If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
In the wake of the Boston bombings, Muslim parents fear for their children at school. Muslim women are discussing whether it is necessary to "pass" (remove their headscarfs), to be safe. How many innocent people will be teased, harassed or assaulted?
I pray that the collective response to yesterday will be drastically different from the knee-jerk racism that pervaded the days, weeks, months, and years after 9/11. But honestly, I'm not so sure how hopeful I am.
While I have been blessed never to have faced direct discrimination, the visual expression of my faith through my unshorn hair kept within my turban and my long beard attract cautious and potentially critical looks wherever I go.
As it currently stands, our government is not adequately tracking hate crimes. Rather, we are overlooking the violence endured by some of the most regularly targeted communities: Sikhs, Hindus and Arab Americans.
Our identities as Americans will not be given legitimacy -- or quite literally, airtime -- and we will thus continue to remain faceless victims of yet another tragedy chalked up only to gun violence and not also to hatred and ignorance.
Sikh warriors patrol the temple. You'll notice them right away in their blue uniforms carrying various weapons.
On this six month anniversary, as we honor the lives lost to violence, may we also remember the spirit of Chardi Kala to quiet the impulse to anger and revenge, cultivate an ethic of acceptance and grace -- and not give up.
Let's not allow mental illness to be further stigmatized by events like the Newtown tragedy, nor to distract us from the solutions that are closer at hand. It's a lot faster, easier, and cheaper to reduce the number of assault weapons in circulation.
If we wish to truly decrease senseless, unjust violence, we can begin by learning more about the suffering that people endure everyday through individual acts of violence and structural violence, and by investigating how our life choices may increase or decrease that suffering.
2012 might be remembered in the history books for many reasons. But it will certainly be recalled as the year gun violence reached a critical mass.
I hear the voice of god. Well, OK, it is Pat Robertson whispering in my ear, but that is pretty close. The subject of his whispers seems to be expan...
Things have apparently gotten so out of control that even after a Muslim man like Bashir Ahmad is victimized in such a horrific way, the take home message for the public is still that the Muslim is the aggressor, is suspicious, is a potential threat.
In keeping with the American tradition and in line with the Dharmic values of self reliance, it is time we, the Dharmic Americans, empower ourselves and understand how to make our places of worship secure.
Things did get better for me. Unfortunately, millions still get mocked, bullied and beaten every day under a red, white and blue backdrop.
1 in 10 Sikhs in California have reported being targeted for a hate crime.
I look at the Wisconsin killings and their price and value to Sikhs. At a personal human level the price of each life is awesome; it can never be met. But the greater national sensitivity and awareness that has resulted is of inestimable value
