SMART Training Expected to Attract 800 Participants Washington, DC— Approximately 800 local, state, and federal law enforcement officials will participate in an awareness and protocol training regarding Sikhs and Sikhism in the Washington, DC-area tomorrow. The seminar is designed to build better relationships between law enforcement and the Sikh, Arab, and Muslim community and is the final event in a six-city, nationwide training conducted by the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART) in partnership with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service (CRS). The day-long seminar will take place in the suburbs of Washington, DC at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland. The training, entitled Sikhism 101: Awareness and Protocol for Law Enforcement provides an introduction to Sikh beliefs, history and culture. The interactive program includes a 25-slide PowerPoint presentation, video, and visual aids of Sikh articles of faith. In addition to the morning training, SMART will hold a “Training of Trainers” workshop to allow about 75 members of the local Sikh, Arab, and Muslim community to conduct this program in their local communities. Through this program, SMART has already trained over 1,000 law enforcement officials at regional trainings in California, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Attendees at previous trainings have included: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents; Department of Transportation Security Administration personnel; representatives of U.S. Attorney’s offices; federal counter-terrorism task force officials; and local law enforcement officials, including the New York Police Department. SMART President Manjit Singh said, “Through these trainings, SMART is working towards affecting systemic change by demystifying the Sikh faith for law enforcement officials and reducing the chance that Sikhs are racially profiled. With the support of the Sikh community and the CRS, we hope to expand this program in the coming months so we can continue educating law enforcement officials across the country.” Based on the backlash that affected the Sikh American community following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, SMART has also created a Law Enforcement Reference Card. This pocket reference card includes protocols for the turban and kirpan and provides additional resources for law enforcement officials.
Law Enforcement Training about Sikhs Culminates with Large Event in Capital Region
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.
SMART Collaborating with Local, State, and Federal Authorities to Address Death Threats Received by Maryland Sikh Family Washington, DC—Responding to a pair of death threats received by a Sikh family in the Washington, DC metropolitan area three weeks ago, the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national civil rights organization, is organizing a community forum to discuss this and issues related to hate crimes with law enforcement officials. SMART is encouraging the DC-area Sikh community to attend the event this Wednesday, August 27 at 7 pm in Rockville, MD (details below). The pair of death threats stated, in part, that the family is believed to be “closely affiliated with the Taliban…[and] plan to kill you and your family members.” Since receiving the threats, SMART has been coordinating with the family and law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, to ensure investigation of these threats as bias-motivated incidents. The community forum, “Combating Hate Crimes,” is being organized in collaboration with local, state, and federal law enforcement officials and community groups to present information about how to effectively deal with such hate-motivated incidents. The event will serve a mutually educational purpose for community members and law enforcement, and will not be a forum where the affected family’s identity is revealed. Confirmed participants include representatives from the Department of Justice, DC Bias Crimes Task Force, Montgomery County Police Department, and representatives from the Sikh, Arab, Muslim, Jewish and other communities. If you live in the DC metropolitan area, please share information about this event with your family and friends. Additionally, please request your local gurdwara to make an announcement about the event and distribute copies of the event flyer (available online, see URL below) at the gurdwara.
WASHINGTON, DC – The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national Sikh civil rights organization, is encouraging Gurdwaras across the United States to sign a joint letter on behalf of the religious community to Congress in support of hate crimes prevention legislation. SMART is enlisting the Sikh American community’s support to send the message that hate crimes should be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The nation’s religious community is being brought together by various interfaith organizations to gather signatures of America’s religious leaders in support of passage of S.966, the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act (LLEEA), and its House companion bill, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Current law permits federal prosecution of a crime as a hate crime only if the act was motivated by bias based on race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity, and the assailant intended to prevent the victim from exercising a federally protected right. If this legislation is enacted, it would expand federal jurisdiction to include a broader set of bias categories. Second, the legislation would increase funds and support from federal law enforcement in the prosecution and investigation of hate crimes. Such action would enhance vigilance and effectiveness in the response to hate crimes. SMART requests Gurdwara leaders to sign the enclosed letter urging passage of this important legislation, and to help gather as many signatures as possible from other Gurdwaras. Signatories to the letter (attached below) should provide the following information: – Name – Gurdwara – City, State – Telephone Please give a copy of this advisory to your local gurdwara management and encourage them to sign-on. ### SAMPLE LETTER ### Dear Senator/Representative, We the undersigned religious leaders, from the Sikh faith tradition in XX state write you to urge swift passage of the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act of 2003(S.966), without any weakening to the amendments. In the troubling times after September 11th, the Sikh American community in particular has faced a twofold threat. Just as any American post-September 11th, Sikh Americans have had to live with the anxiety and apprehension of future terrorist attacks. However, in addition, Sikh Americans are living everyday with the fear of hate crimes being committed against members and institutions of their own community. The first fatality in the September 11th backlash was, in fact, a Sikh American gas station operator in Mesa, AZ. Thus, we must make it clear that neither hate nor violence is a traditional American value; both are antithetical to democracy and true spirituality. Though legislation cannot remove hate from the hearts and minds of individuals, hate crime prevention legislation can help to create a society that is unbending in its intolerance of hate-motivated violence. As you know, current law permits federal prosecution of a hate crime only if the crime was motivated by bias based on race, religion, national origin, or ethnicity, and the assailant intended to prevent the victim from exercising a “federally protected right.” The LLEEA would expand federal jurisdiction to include a broader set of bias categories. The law would also empower federal prosecutors to act in concert with local police and provide funding to these officials to assist with investigations. A broader federal law will also help make up for the inadequacy and absence of inclusive hate crime laws in many states and municipalities. To those who would oppose this hate crime legislation in the name of religion, we state categorically: everyone in this society should enjoy the strongest possible guarantee of freedom from attacks motivated by bigotry. Bigotry cloaked in religion is neither a moral right nor a religious value. The sacred Xures of many different religious traditions speak with dramatic unanimity on the subject of intolerance. If we aspire to be true to the prophetic core of our religions, we cannot condemn hate and then sit idly by while it destroys our communities. We believe that religion and government must work together to create a society in which diverse people are safe as well as free. We urge you to support the enactment of the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act. Sincerely,
SMART Following Up with Local, Federal Law Enforcement in NYC Washington, DC – The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national civil rights organization, is encouraging the Sikh American community to attend a vigil promoting unity and peace in Queens, New York on Tue. August 19. The vigil is in response to the recent attack on a Sikh family in Queens, New York. SMART has learned that the August 3 hate crime in Queens, NY is being actively investigated by the NYPD. SMART has been consulting with the FBI and the NYPD Bias Crimes Unit to ensure that both federal and local authorities are diligently moving forward in the investigation. Communities in New York City are responding actively by supporting the Sikh family and condemning the incident. Local community organizations, led by New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), have come together in organizing the “Vigil Against Violence.” The vigil, supported by several local and national organizations including SMART, will be held in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY on Tuesday, August 19. Details about the event, scheduled as a march, are follows: Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2003 Time: 6:30 P.M. sharp Assemble at: P.S. 69, in Jackson Heights, Queens, NY at 77-02 37th Avenue March to: Frank D. O’Connor Playground on Broadway, between 78 and 79 St SMART encourages the Sikh community in New York City to distribute information about the vigil to their family and friends, and attend the vigil in l
SMART Encourages Sikh Community to Attend Public Forum Washington, DC — On Wednesday, June 4th, a day before the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to conduct an oversight hearing on the USA PATRIOT Act, SMART will join a diverse coalition of organizations at a public forum to examine the growing trend of law enforcement to selectively target certain immigrant communities under the guise of national security. SMART encourages the Sikh community, particularly those targeted unjustly by law enforcement since 9/11, to attend the hearing at the Senate tomorrow. The forum entitled: Justice For All: Selective Enforcement in Post-911 America, will examine the post-9/11 impact on the lives of those in the Arab, Muslim, East African, Sikh and Latino communities. A panel will include representatives from national organizations, individuals from the affected communities, along with members of Congress, including Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Patty Murray (D-WA). The forum is endorsed by over 100 national and local organizations including SMART. The details for the event are as follows: WHAT: A nationwide public forum on selective enforcement post-9/11 WHO: Community Members, Civil Rights Advocates, Senators WHEN: June 4, 2003, 10 AM – 12 PM WHERE: 902 Hart Senate Building, Washington, DC
Washington, DC – Leaders of national Sikh, Arab and Muslim organizations met with FBI Director Robert Mueller II on Wednesday, May 28 to discuss further partnerships with the community and the possible development of an advisory committee that would coordinate efforts at state and national levels. Last week’s meeting, a follow-up to the February 28, 2003 meeting, took place a week after a Sikh American truck driver was shot twice in a hate crime in Phoenix, AZ. “While we appreciate Director Mueller’s initiative to meet with us,“ said Manjit Singh, Chair of the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART) Board of Directors, “we want to ensure that preventative measures to reduce hate crimes take place hand-in-hand with investigation and prosecution, especially in light of the Phoenix incident last week.” Singh, who represented SMART, the oldest national Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization, voiced the Sikh community’s concerns since the Phoenix incident on May 19, 2003. Following the shooting of Avtar Singh Chiera, the 52-year-old Sikh American who was shot after parking his 18-wheeler, SMART conducted training at the Phoenix Police Department headquarters for law enforcement officials and community leaders. SMART is encouraged that the FBI has responded positively to its suggestion of conducting similar religious awareness and protocol workshops at its training academy and at field offices across the country. Since September 2001, SMART has been reporting hate crimes and working closely with the FBI’s Washington, DC office and their various field offices. Following a meeting last February, the FBI issued a media release saying, “The FBI’s aggressive response to hate crimes has sent a clear message that vigilante attacks will not be tolerated. (Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks), the FBI has initiated 414 hate crime investigations involving Muslim, Sikh and Arab-American victims, with 17 persons being charged federally thus far. Additionally, some 129 persons have been charged with state and local crimes in connection with those investigations.” This meeting was the fourth in a series between the director and the leaders of national Muslim, Sikh and Arab-American organizations, though not all of them have been publicized. Others attending the meeting were representatives of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, the Arab American Institute, the Islamic Institute, the American Muslim Council, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Phoenix Police Establishes Reward Fund; Sikh Community Urged to Support Reward, Family Funds Phoenix, AZ – Responding to requests from local and federal authorities, the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), a national Sikh advocacy group, conducted awareness training for law enforcement officials last week, following the shooting of Avtar Singh Chiera on May 19. Last Friday, May 23, approximately 35 individuals gathered at the Phoenix Police Department headquarters to attend SMART’s awareness training, entitled Sikhism 101: An Introduction to Sikh Beliefs, History, and Culture. Attendees included representatives from the police department, state attorney general’s office, the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service (CRS), and members of the local Sikh community. The training was also attended by representatives from local chapters of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the National Conference on Community and Justice (NCCJ). SMART would like to thank the Community Relations bureau of the Phoenix Police Department for arranging the training session on short notice and the Phoenix-area Sikh community for supporting the Chiera family following this unfortunate incident. The individuals responsible for the apparently hate-motivated attack against Mr. Chiera are still at-large. Two funds have been established following the shooting. The Chiera family is facing financial hardship as a result of this crime. Mr. Chiera has no health insurance and will be unable to work for a while. The community can contribute to the Chiera family fund by sending donations directly to the following address: FUND FOR AVTAR SINGH, A SIKH HATE CRIME Bank of America Mail Code AZ3-125-01-01 3246 East Bell Road, Phoenix, AZ 85032 A second fund has also been established by the Phoenix Police Department through the Silent Witness Reward program, aimed at encouraging witnesses to come forth anonymously with information that may lead to an eventual arrest and conviction of the shooting suspects. Contributions to the Silent Witness Reward fund can be made through an online donation to SMART, or by sending donations directly to the following address: SIKH COMMUNITY AID FUND Memo: Avtar Singh Reward Program 2313 N. Richland Street Phoenix, Arizona 85006 Since learning about the shooting from a regional SMART representative early on the morning of May 20, SMART immediately informed local, state and federal authorities to ensure a thorough investigation. SMART representatives spoke individually with the following folks to ensure a coordinated effort: the FBI Squad Leader; Phoenix Police Department Detectives; United States Assistant Attorney General, Arizona; and Director of the United States Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. Recent news reports indicate hate crimes against those perceived to be Muslim or Arab in the United States have been on the rise since the beginning of the war in Iraq. Therefore, SMART encourages Sikh Americans to do outreach, increase civic participation and become active in their communities.
These days, when Mehar Mehal ties his turban to go out of the house, his thoughts are of a former Bay Area taxi driver, Balbir Singh Sodhi . . . and a new movie, “DisFunktional Family.” “I think when you tie a turban as a Sikh, at the back of your mind you are thinking you’ve got to be careful,” said Mehal, a Santa Clara engineer. “You could get hurt, you could get killed.” Balbir Singh Sodhi, if you can’t quite place him, is the gas station owner who was shot to death in Arizona shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, allegedly by a man proclaiming his patriotism. Sodhi was wearing a turban that the suspect associated with terrorists. “DisFunktional Family” is a concert movie starring the comedian Eddie Griffin, an “equal-opportunity comic who gets laughs at everyone’s expense,” according to the movie studio, Miramax. Where the two intersect, Sikhs like Mehal believe, is a scene in the film and its trailer, in which Griffin points to a turbaned elderly Sikh man walking on the street and shouts, “Bin Laden, I knew you was around here!” It’s just one of many gags in the movie that features Griffin’s take on life and celebrity, interspersed with interviews with his family. Griffin goes after his mother, too. Palpable worry But no one’s going to go after Mrs. Griffin because of this movie. Mehal, in contrast, warns his 67-year-old turbaned father to be careful on his daily walks. That’s why since February, when the trailers first surfaced in movie theaters, Sikh organizations such as the Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force have tried to work with Miramax to see the movie first and temper such scenes. Not censor, says Preetmohan Singh, director of the Washington, D.C., office of Sikh Mediawatch. They know about the Constitution and freedom of expression, Singh said. “But corporations need to demonstrate corporate and moral responsibility.” Singh, a San Jose native, has a healthy respect for the First Amendment. After all, he won a San Jose Mercury News scholarship and was a standout in a South Bay journalism program called Mosaic. At age 24, he is hip, urban and squarely in the demographic that would see the movie. He’s not exactly a humorless activist. Miramax wouldn’t screen the movie for Sikh Mediawatch before the April 4 release and wouldn’t meet to discuss it, Singh said. He notes that studios have shown restraint when it suits them, delaying some films that might be perceived as too close to real events, and therefore insensitive. We can all use a good laugh in these times, Singh says. But since the Sept. 11 attacks, and again since the Iraq war began, Sikhs have been in the awkward position of having to tell the public what Sikhs are. Or, rather, what Sikhs are not. They are not Arab. They are not Muslim. (Not that anyone should be attacked because they are.) But if you see men wearing turbans in North America, they are probably Sikhs, because the turban is an emblem of their religion. Harpreet Singh of the Sikh Coalition said that a few days after the war began, a man with a big American flag on his truck spat repeatedly on Singh’s car while they were in bumper-to-bumper traffic between New York and Washington. “It hurt, because . . . I lost friends and people I knew in 9/11,” said Singh, 28. Worse, it made him feel very vulnerable on that highway. Who’s reasonable? But Miramax doesn’t get it. “Reasonable people,” Miramax’s official response to the group said, would not associate Sikhs with Osama bin Ladin, and besides, plenty of people of other faiths wear turbans. “Family,” fortunately, seems to be fading on its own, failing to crack the Top 10 in ticket sales its first week. Still, Sikhs want Miramax to remove the scene from distribution on post-theater versions on DVD or VHS. “This is not over,” promises Preetmohan Singh. “And it is not because we’re mad.” It’s because they’re scared.
Possible backlash against those perceived to be Muslim, Arab or Middle-Eastern Washington, DC, — Following President Bush’s remarks to the nation last night about the developments in Iraq, Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART) is cautioning the Sikh American community to take extra safety measures to safeguard themselves, their property and their local Gurdwara from possible backlash if war breaks out in the Middle East. Recent news reports (F.B.I. Warns of Possible Hate Crimes in United States, NYT 3/13/03) indicate hate crimes against those perceived to be Muslim, Arab or Middle-Eastern in the United States have been on the rise. SMART would like to emphasize that this advisory is issued purely as a precautionary measure. A hate crime is targeted criminal activity, motivated by prejudice based on perceived immutable personal characteristics of the victims. Hostile or hateful speech and actions motivated by prejudice are termed hate or bias incidents. These motivations may include race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation. Hate incidents become crimes only when they directly incite perpetrators to commit violence against persons or property, or if they place a potential victim in reasonable fear of physical injury. If you or anyone you know, becomes the victim of a hate incident, please report it immediately at http://www.sikhmediawatch.org/incident/incidentreport.htm. SMART has relationships with law enforcement agencies across the nation and will ensure that the appropriate agency is notified of the incident. You can also contact SMART toll free at 877-91-SIKHS (1-877-917-4547). To help the community better respond to an incident, SMART has developed KNOW WHAT TO DO, a handy pocket guide that details the steps that should be taken in the event of a hate crime, discrimination in the workplace, police profiling, and states your rights as an airline passenger. SMART URGES EVERYONE TO EXERCISE COMMON SENSE AND RELY ON THEIR OWN BEST JUDGMENT, BUT OFFERS THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTIONS: (Link no longer available).