We probably all know by now the shooting that took place yesterday at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Details are emerging and it looks to be an obvious hate crime committed by an Army veteran who may have been a white supremacist. The incident left six people and the gunman dead.
It's pretty sad and pathetic. It's hard to imagine what goes through someone's head that drives them to kill unarmed, defenseless, and innocent people particularly in a house of worship. Apparently the guy had a 9/11 tattoo on his body and you can assume he may have been driven by some sort of thoughts of revenge for the 9/11 tragedy.
The ridiculous thing is that Sikhs had nothing to do with 9/11. I'm not saying that it would have been right for this guy to go into a mosque and do the same thing. It doesn't make sense to kill random Muslims for the acts of a few twisted and evil people. However, it just goes to show the ignorance of this individual to place an attack against people with absolutely no connection to 9/11.
The only good that came from this incident is that I thought CNN's coverage of the tragedy was excellent and I thought the Sikh community in Wisconsin handled this situation unbelievably. While there was obvious shock and sadness, there were not Sikhs looking for revenge or hate. In fact, Dr. Rajwant Singh who is the Chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education participated yesterday on CNN's coverage and tried to explain who Sikhs are and what we believe in and while he condemned the attack, he explained that Sikhs even in adversity should stand tall and proud. He also invited anyone and everyone to a Sikh temple this Sunday to join in our sorrow and also to better understand Sikhs. I thought it was an amazing way to show strength.
Hopefully the families and the community in Wisconsin can find peace and hopefully this type of ignorance (which has happened way too often against Sikhs in the past) does not happen again.
Monday, 6 August 2012
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