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Chicago, United States (August 20, 2012)–Local Sikh leaders horrified by the recent killings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday to call for a ban on assault weapons.
Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran described as a white supremacist, killed six and wounded four, including a police officer, on Aug. 5 at the temple in Oak Creek, Wis.
Page used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and not an assault weapon. Still, Chicago-area Sikhs have agreed to Jackson’s request to march in support of a return to a ban on assault weapons.
“We need to stop this violence,” said Balwant Singh, a member of the Sikh Religious Society in Palatine. “One way to do this is to ban the assault weapons that are easy to be accessed.”
President Clinton approved a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994, but it expired in 2004 under President George W. Bush. The ban included semiautomatic firearms such as the Colt AR-15, TEC-9, AK-47 and Uzi.
President Obama hasn’t advocated a return of an assault weapons ban, but Gov. Quinn recently proposed a statewide ban.
Jackson, in a news conference at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters on the South Side, also condemned the white supremacist ideology held by the Wisconsin shooter and those in other recent mass shootings.
“These killings keep coming,” he said. “We seem to be anesthetized, in a trance. … The rise of a multicultural America is a threat to the supremacists. They are becoming more capable of acting on their anger and killing.”
Sukhdev Kaur Ghuman, president of the Sikh Religious Society, said she knows of 700 incidents of violence on Sikhs across America.
Jackson and the Sikh leaders said attackers seem to have confused Sikhs with Muslims following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks led by Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslim terrorists.
But Sikhs aren’t alone as victims of hate: vandals targeted Muslim mosques across the country after the Wisconsin killings.
Ghuman said the Sikh religion needs to receive more attention in American classrooms. The Sikh and Muslim religions are distinct, she noted.
Sikhs don’t follow the Muslim’s Quran, but instead read the Guru Granth Sahib as their most sacred text. They also don’t view Mohammed as their prophet, as Muslims do.
“We are a peace-loving people,” said Mahanbir Singh Dhillon, also of the Sikh Religious Society. “The guy in Wisconsin should have read a few things about Sikhs before he barged in with a gun.”
[Regardless of the differentiation, many Sikh groups have come out since the Wisconsin massacre saying that nobody deserves to be shot, not even Muslims.]
Frank Main, Staff Reporter, Chicago Sun Times can be reached at
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Chicago, United States (August 20, 2012)–Local Sikh leaders horrified by the recent killings at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday to call for a ban on assault weapons.
Wade Michael Page, an Army veteran described as a white supremacist, killed six and wounded four, including a police officer, on Aug. 5 at the temple in Oak Creek, Wis.
Page used a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and not an assault weapon. Still, Chicago-area Sikhs have agreed to Jackson’s request to march in support of a return to a ban on assault weapons.
“We need to stop this violence,” said Balwant Singh, a member of the Sikh Religious Society in Palatine. “One way to do this is to ban the assault weapons that are easy to be accessed.”
President Clinton approved a federal ban on assault weapons in 1994, but it expired in 2004 under President George W. Bush. The ban included semiautomatic firearms such as the Colt AR-15, TEC-9, AK-47 and Uzi.
President Obama hasn’t advocated a return of an assault weapons ban, but Gov. Quinn recently proposed a statewide ban.
Jackson, in a news conference at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition headquarters on the South Side, also condemned the white supremacist ideology held by the Wisconsin shooter and those in other recent mass shootings.
“These killings keep coming,” he said. “We seem to be anesthetized, in a trance. … The rise of a multicultural America is a threat to the supremacists. They are becoming more capable of acting on their anger and killing.”
Sukhdev Kaur Ghuman, president of the Sikh Religious Society, said she knows of 700 incidents of violence on Sikhs across America.
Jackson and the Sikh leaders said attackers seem to have confused Sikhs with Muslims following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks led by Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslim terrorists.
But Sikhs aren’t alone as victims of hate: vandals targeted Muslim mosques across the country after the Wisconsin killings.
Ghuman said the Sikh religion needs to receive more attention in American classrooms. The Sikh and Muslim religions are distinct, she noted.
Sikhs don’t follow the Muslim’s Quran, but instead read the Guru Granth Sahib as their most sacred text. They also don’t view Mohammed as their prophet, as Muslims do.
“We are a peace-loving people,” said Mahanbir Singh Dhillon, also of the Sikh Religious Society. “The guy in Wisconsin should have read a few things about Sikhs before he barged in with a gun.”
[Regardless of the differentiation, many Sikh groups have come out since the Wisconsin massacre saying that nobody deserves to be shot, not even Muslims.]
Frank Main, Staff Reporter, Chicago Sun Times can be reached at
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Do not blame the gun, it's the death-obsessed culture which influences PEOPLE to enact in such activities.
ReplyDeleteBanning such weapons will leave the people at a huge disadvantage when full blown tyranny comes knocking on your door.
This is emotional propaganda being used on us for a certain agenda. How can the sikh community support leaders who are PRO WAR and kill innocent people on a DAILY basis in the name of oil? You have lost your ways because your are deceived.