Folks, I knew Navneet when he was just a regular guy. After rocketing to the international stage in recent years through dedicated sewa, he’s now adding another notch to his belt by becoming one of the best and brightest leaders in America. Congratulations Navneet! Whether you like it or not, you are a role model for all Americans. Keep rockin’ the house!

Sikh selected as Georgia’s Top 40 - The ‘Best and the Brightest Leaders in America’
Wednesday 12th of December 2007
Tania Kaur, United Sikhs

Queens, New York, USA – Navneet Singh Narula, a volunteer and Director of United Sikhs settled in Atlanta USA, is no stranger to winning top honors and awards. In the rarefied air of Fortune 100 global business, where conformity is the norm, Narula has set himself apart as a top corporate executive for one of the world’s largest management and IT consulting firm and stands tall as an authority on business leadership, corporate citizenship and a community service leader in America.

(more…)

Congrats to all the sewadars that made this event a Sikhcess!

Excerpt:

On Saturday, at the Lawrence Gurudwara Sikh temple on Bakers Basin Road, nearly 100 volunteers turned out to put together 6,000 food packages assembly-line style as part of the British Columbia-based Sikhcess’ “Feed the Homeless Campaign.”

Those food packages were then brought to New York, where an additional 4,000 were made and distributed throughout the city and in New Jersey. Similar efforts have also been under way to benefit other areas, including Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Vancouver and Toronto.

Read the Full Article: Sikh temple participates in ‘Food for Homeless’ drive

The Seattle Sikh community is organizing a Candlelight Vigil for 6pm Wednesday at Renton Gurdwara. Sukhvir Singh was brutally attacked on Saturday and is in the hospital. Please try to attend and show your support for Sukhvir Singh and all other victims of hate crimes. See the official flyer below.

News Articles:
KOMO4 Video Report
King 5 Report and Video Interview
Seattle PI: Intoxicated fan accused of beating Sikh cab driver
Seattle Times: Sikh cab driver injured in assault, Kent man arrested
Seattle Times: Hate-crime charge filed in attack on Sikh cab driver

Sikh Coalition Press Releases (with photographs):
Sikh Suffers Brutal Hate Attack in Seattle
Sikh Hate Crime Victim Back in Hospital

If you’re in the Boston area, head out to BU to remember the thousands of innocent lives that were lost in this tragic military attack on the center of Sikh authority.

HRW and Ensaaf have released a report called “Protecting the Killers: A policy of impunity in Punjab, India.” That’s a pretty powerful and self-explanatory title. I’ll let you read the summary of the report below. More information can be found at Ensaaf’s web site.

Radio Salaam Namaste aired a program where two DJ’s made derogatory remarks about Sikhs and encouraged listeners to call in and do the same. SALDEF was alerted, and has secured an apology from the radio program that airs every hour. Like everything, this is a net positive for the Sikh community, and we should applaud SALDEF’s hard work. But in this particular case, it seems like an apology doesn’t really cut it.

As pointed out by several posts on the Sikhnet Discussion forums (see posts by Jennifer Reed and Sutinder Singh), Don Imus referred to women on the Rutgers basketball team as “nappy headed ho’s” earlier this year. CBS fired Imus for this remark. So how did this happen? The African American community, civil rights groups, and womens groups got together, voiced their opinion and Imus lost his job. Or, from a simpler angle, we can say the power of, and the respect given to, the African American community meant that Don had to lose his job.

The case of the two DJ’s is no different. The DJ’s got on air, made disparaging remarks about Sikhs, and even encouraged listeners to call in and do the same — much more egregious behavior than Don Imus’s remark in passing.

Yet the outcomes are different. Don lost his job, while the radio DJ’s can hide behind an “I’m sorry, we promise we won’t do it again.” Again, SALDEF and other Sikh orgs should be applauded for their hard work, but in this case, we appear too soft. If we’re too nice to call for the dismissal of the DJ’s (which we deserve), how about a two-week suspension of the DJ’s? What’s your opinion?

There’s a bit more to the story: the FCC has strict rules about on air behavior, and even has a formal complaint filing process. SALDEF release after the jump.

(more…)

It’s a shame when people think they can denigrate the sacred religious articles of others and get away with it. Please sign the SALDEF sponsored petition below and get Al Rantel to apologize. The last public figure to make anti-Sikh remarks of this level was a gentleman named John Cooksey, and the Pluralism Project has a nice writeup on that.  Would Rantel make the same remarks about Nuns or about Jews?  Please sign the petition and read on.

Sign the Petition

(more…)

So the Sikh Coalition has started a petition on the recent change in TSA policies. You can find and sign it here:

Stop Religious Profiling in US Airports

I’m entry #1512:

All people should be treated with respect. Let’s say you have two people, both dressed like everyday Americans, one of them wearing a turban. Both pass the metal detector test. With the current policy, the person with the turban gets a pat down, and the other person just walks. What’s up with that? It’s patently unfair and singles out Sikhs, who make up something like 98% of all people wearing turbans in the United States.

I hope I’m just misunderstanding the new policy, because what I’ve written above sounds really unfair.

WSC is looking for suggestions on how to celebrate the upcoming 300th anniversary of the Guru Granth Sahib. It’s really great that such a prominent Sikh organization is seeking feedback from the Sangat. That’s how all Sikh organizations should work. Thanks for asking, WSC. My response is forthcoming!

Preeti Kaur writes:

please take note of this service oriented ngo: http://www.sikhorphanfund.org/html/home.php

Seems like a decent organization from the website.