On September 19, 2012, over 400 people were in attendance at the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Hate Crimes and Domestic Extremism. The chairman of this Senate subcommittee, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) stated the importance of this hearing; “Since 9/11, Congress has held dozens of hearings on the threat posed by Al Qaeda and its affiliates. But this is the first hearing in recent years on the threat of violent domestic extremists. Of course, we need to continue our efforts to defeat Al Qaeda, but we cannot ignore the threat of homegrown non-Islamic terrorists.” Click here to watch Senator Durbin’s opening statement. Over 80 organizations, including SALDEF, submitted written testimony for the Senate subcommittee. The following individuals testified at the hearing:
- Harpreet Singh Saini, whose mother was killed during the attack on the Oak Creek Gurdwara
- Scott McAllister from the Office of Intelligence & Analysis at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
- Roy L. Austin, Jr., Deputy Assistant Attorney General at Civil Rights Division for the U.S. Department of Justice
- Michael A. Clancy, Deputy Assistant Director, Counterterrorism Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Daryl Johnson, Founder & Owner, of DT Analytics, LLC
- James B. Jacobs, Professor at New York University School of Law
Click here to watch the entire hearing on C-SPAN. Click here to watch Harpreet Singh Saini’s moving testimony. During the hearing, Roy Austin from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) indicated that in the next month, the DOJ will work with Sikh organizations in making a determination on the inclusion of an anti-Sikh hate crime category on the FBI’s uniform crime reporting statistics form. SALDEF is encouraged by this development. In November of 2010, SALDEF presented to the Uniform Crime Reporting Division of the FBI on this topic. The hearing was followed by a press conference with representatives from eleven organizations representing various communities effected by hate, including; the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Network for Arab American Communities, the Bickel & Brewer Latino Institute for Human Rights Fellow and the Japanese American Citizens They each echoed the words of Harpreet Saini, “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” SALDEF applauds Senator Dick Durbin for convening this important hearing and the Sikh Coalition for their leadership on this hearing.