging down the economy, said Arturo Rodriguez, the president of the United Farm Workers of America.
So the group is encouraging the unemployed — and any Washington pundits or anti-immigrant activists who want to join them — to apply for the some of thousands of agricultural jobs being posted with state agencies as harvest season begins.
All applicants need to do is fill out an online form under the banner “I want to be a farm worker” at http://www.takeourjobs.org, and experienced field hands will train them and connect them to farms. [link]
Take Our Jobs will be featured on the Colbert Report on July 8. Many members of the Punjabi Sikh community are farmworkers and some would even be impacted by potential policies surrounding immigration so what are your thoughts on this discussion?
Here on TLH, we’ve recognized accomplished Sikhs who have excelled in their field, and by doing so - presented a positive image of Sikhs and the Sikh way of life – academics, athletes, politicians, artists, the list goes on and on. Often unnoticed though are everyday people, who build individual relationships with those in their community, and spread a spirit of goodwill through their kindness and generosity. Unfortunately I learned of this gentle soul, Prabhjot Singh, too late. May Waheguru always be with him and strengthen his family while overcoming this terrible loss.
Guestblogged by Brooklynwala
Yesterday morning I was reading the ubiquitous, free “AM New York” newspaper on the subway on the way to a 
meeting and was disturbed and saddened to learn about a protest of 1,000 people in lower Manhattan against an Islamic Center being built near Ground Zero, the site of the 9/11 attacks. Holding signs with slogans like, “No 9/11 Mega Mosque” and “Don’t dishonor my son’s grave,” these protestors represent the growing backlash against the 13-story community center and mosque being built by the Cordoba Initiative.
According to their website, Cordoba “aims to achieve a tipping point in Muslim-West relations within the next decade, bringing back the atmosphere of interfaith tolerance and respect that we have longed for since Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together in harmony and prosperity eight hundred years ago.” The Cordoba Initiative’s proposed Cordoba House located two blocks from Ground Zero “is about promoting integration, tolerance of difference and community cohesion through arts and culture. Cordoba House will provide a place where individuals, regardless of their backgrounds, will find a center of learning, art and culture; and most importantly, a center guided by universal values in their truest form – compassion, generosity, and respect for all.”
A few weeks ago, Tea Party leader Mark Williams, a frequent guest on CNN, stated that “the monument would consist of a Mosque for the worship of the terrorists’ monkey-god.”
The story splashed all over the newspapers. An event that had been purposefully ignored by the US news could no longer be avoided when a number of humanitarian activists were killed (still no official number or names of those murdered??) by Israeli forces on Monday.
Activists from all over the world gathered and collected humanitarian items for Gaza (Palestine) that has been under an illegal siege since June 2007 by Israel and Egypt – a form of collective punishment against the entire people of Gaza.
The BBC has put together an informational site specifically about the blockade and its effects.
I have sampled some snippets of the report:
no specific list of what is and is not allowed in has been published, and items gaining entry vary over time.
The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees Unrwa’s list of household items that have been refused entry at various times includes light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, pasta, tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts, shampoo and conditioner.
the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says 61% of Gazans are “food insecure”.
According to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, 80% of Gazan households rely on some kind of food aid.
UNRWA says the number of Gazan that it helps who are unable to buy basic items such as soap, stationary and safe drinking water has tripled since 2007.
A UN survey in 2008 found more than half Gaza’s households had sold their disposable assets and were relying on credit to buy food, three-quarters of Gazans were buying less food than in the past, and almost all were eating less fresh fruit, vegetables and animal protein to save money.
Overall, the UN says the blockade has caused the economy “irreversible damage”. Unemployment has soared from 30% in 2007 to 40% in 2008, according to the World Bank, though it dropped slightly in early 2010. The UN says that when aid is discounted, 70% of Gazan families live on less than a dollar a day per person.
It was against these conditions that a “Freedom Flotilla”, led not by states and governments, but rather by citizenry, including statesmen and Nobel Laureates, set off the coast of Cypress to attempt to break the blockade.
About this time last year, in July, an attack on a dera in Austria sparked violence in Punjab. Six men have now been 
charged- one with murder, and five with attempted murder as accomplices – for the initial attack in Vienna.
A 35-year-old man has been charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder, a Vienna court spokesman said. The five others are charged with being accomplices in attempted murder and with attempted severe assault on the worshippers. [link]
The five charged as accomplices are planning on pleading not guilty. [link]
The thirty-five year old charged with murder claims that he suffers from memory loss “after being subdued by worshippers wielding frying pans, a rolling pin and a microphone stand. The defence said it would submit a psychiatric assessment to the court.” He’ll be submitting a psychiatric evaluation to assess any such loss.
Vijay “Jay” Chand Gandhi was sworn in as California’s first South Asian federal judge on April 14th. He is only the second Indian American federal judge in the country. Gandhi will be a magistrate judge for the U.S. District Cou
rt in California’s Central District. This district serves Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
India-West reports, “The duties of magistrate judges include conducting preliminary proceedings in criminal cases, trying and disposing of misdemeanor cases, ruling on discovery disputes in civil cases, issuing reports in habeas corpus and civil rights cases, trying civil cases and other assigned matters.”
Kiran Jain, president of the South Asian Bar Association in Northern California, told India-West, “As the first South Asian federal judge in California, Judge Gandhi’s appointment is not only an historic advancement in increasing diversity in our judiciary, but a testament to the South Asian American legal community’s progress in advancing our bar to the highest levels of our profession.”
Congratulations Vijay Gandhi! It will be interesting to see if and how Gandhi utilizes his experience as a South Asian American in his work as judge. It is one thing to have a South Asian name and another to actually use your cultural experiences to help the community. I hope he views being a federal judge as an opportunity to shed light on the issues impacting the South Asian community while helping create larger policy changes.
As far as I know, there are no Sikh U.S. federal judges. Do you know of any? If not, I await the day we have Sikh U.S. federal judges. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer. Being a lawyer is one of the top 3 professions many Sikhs pursue any ways.
Guest blogged by Brooklynwala
While many of us were celebrating 311 years of the Khalsa at Sikh Day Parades and Nagar Kirtans this weekend, thousands of immigrants and their allies gathered in Phoenix, Arizona on Sunday to protest what is being called the 
most anti-immigrant legislation in the United States, Senate Bill1070. Signed into law by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on April 23rd, this measure allows local law enforcement authorities to question individuals based solely upon the suspicion that they may be undocumented.
According to the New York Times, “The law…would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally. Opponents have called it an open invitation for harassment and discrimination against Hispanics regardless of their citizenship status.”
President Obama stated that the law threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”
As many of us reflect upon the birth of the Khalsa this Vaisakhi, throughout North America (and beyond) our communities come together in celebration. Covered here is a round-up of Vaisakhi celebrations with various media links. If your city is covered here, provide us some context/anecdotes about your experience. If your city is NOT covered here, provide us some context/anecdotes about your experience.
As many Sikhs throughout the world are gearing up to celebrate Vaisakhi, we continuously get disheartening news as well. In Toronto there was a shameful incident this weekend.
A former judge, now a prominent Brampton lawyer, is in hospital with serious stab wounds when a mob turned deadly at a Sikh temple on Friday evening.Manjit Mangat, 53, is in hospital with multiple stab wounds to his abdomen, thighs and legs and cuts on his face after he was attacked inside the Sikh Lehar Centre, a temple at Bramsteele Rd. near Steeles Ave. and Hwy. 410.[link]
The worst exhibit I saw ..and I know BOTH sides are guilty of this, was the declaration that the other side are not Sikhs. Both sides need to mature and grow up. I hope the Sikh youth can provide a better example for our elders.[link]
I read about this story and it just broke my heart. The details are tragic in and of themself, however, the indication that our community somehow failed this family is even more heartbreaking.
On February 21st, 2010 – Satnam Singh was shot to death by NYC police. A few days later his mother, Balbir Kaur, lay in a hospital bed recovering from being hit with a pan repeatedly by her son who suffered from a mental illness. When the NYC police arrived at the home – Satnam who had suffered an episode of an anxiety attack – was unable to articulate the situation. The police, seeing the mother bleeding on the couch – shot Satnam several times. He later died. Balbir Kaur’s other son, Lakhvinder Singh had in fact called the police. As he lay in a hospital bed preparing for treatment for a medical condition, he worried that he had not heard from his mother in some time. Their father, Bahadur Singh had recently traveled to Punjab and therefore, Balbir was alone at home with Satnam.
Balbir was the sole caretaker of her sons and husband. Satnam was suffering from a mental illness, Lakvinder was in a wheelchair after an accident, and Bahadur had his feet amputated due to gangrene infections. After the incident, Balbir lay in a hospital for days without a friend or family member by her side.
The local Punjabi language newspaper reports that since no one in the community knew the family, their suffering for years, including the latest episode, were unknown to anybody in Sikh circles. I somehow find it impossible to believe that the unfortunate family would never have visited any gurdwara the whole time they were there. Why did anybody not befriend them? Why was a support system not extended to them? Why was a newly migrant woman left to fend and care for her family of 3 disabled men on her own? [link]
On TLH we have addressed various issues effecting the South Asian elderly community. The recent news article in the the New York Times on the difficulties encountered by many Sikh seniors in the California Bay Area was particularly heart wrenching.
In an article in New America Media, Paul Kleyman discusses the impact of depression on ethnic seniors. Many of his statements of seniors feeling alone and depressed resonated with the stories I have heard about Sikh seniors. I have often heard how Sikh seniors feel like America is a “sweet prison”. You have many material benefits, but also a tremendous amount of social isolation. Even when living with their children and grandchildren, the elderly miss their social life back in Punjab. In the US, the elderly spend the majority of their day separated from their children and grandchildren in time and space. Also, generational gaps coupled with cultural differences create social and emotional distance.
Kleyman writes that ethnic seniors are expected to have similar levels of depression as the white elderly population (about one in six people ages 50 and above), but the main difference is:
“… that African-American, Latino, Asian and Native-American seniors are less apt to get treated. That’s because of their higher levels of poverty, lack of insurance or access to treatment and the pervasive stigma of mental illness in many cultures. Left untreated, depression, anxiety disorder and related conditions can result in debilitating physical ailments, as people eat and sleep more poorly and become less physically active. ”
French legislators are currently considering a ban that would prevent Muslim women the right to wear full-body veils in public areas such as buses, trains, hospitals, restaurants, schools and other public places. Since 2004, head scarves and other signs of religious affiliation have been banned from public schools by a government determined to enforce France’s tradition of strict secularism amid fears of growing fundamentalism. Although Sikhs have also been fighting for their right to wear turbans in France – what will an overt ban, which sends a clear statement to its citizens about religious tolerance, mean to other minority groups in the country?
Identifying the burqa as alien to French culture, say the ban’s critics, also fans xenophobic sentiment. What will be declared un-French next? The sari? The Sikh turban? Day-Glo bicycle shorts? [link]
Interestingly – there are only about 2,000 Muslim women in France who wear these veils. Many say that France, a country that prides itself on liberal democracy, is simply taking away the individual freedom to make a choice. As an Op-Ed piece in the NYT asks, “Why the French obsession with the burqa? After all, as the French government itself has conceded, only about 1,900 women wear the full-body covering. So why are over half of the respondents in recent public opinion polls in favor of a ban on it?”
Amarjit Kaur, 39, was critically shot on Wednesday afternoon in Vallejo, California as she sold ice cream out of an ice cream truck near a school. The Bay Area television news reported last night that police believe the reason for the shooting was two fold. First it was a robbery by a 15-year male. Secondly, Kaur’s inability to understand that the English-speaking 15-year old was asking for money caused him to shoot her out of frustration and anger.
As a widowed mother of three and a recent immigrant to the United States, Kaur’s case highlights the struggle that immigrant woman go through to support their families. Her strength to sell ice cream out of a truck while not completely understanding English shows perseverance during adversity but also highlights the risk new immigrants take to build lives for themselves and their families in the United States.
You would imagine that selling ice cream to primarily children would not be high risk. However, Harish Joshi reported that he was held-up twice while operating an ice cream truck in Richmond (California Bay Area).
Kuldeep Malhan, Kaur’s brother-in-law said a fund has been set-up to help support the family at Bank of America, account No. 488019845001. Please donate to help with Kaur’s medical bills and other living expenses while she is unable to work because of her injuries.
Over the past few months, we have come across various articles in the media depicting the state of affairs for students of Indian origin living in Australia. Attacks against Indians (allegedly racially motivated) and, what was perceived to be, a poor response by the police and leaders sparked protests in both Australia and India. Widespread media coverage in India has been especially critical of Australia’s handling of this violence. On the other hand, however, the Indian media’s coverage has been likened to hysteria by many in Australia. Many are saying that the Indian media has done more harm than good in their coverage of the events, and in doing so, have shadowed the real problems faced by students in Australia.
So what exactly is going on? A few days ago we received an email from a TLH reader in Australia who wanted to share his perspective on the situation:
I am a year 12 student from Australia about to go into university and I would just like to express some opnions which I hope you could take to the readers of The Langer Hall. Recently there has been much uproar in the Indian media and community about these so-called racist attacks on Indian students in Australia. It really pained me to hear how such events could occur in what has developed to be one of the most multicultural countries in the world. Having just finished school I can say that the range of cultures and backgrounds which I have been exposed to…has been awesome. In my fifteen years as a turbaned boy I have not once felt like this country holds any form of racist ideas against me. My father has been a turbaned bus driver, and now a train driver for many years and he expresses similar ideas to me… Just recently the news begins to appear through investigations by Australian Police that many of these attacks on Indian students..were in fact carried out by other Indian students. I am not saying that all the attacks that occur…are by Indians…but i am raising the point that Australia is not as bad as many people make it seem. I see in Indian newspapers everyday that there was some attack on an Indian and they request Indians to stop going to Australia. Yet not one paper made mention of the fact that it was Indian students who had been arrested for the murders. Well I suppose that is expected in India… [-KS]
Drug abuse is an epidemic that is hitting Punjab at high rates. We hear about Punjabi men being addicted to drugs and the ramifications of their addiction on them and their families.
Prerna Suri of Al Jazeera reports on the devastating effects of drugs in Amritsar. The city’s location near Pakistan and Afghanistan has made it a primary target for drug trade and abuse. According to the report, seventy percent of youth (15-35 years) in Amritsar are addicted to heroin.
Suri highlights how the drug trade happens, its effects on those who abuse narcotics, and the ramifications of drug abuse for the addicits’ families.
I am a strong believer that Sikhi can play a strong role in both the prevention and recovery from drug abuse. Rather than allow drugs to take over our spiritual capital, we can use our spiritual strength to help heal those who are suffering from drug abuse and prevent others from entering this kind of addiction. You can read about one Sikh’s experience of visiting Akal Charitable De-addiction Centre , a drug recovery program in Sangrur, Punjab.
Where do the elderly fit into India new modern image? Often in South Asian families, caring for the elderly is not a question-it will happen. In West we know of the many stories of how the elderly are mentally, physically, and 
emotionally abused by their children. Often the elderly are forced into starting their life over again in a new country coupled with the strain of supporting themselves at an age when they can no longer work and are socially dependent on their children.
However, in India, we are told it’s not the case. Families care for their elderly-some are even forced to because all the property is in their elderly parents names. But New America Media reports that the number of elderly left to care for themselves in India is skyrocketing and the country has no infastructure to care for them. For example, with an aging population of 80 million, Indian old age homes do not accept patients with dementia. Dementia is a common problem that afflicts the elderly.
