Chicago, United States—Local Sikh leaders horrified by the recent killings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday to call for a ban on assault weapons.
Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran described as a white supremacist, killed six and wounded four, including a police officer, on Aug. 5 at the temple in Oak Creek, Wis.
Page used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and not an assault weapon. Still, Chicago-area Sikhs have agreed to Jackson’s request to march in support of a return to a ban on assault weapons.
“We need to stop this violence,” said Balwant Singh, a member of the Sikh Religious Society in Palatine. “One way to do this is to ban the assault weapons that are easy to be accessed.”
President Clinton approved a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994, but it expired in 2004 under President George W. Bush. The ban included semiautomatic firearms such as the Colt AR-15, TEC-9, AK-47 and Uzi.
President Obama hasn’t advocated a return of an assault weapons ban, but Gov. Quinn recently proposed a statewide ban.
Jackson, in a news conference at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters on the South Side, also condemned the white supremacist ideology held by the Wisconsin shooter and those in other recent mass shootings.
“These killings keep coming,” he said. “We seem to be anesthetized, in a trance. … The rise of a multicultural America is a threat to the supremacists. They are becoming more capable of acting on their anger and killing.”
Sukhdev Kaur Ghuman, president of the Sikh Religious Society, said she knows of 700 incidents of violence on Sikhs across America.
Jackson and the Sikh leaders said attackers seem to have confused Sikhs with Muslims following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks led by Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslim terrorists.
But Sikhs aren’t alone as victims of hate: vandals targeted Muslim mosques across the country after the Wisconsin killings.
Ghuman said the Sikh religion needs to receive more attention in American classrooms. The Sikh and Muslim religions are distinct, she noted.
Sikhs don’t follow the Muslim’s Quran, but instead read the Guru Granth Sahib as their most sacred text. They also don’t view Mohammed as their prophet, as Muslims do.
“We are a peace-loving people,” said Mahanbir Singh Dhillon, also of the Sikh Religious Society. “The guy in Wisconsin should have read a few things about Sikhs before he barged in with a gun.”
[Regardless of the differentiation, many Sikh groups have come out since the Wisconsin massacre saying that nobody deserves to be shot, not even Muslims.]
There is no one way to eliminate or even curtail gun violence or any other violence. The responsibility begins with the individual. Let us all try to do our part to create a world of peace in the framework of a world of difference.
Singh of Chicago
Jesse uses gun control as a pet issue to distract attention from the real problems of warring drug factions, fatherless children and no hope in “his” communities.
Did Balwant come up with that line all by himself? Jesse used him.
The shooter did not use an assault weapon. He used a handgun.
Banning Assault weapons is not the solution. It will only lead to a proliferation of illegally held weapons which is a much more dangerous situation to be in. Look at other countries where firearms are banned but you still have shootings.
The solution lies in changing the mindset of those holding the white supremacist ideology and other ideologies that advocate intolerance through education. Education imparting the positive aspects of the different religions and a multicultural society should form a core part of the curriculum in schools.
It is easy to apportion blame for these atrocities against the Sikh community on the ignorance of the society we live in. Sikhism is a distinct religion from Islam. Sikhs don’t follow the Muslim’s Quran, but instead read the Guru Granth Sahib as their most sacred text. They also don’t view Mohammed as their prophet, as Muslims do. It is for the Sikhs to educate the society that we live in on that distinction and that the Sikhs are a peace-loving people.
Sikhs can aid this education process by increasing the awareness of Sikhism (and its values) in the society it lives in through sponsoring sports events, sponsoring community events, charity work in the community, seminars, open days at Gurudhwaras etc