Community demonstrates solidarity following hate crime Washington, DC – The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national Sikh American advocacy group, is standing in solidarity with the local Muslim community after a mosque in College Park, MD was defiled by a cross-burning yesterday. SMART’s Chairman, Manjit Singh, issued a statement demonstrating the need for ethnic and religious communities to unify when such hate crimes are undertaken to divide. “As a religious minority also targeted after 9/11, the Sikh American community expresses its deepest concern and sympathy for Muslim Americans,” said Singh. “Where such acts are designed to intimidate, unity becomes our strongest weapon against hate. The perpetrators of this act must be brought to justice to demonstrate that hate in our society cannot and will not be tolerated.” This cross-burning becomes the first such incident reported to authorities in Maryland in over three years. To help prevent such acts from occurring again, SMART and other local civil rights groups are urging authorities to investigate and prosecute this act to the fullest extent of the law.
