1. SALDEF Summer Internship Program: Don’t miss this opportunity! 2. SALDEF Co-Founder Discusses the Effects of Hate Crimes in California 3. EEOC files Federal Lawsuit supporting Sikhs right to wear the Kirpan 4. SALDEF Sponsors Nationwide Screenings of A Dream in Doubt with PBS 5. SALDEF Discusses Naturalization Delays with the FBI 6. SALDEF Lobbies Congress on Workplace Religious Freedom 7. Legal Updates 8. Upcoming Events SALDEF Summer Internship Program: Don’t miss this opportunity! Intern with SALDEFThe SALDEF Internship Program offers Sikh American youth rare opportunities for political advocacy and leadership development. The program educates students on issues of civil rights, public policy and the legislative process. Students will gain hands-on experience in community organizing, research, writing, legal issues affecting the community, political action, and education outreach. Applications are still being accepted! Current opportunities available include: Legal, Legislative, Communications and Development Fellows. Click here for more information. SALDEF Co-Founder Discusses the Effects of Hate Crimes in California On March 13, SALDEF co-founder Jaideep Singh spoke on the plenary panel of a day-long program in Palo Alto, California examining the continuing danger of hate crimes in our society. Entitled Beyond Us and Them: Confronting Hidden Bias in Our Community, the event was attended by over 150 community activists and leaders, including the police chiefs of Palo Alto and East Palo Alto, police detectives, the Mayor of Palo Alto, and the Deputy District Attorney for Santa Clara County. Mr. Singh described the domestic terrorism directed at Sikh Americans during the national hate crime epidemic of historic proportions following September 11, 2001. In addition, he discussed the inordinate number of shootings of Sikh American cab drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area since 9/11, and the resulting fatalities. He also highlighted the pervasiveness of racial profiling in the post-9/11 era, emphasizing how Sikh Americans have been particularly affected by this “illegal, immoral, ineffective” policing method, contextualizing his comments within the long history of the practice in the United States. Co-Sponsors of the event, which was organized by “Not In Our Town: Silicon Valley”, included the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate-Free Community and the Palo Alto and Mountain View Human Relations Commissions. EEOC files Federal Lawsuit supporting Sikhs right to wear the Kirpan The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a Federal lawsuit against ManorCare Health Services, a nursing home operator, for refusing to allow a Sikh American employee to wear her kirpan, a religiously mandated article of faith. The EEOC asserts that Baljit Bhandal, a 41-year-old dietary aide, lost her job because ManorCare Health Services refused to accommodate her religious beliefs. Bhandal, an amritdhari Sikh employee of ManorCare’s Citrus Heights, Calif. facility, wore a small, dull and sheathed kirpan (religious sword) strapped underneath her clothing as a symbol of her commitment to defend truth and moral values. Although her faith requires her to wear a kirpan in order to comply with the Sikh Code of Conduct, her employer instructed Bhandal not to wear the kirpan at work because it violated the company policy against “weapons” in the workplace. According to the EEOC, ManorCare forced Bhandal to choose between her job and honoring her religious belief even after receiving literature explaining that the kirpan is a religious artifact, not a weapon. This is the second such allegation of discrimination against ManorCare. The EEOC’s Detroit Field Office filed the first suit against Manor Care (EEOC v. HCR Manor Care, Case No. 2:07cv1370) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in August 2007. If you have been denied access or been subjected to any form of harassment due to your faith or for carrying your mandated Sikh articles of faith, please report it to SALDEF immediately at 202-393-2700 or via info@saldef.org SALDEF Sponsors National Screening of A Dream in Doubt with PBS SALDEF presents A Dream In Doubt. SALDEF is proud to be one of the national partners of ITVS’s screening of A Dream in Doubt. The film was co-produced by former SALDEF National Director Preetmohan Singh and Directed by Tami Yeager. A Dream in Doubt is the story of Rana Singh Sodhi, the brother of Balbir Singh Sodhi, the first causality of post-9/11 backlash and his journey to reclaim the American Dream and fight the hate which threatens his community. A Dream in Doubt will be screened in 28 locations starting on April 1, 2008, across the nation culminating with a May 20, 2008, National Airing on PBS. SALDEF will be sending periodic emails about upcoming screenings in your area. Make sure you and your friends are on SALDEF’s email list so that you receive announcements about these local opportunities. SALDEF Discusses Naturalization Delays with the FBI In a meeting with senior officials at FBI Headquarters, naturalization delays took center stage. Over the course of the past year, SALDEF has been working with the FBI and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to bring to their attention that millions of Americans are not becoming naturalized within the 180 day mandated time frame due to pending FBI name checks. Total incoming applications amount to on average of 78,000 per week. While the FBI has committed to hiring additional staff to decrease the backlog, reports show that 74% of the applications which cleared the FBI background checks have been stalled by USCIS. Along with the increase in staff, the FBI has implemented key management changes in order to stream line the process of naturalization applications. If you are, or know of a community member, who is facing a delay in naturalization contact SALDEF immediately at 202-393-2700 or info@saldef.org. SALDEF Lobbies Congress on Workplace Religious Freedom On February 12, 2008, the House Committee on Education and Labor held the 110th Congress’s first hearing on the Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2008. The bill would increase protections of Sikh Americans from discrimination based on their daastar (turban), kirpan, kesh, or kara. This piece of legislation is vital to the future economic success of the most vulnerable within our community. Throughout February, the WRFA coalition, of which SALDEF is the only active Sikh organization, met with dozens of Congresspersons encouraging them to support the bill and co-sponsor including Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), Rep. Chris Holt (D-NJ), Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), and Rep. George Miller (D-CA). Legal Updates Since January, SALDEF has received 50 requests for legal assistance of which SALDEF has accepted to engage in 20. These cases involve broad issues from immigration and naturalization, DMV concerns, violations involving the right wear a kirpan, and the denial of entry of a Sikh simply due to his daastar. Unfortunately, SALDEF’s limited resources do not allow us to take on all the cases we receive as we wish we could. Recent Cases include: * Defending the right of Sikhs to wear turbans when getting a driver’s license * Ensuring Sikhs receive fair treatment during the immigration process * Defending the right of Sikhs to carry their kirpans * Representing Sikhs denied services due to their faith We need your support now to ensure all members of the Sikh community receive the support they need when their faith is under attack. Click here to support SALDEF’s efforts in protecting and advocating for the Sikh American community.
