A group of eminent Indian-Americans has condemned the brazen hateful comments and a hostile environment against Hindus in Canada and asked Ottawa not to mix freedom of expression with freedom for terror and endorse hate crimes by being silent on the issue.
Like many other immigrants in the United States, the Sikhs have endured decades of prejudice. In the post-9/11 backlash, they were mistaken for Muslims, beaten up, threatened, robbed and discriminated against in hundreds. Some times, they were attacked just because they looked different.
Pro-Khalistan elements based in Canada have been luring gullible Sikh youth to the North American country by sponsoring their visa with the sole objective of using them to carry out their agenda on Canadian soil, sources said on Wednesday.
Crimes committed against Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, Arabs and three other minority religions would now be tracked as hate crime by law enforcement agencies and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Leading Indian American hotelier and community leader Sant Chatwal has been honoured by Sikh Council on Religion and Education for his contribution to humanitarian causes worldwide.
The stabber was upset over not getting admission into a university.
In a highly emotional yet powerful testimony before a United States Senate Committee on Capitol Hill, Harpreet Singh Saini, the 18-year-old son of one of the victims of the Oak Creek gurudwara shooting, urged the US government to add a separate category for Sikh Americans on the form used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to gather data on hate crimes.
A Sikh can be allowed to enter the United States military with turban and beard, the Pentagon has said, noting that the approval in this regard would be given on a case by case basis and there is no universal or automatic approval to the new relaxed religious norms.
Singh was born and raised in Houston and now lives in Bellaire with her husband and two children.
Two Sikh-American military recruits, both medical professionals already in the US Army, who have been denied the right to report for active duty in July unless they remove their turbans and cut their unshorn hair and beards, have called on the Pentagon to allow them to serve their country without having to compromise their religious principles.
Khalsa was driving home on the night of September 25 when a group of men in car threw a beer can at his vehicle.
Toomey said he has personally witnessed the spirit of Sikhs and has come to better understand the Sikh tradition that is founded on equality, respect, and peace.
Ajay Banga was on Wednesday appointed the next president of the World Bank, becoming the first-ever Indian-American to head the global financial institution which said it looks forward to working with him at a time when it's tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries. "The executive directors of the World Bank today selected Ajay Banga as president of the World Bank for a five-year term beginning June 2, 2023," the bank said in a press statement. In February, President Joe Biden announced that the US would be nominating Banga, 63, to lead the World Bank because he is "well equipped" to lead the global institution at "this critical moment in history."
In the 'official citation' dated April 29, the Connecticut general assembly congratulated the pro-Khalistan organisation World Sikh Parliament 'in recognition of the 36th anniversary of the declaration of Sikh independence.'
A United States court has ruled that Marine Corps cannot deny entry to Sikhs sporting a beard and wearing a turban, in a major victory for three recruits from the community who can now join the elite unit's basic training without having to forfeit their religious beliefs.
Sikhs have been mistaken for terrorists and radicals and continue to suffer after 9/11 terror attacks in the US, community members feel following the latest attack on an elderly Sikh man in California which is being probed by police as a hate crime.
A 41-year old Sikh-American IT specialist was brutally attacked by some men, who knocked off his turban and allegedly cut his religiously-mandated unshorn hair with a knife, prompting a civil rights organisation to demand a hate crime investigation into the incident.
About 90 per cent of the workers at this delivery service facility are said to be Indian-Americans, mostly from the Sikh community.
It seems that the West is sending a signal to India that it can return to old hostilities unless India toes their line on Russia. It is no surprise that India is being compared with Putin's Russia in terms of targeting 'dissidents' as the West calls these Khalistani terrorists, asserts Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
A US military aircraft carrying 112 Indian deportees landed at the Amritsar airport late on Sunday night, marking the third such flight in recent weeks. The deportees, who hail from various states across India, will be allowed to return home after completing necessary immigration procedures. The deportations are part of a crackdown by the Donald Trump administration against illegal immigrants.
The United States had a 'productive meeting' with visiting officials of the India Enquiry Committee, a State Department official said on Wednesday, adding they were satisfied with the cooperation from the Indian side.
'A concerned citizen called the police to investigate me while having lunch because of my suspicious container. Just my bamboo flutes,' Dhillon wrote in an Instagram post about Tuesday's incident.
Harmeet Dhillon, vice chairwoman of the California Republican Party, delivered the Sikh prayer on the national stage in Punjabi and then translated it into English.
A Sikh professor at Columbia University was allegedly attacked by a group of men, who called him "Osama" and "terrorist", in an assault which police are investigating as a hate crime.
A 26-year-old Sikh-American officer in the US Marines who has been allowed to wear the turban - the first person in the 246-year history of the elite force allowed to do so, but with a few limitations, plans to sue the Corps if he is not granted full religious accommodation, according to a media report.
A bipartisan group of 39 influential American lawmakers has asked the International Basketball Federation to end its discrimination against Sikh players and allow them to play while wearing a turban.
Vikas Yadav, 39, was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the federal prosecutors claimed on Thursday in an indictment filed in a US court in New York.
The new set of rules allows religious accommodations to be approved at the brigade-level. Previously it was at the level of secretary.
In a major decision that might have a far reaching impact on Sikhs joining the United States military, the Pentagon has issued new instructions relaxing norms to allow troops to wear jewellery and apparel to comply with their religious requirements.
United States President-elect Donald Trump on Monday nominated Indian-American Harmeet K Dhillon as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice.
More than two dozen lawmakers and prominent Indian Americans gathered at the US Capitol for the annual Diwali celebration, highlighting the contributions of the Indian American community and the strong US-India relationship. The event, organized by the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, also featured addresses from several Congressmen and Senators who expressed support for Indian Americans and emphasized the importance of the US-India partnership.
Just days after a Sikh man was hit and dragged by a truck, another Sikh man and his mother were attacked in New York by a group of teenagers who called them 'Osama Bin Laden' in an apparent hate crime, sparking fresh outrage among the community members.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate also shared the video and said the BJP leader is openly threatening to kill the Leader of the Opposition of this country.
Ahluwalia, 41, was not allowed to board the Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to New York on Monday.
For the third time in a row the California state legislature passed a resolution to declare November as Sikh Awareness and Appreciation month. This year the resolution was proposed by Assembly Member Bob Wieckowski (Democrat, Fremont).
Members of the United States Congress break bread to celebrate the contributions of Sikh Americans. Rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa reports
A Sikh man, critically injured after being hit by a truck, was called a "terrorist" by the attacker, victim's wife said, demanding justice for him and terming the assault as an attack on her community.
Vernon Douglas of Brownsville was arrested on Thursday in Brooklyn and charged with multiple counts of robbery, assault, aggravated harassment and hate crimes, the Queens Chronicle reported.
New York-based Sikh designer and actor Waris Ahluwalia gets recognised for fighting racial discrimination in New York.
