All TSA Screeners are required to watch this movie before Thanksgiving 2007. It’s been produced by the United States Department of Justice Community Relations Service, and the Sikh American Legal Defense Fund. It does a great job of explaining who Sikhs are, and what to do as a TSA screener or law-enforcement officer interacting with Sikhs. It also provides a great general overview for interested citizens.

UPDATE: 2/6/2007 You can now watch this video at higher quality on the DOJ Site!

Update: 11/30/2007 SALDEF reports that over 60,000 law enforcement officials have watched this video!

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.

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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

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Wow, this is great news. Congrats to Tarun Singh, the winner of a $10,000 Sikh scholarship from the Sikh Scholarship Foundation. The fact that we have a Sikh Scholarship Foundation that actually awards scholarship is amazing, and the winner, Tarun, is excellent. Though I’ve never met him, my brief correspondence with him has been rewarding in itself.

Let’s not forget how great an achievement this is. Zillions of small groups award scholarships for various reasons in the US, and are usually backed by very large funds and endowments. And now we have a foundation dedicated to awarding budding Sikh youth that are on the path to success by society’s standards as well as Sikhi’s standards. Yes!

If I were in school now I’d apply for this scholarship!

Congrats again Tarun Singh! The full press release from the Sikh Scholarship Foundation is after the jump.

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Earlier this month I had the distinct honor and pleasure of participating in the National Catholic-Sikh Dialogue organized by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and the World Sikh Council. It’s a multi-year effort designed to deepen understanding between the two communities. As one of the ten Sikh participants I gained a great deal of knowledge and reaffirmed a bunch of truths I hold dear. I also made some new, awesome Catholic friends!

I once again saw that people of faith have a great deal in common, and that interfaith dialogue is itself part of the spiritual practice of being a Sikh. Through dialogue, you learn a great deal about yourself and gain some perspective on your faith. One of the things I appreciated about Catholicism was the discipline that Catholics keep around “orders.” There are many different orders of Catholics — like Franciscans, Dominicans, Paulists, and others. Some orders may be monks and nuns, while others live in the world. But they all seem to get along in a very organized and disciplined way. They all agree to a core set of beliefs and practices, and then they have slight differences in focus. I was impressed by that. I imagine Sikhs would have the same thing–our unifying feature would be the minimum discipline imposed by the Rehat Maryada (5K’s, etc) and then the ‘orders’ could form around different things like kirtan, sewa, and exercise (:)). Sometimes it seems that we need to get along better as Sikhs, and the Catholics who’ve been around for about 2000 years have figured out how to do it.

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SALDEF has done an awesome job working with the US Department of Justice Community Relations Service. One example of that is the many trainings that have been going on in the years since 9/11. Here’s the press release.

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Jagjit Singh, a Canadian Tabla teacher, is on course to set the world record for longest Tabla Performance, at 110 hours! I don’t know if he’s still going, but I imagine he is. I don’t know how he does it! How does he eat? Wow. Anyway check the video below.

http://www.mississauga.com/article/7277

Here’s the SALDEF Press Release:

Maryland Teens Arrested in Burtonsville Hate Crime
SALDEF commends Montgomery County Police for efforts in apprehending alleged perpetrators

Washington, DC: October 4, 2007 – Yesteday, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), the nations oldest and largest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy organization, was informed that five teens have been arrested in connection with a string of attacks in Burtonsville, Maryland. SALDEF spoke directly with Chief Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department who discussed the arrests and indicated that additional arrests are expected. Read the rest of this entry »

The Sikh Coalition recently launched a website for Sikh Kids. It’s basically the modern day equivalent of a brochure on a topic with an interactive discussion board, videos, and cool PowerPoint decks and resources. Useful and well-designed, kudos to the Coalition for putting this out!

http://khalsakids.org

This is an Op-Ed piece written by the Sikh Coalition.

As a kid growing up, I was always seen as the “genie” — you know, the dude with a turban that comes out of a lamp. Thank you Disney. A stereotype, but a benign one. Unfortunately as Sikh kids grow up today, they are labeled by their peers as “Osama” (thanks CNN) so I can only imagine what it’s like to be a fifth grader with a Sikh turban. Hopefully efforts like those highlighted in the editorial will ensure our schools give all students and equal chance at education.

A Free Ride for Bullies

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