FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2024
Contact: Amrita Kular, SALDEF Director of Communications
(202) 393-2700 | media@saldef.org
Joint Sikh Organizational Statement on Anti-Sikh Sentiments and Narratives in California
October 2, 2024 (Sacramento, CA) — The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the Sikh Coalition, the Jakara Movement, and the American Sikh Caucus Committee issued the following joint statement in response to the Sacramento Bee’s October 2 story, “In the shadow of a freeway shooting lurks the fear of Sikhs threatened in California.”
“As organizations working for the civil rights of the Sikh community throughout the United States, we are grateful to the Sacramento Bee for their comprehensive reporting on these critical issues. We have long raised concerns about a concerted effort to blur the lines between Sikhs, supporters of Khalistan, and terrorists or extremists; much of the information and many of the claims made by those quoted in this article validates those fears.”
“First, we are deeply disturbed to know that advocacy groups have been pushing a political agenda in their trainings to law enforcement. It is in the interest of all communities that crimes—including acts of vandalism at houses of worship—are investigated promptly and transparently so that perpetrators can be held to account; to our knowledge, there is no evidence that pro-Khalistan or Sikh individuals are responsible for any such crimes in California. In any case, it is incumbent on law enforcement to ensure that they are receiving objective information about threats to the communities that they serve. We look forward to conducting our own outreach in the interest of correcting any misinformation or disinformation that may have been shared.”
“Second, we are alarmed at the reports of the October 2023 meeting between Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, former Fresno Chief of Police Paco Balderrama, and numerous activists of unknown background or qualifications. The idea that individual Sikh community members are being singled out, accused of links to terrorism, and suggested to be ‘monitored’—all without any evidence of wrongdoing—is profoundly disturbing. To think that one community could do this to another in a post-9/11 world is beyond disheartening.”
“And finally, we are angered by the insinuation of Hindu America Foundation (HAF) Community Outreach Director Ramya Ramakrishnan that northern California gurdwaras (Sikh houses of worship) are somehow institutionally connected to drugs, weapons, and organized crime. Given the shared reverence in the Hindu and Sikh faith traditions for the importance of houses of worship, we fully expect that HAF will issue a public apology for these remarks immediately.”
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