Sikhs emphasize forgiveness in aftermath of shooting
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)
Sikhism’s (most often pronounced “Sick”-ism) commitment to inclusivity comes directly out of its origins in the 15th-century Punjab region of India, an area rife with religious conflict among Hindus and Muslims. According to Boston University religion professor Stephen Prothero, in response to this religious turmoil, Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, taught that in God’s eyes, “There is no Hindu and no Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I shall follow the path of God.”
Today there are more than 24 million Sikhs (which means “learner” or “student”), making Sikhism the fifth largest world religion. While most still live in the Punjab, Sikhs are spread across every continent on the planet — there are even Sikh scientists who regularly visit Antarctica. There are around 500,000 Sikhs in the United States, mostly concentrated in the cities on America’s east and west coasts.
With its history of rejection of religious intolerance, it is perhaps surprising that Sikhism entered the American consciousness after the most dramatic act of religious hate in recent memory: the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Most men, along with many women, cover their uncut hair in a turban called the “dashteer.” It is this practice that led many Americans to confuse Sikhs with the turban-wearing Muslim fundamentalists behind the 9/11 attacks, making Sikhs targets of anti-Muslim backlash.
But, as Prothero points out, anti-Sikh violence predates 9/11. It has been a part of American religious history since Sikhs first settled on the west coast to work on the railroads and in lumber mills at the end of the 19th century.
“When they first came, they were called ‘Hindus’ and lumped together with other Indian immigrants,” Prothero explained. In 1907, claiming that the Indians were taking away jobs from “native” Americans, a mob of several hundred white men attacked the Sikh community in Bellingham, Wash., beating the Sikhs in the streets and ransacking their homes.
This ongoing confusion about exactly who Sikhs are and what they stand for has led the Sikh community to take a more active role in protecting its own believers. Modeled in part after organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, which Jewish Americans started in 1913 to fight against anti-Semitism, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) was established in 2004 to monitor hate crimes against Sikhs and to make sure law enforcement responds appropriately.
As was the case after 9/11, it has most often been assumed that anti-Sikh violence is the result of “mistaken identity.” In fact, the U.S. Justice Department doesn’t monitor hate crimes specifically committed against Sikh Americans. In the wake of the Oak Creek shootings, the American media took a similar approach to that of the U.S. government, presuming that the Sikhs were attacked by mistake, scrambling to explain what Sikhs are not — namely, Muslims.
Sikhs and other members of the Boston community participate in a prayer vigil and shared a meal at Trinity Church last month following a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. (Maria Cristina Vlassidis)