UNITED SIKHS Blog

As Faiths Act Fellows at UNITED SIKHS, Hannah and I have had the privilege of witnessing clergy of different faiths organizing themselves to have a strong, united voice against injustice this year. Since New York City has been at the center of the country’s expression of discontent at the current financial and social situation of the 99%, it has been a particularly exciting place to be as a Faiths Act Fellow.

Watching clergy find their place in the fight for economic justice has been breathtaking, and has modeled for us the resources and wisdom that faith communities have to offer any social movement. The primary role of OccupyFaith has been to serve as a moral voice, condemning corruption and inequality and supporting the protesters and their cause. They have also worked together to provide shelter for hundreds of protesters every night in their houses of worship since the raid of Zuccotti park and the onset of winter. From the start, they have held up Occupy Wall St. as the next link in the long chain of non-violent protest movements agitating for justice, often connecting it back specifically to the Civil Rights Movement.

Last Thursday UNITED SIKHS honored the visionary leadership of OccupyFaith by providing coffee, tea and bagels at the weekly meeting of 45 members. We recognized that the participating members’ activism to bring us closer to a time when all people have the rights and resources they need to live a dignified life is exactly what International Human Solidarity Day is all about.

We thank the clergy of OccupyFaith for showing us one more way that religion can be a force for good in the world, and cherish our involvement with this dynamic and inspired collective.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 10, 2011

Statement by the President on the Anniversary of the Birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji

I send my best wishes to all those observing the anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh Guru. On this occasion, we are reminded of the fundamental principles of Sikhism, including the equality of all people, the sanctity of living an honest life, and the importance of service to our neighbors. I’m proud that during my presidency the White House hosted the first celebration of the birth of Guru Nanak, and our country is grateful for the extraordinary contributions that Sikh Americans have made to our nation. As Sikhs across America and around the world celebrate the life of Guru Nanak, all of us can draw inspiration from his message of equality, honesty, and helping those who are in need.

After graduating high school, I spent a year living in Jerusalem, the epicenter of many of the world’s religious conflicts. As a resident I was privy to the ways that misunderstanding and intolerance play out on a day-to-day level. From witnessing hateful graffiti and humor (on both sides) to hearing conflicting historical narratives, it was plain to see that the rift between the Jewish and Muslim communities there runs deep, and that much of the population accepts this state of affairs as the only way.

My intense sadness over the lack of visible dialogue or grassroots peace-building efforts brought me to an organization called Encounter. Their mission is to educate diaspora Jewish leaders about the realities of Palestinian plight under the occupation. Most of the participants in their educational trips have never met a Palestinian, and come to the experience with the straightforward Zionist narrative they were taught in synagogues and schools. As an intern with the organization, I was able to help organize and participate in one of their trips to Hebron. After a day of touring and learning about the history and political dynamics of that tragic city, the group arrived at a community center where we sat down with a room full of local people. Palestinian people. The tension was palpable. Most of us, Jewish and Palestinian alike, had never had the opportunity to be face-to-face with individuals of the other, “rival” group.

Each person went around the room and shared a bit about themselves and their story. Slowly, people began to laugh together and to listen to one other with focus and compassion. Some of the Palestinian residents shared objects that were meaningful to them, including one man who walked us through his different passports and the rights that each of them do and do not give him. While this may sound political, it felt completely personal and intimate, and those in the Encounter group were able to simply listen and empathize with the difficulties of life under occupation for this one, individual person. It was a relief for the Jewish participants to be heard and understood as well, and to be able to show that our people, too, are each different and unique and that most of us also constantly seek peace and understanding.

After breaking into small groups, eating, and continuing to get to know one another, the evening drew to a close. None of us wanted it to end, and by the time we said goodbye I felt a surge of emotion that I will never forget. On the one hand it was about having met these fantastic people and gained insight into their experience that I never could have otherwise, and on the other it was the realization of how rare these opportunities for face-to-face contact are between groups that are so thoroughly separated, by systems and by prejudice. That day taught me the transformative power of face-to-face understanding, and drew me to the work I am now doing as a Faiths Act Fellow at UNITED SIKHS combating intolerance by bringing the Sikh community together with other people of faith to share experiences, increase understanding of each other’s traditions, and listen to one another.

By Nomi Teutsch

Blog by Marina Pohrib, Legal Intern in NYC office.

This month, the European Union (EU) has appealed to India not to execute Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar.  Bhullar had been sentenced to death in 2001 by a split decision of the Supreme Court of India for a 1993 car bomb attack in New Delhi that killed 12 people and injured 29, including former Youth Congress leader M.S. Bitta.  (See EU opposes death to Bhullar, writes to Chidambaram.) Continue reading ‘Seeking Clemency for Professor Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar’ »

Blog by Marina Pohrib, legal intern at UNITED SIKHS NYC office.

As a new intern with UNITED SIKHS I recently attended a panel discussion on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) access at the United Nations (UN) organized by the UN NGO Committee on Human Rights.  The discussion was held on June 13, 2011 at the UN Church Center’s Hardin Room. Continue reading ‘Issues Undermining NGO Access and Participation at the United Nations’ »

Marking the anniversary of the 1984 attacks on Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) in Amritsar, the sangat of Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar in Port Reading, NJ and UNITED SIKHS hosted the annual blood drive, where dozens of community members participated and generously donated. Central Jersey Blood Services partnered with us on this important endeavor. Continue reading ‘Gurdwara Dashmesh Darbar hosts Blood Drive; Community Members respond to crucial need’ »

Members of New York’s faith communities, immigrant advocates and community members were brought together by NYS Interfaith Network for Immigration Reform and the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York on Wednesday, May 11 2011, to send a loud and clear message to Governor Cuomo: New York must join Illinois in doing the right thing and end the state’s participation in Secure Communities, or S-Comm. UNITED SIKHS Legal Fellow Ilana Ofgang spoke at the conference, emphasizing the need to have policies that increase security without racial or religious profiling of immigrant communities.

Watch Ilana speak at the Press Conference!

According to the National Immigration Forum, “Secure Communities is a program that allows state and local police to check the fingerprints of an individual they are booking into a jail against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration databases. If there is a “hit” in an immigration database, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified, even if the person has not been convicted of any criminal act.” More information about S-Comm is available here.

Members of different faith groups spoke about how S-Comm has affected their own faith communities, and speakers included:

·         Rev. Fabian Arias, Minister of Zion Lutheran Church and co-chair of the New Sanctuary Movement

·         Sunita Patel, Center for Constitutional Rights

·         Rabbi Michael Feinberg, E.D., Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition

·         Adem Carroll, Director, Muslim Progressive-Traditional Alliance

·         Minister Pat Malcolm, Secretary of Churches United to Save and Heal or CUSH

·         Lisa Sharon Harper, Executive Director and co-founder of New York Faith and Justice

The press conference concluded with a Candle Lighting Ceremony and prayers from different faith traditions.

Today, UNITED SIKHS signed on to a joint letter that will be sent to the Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to urge the State Department to list Pakistan as a country of particular concern, or CPC under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), in order to encourage the Pakistani government to take action to protect the religious freedom of minority religious groups. Sikhs in Pakistan face many threats to their religious freedom and their personal safety. For more information on the threats to the religious freedom of Sikhs in Pakistan see our 2010 Global Sikh Civil and Human Rights report -you can find the report on Pakistan on page 98. You can also read the text of the sign on letter below.

The UNITED SIKHS legal team attends bi-monthly religious freedom round tables in Washington, DC to discuss ways of better promoting and protecting international religious freedom through IRFA. This round table is comprised of a diverse array of NGO’s and non-profits that are committed to the cause of religious freedom for all. UNITED SIKHS is able to discuss concerns of the Sikh community at these roundtables and by doing so raises awareness about the threats to religious freedom that so many Sikhs face around the world. Recently, we brought to the attention of the roundtable the following two issues: the forcible turban removal in Mohali, India and the kirpan ban in Quebec. Additionally, we consistently discuss the religious profiling that occurs both domestically and abroad at airports and through these meetings we are able to educate partner organizations and government officials about the increasingly discriminatory policies that the Transportation Security Administration is implementing.

The IRFA was passed in order to promote religious freedom as an important part of the foreign policy of the United States. For more information about IRFA, click here.

Read the sign on letter below:

May 12, 2011

The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC

Dear Madam Secretary:

We are deeply concerned about Pakistan.  The murders of Governor Salman Taseer and Federal Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, as well as the “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief” described in the 2011 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), lead us to respectfully urge you to designate Pakistan as a “country of particular concern” (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).  Further, the U.S. should supplement the designation by working behind the scenes to convince Pakistani authorities of the value of advancing religious freedom in order to undermine extremism and terrorist sanctuaries.

To date, the Pakistani government has proven unwilling to implement needed reforms, and the USCIRF again recently recommended that Pakistan be so designated.  Pakistan is glaringly absent from the CPC list and unquestionably meets the statutory threshold.

The IRFA standard for “particularly severe” violations of religious freedom is actions “engaged in or tolerated” by the government in question.  Pakistani laws and constitutional provisions explicitly repress the religious freedom of all Pakistanis, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.  The well-known blasphemy law carries the death penalty and three individuals during the past year have been sentenced to death or had death penalties confirmed on appeal.  The anti-Ahmadi provisions in the constitution and criminal code are shockingly discriminatory and criminalize many of their religious activities.  The lack of any effective government response to an increasing number of violent acts perpetrated by non-state actors against Muslims and non-Muslims also meets the “tolerated” provision of IRFA.  The two prongs of IRFA, government sins of commission or omission, so to speak, clearly describe the situation in Pakistan.

After the assassinations of Taseer and Bhatti, the Pakistani government has not only avoided, but has run away from, any serious efforts to reform the blasphemy law or to prevent further attacks.  A CPC designation would help to change the political calculations of Islamabad and encourage the Pakistanis to move forward, not backward.  The increase in violent religious extremism threatens all Pakistanis, particularly women and religious minorities, but also the majority faith community.  Acts of violence and the repressive laws have fostered a culture of vigilante violence, which is destabilizing Pakistan, with dangerous implications for our and their national security, let alone human rights protections.

Because we recognize that Pakistan is critical to the United States on a number of levels, we urge you to designate Pakistan a CPC.  But since we also realize that this designation, by itself, could merely aggravate our deteriorating relations, we urge you to work to convince Pakistani authorities of the value of advancing religious freedom in order to undermine extremism and the culture of violence.  The negative CPC designation should be supplemented with positive foreign policy actions that encourage the development of legal, educational and cultural institutions and procedures that can change state and societal behavior in Pakistan.

Sincerely,

CC:      William Burns, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs
Michael Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Marc Grossman, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Blog by Rebecca Tweneboah UNITED SIKHS NY legal intern

Bullying is no longer going to be considered our nations’ most accepted pasttime, according to President Barack Obama, when he kicked off the Bullying Prevention Conference with a speech at the White House on March 10, 2011.  To view the speech click here. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/03/10/president-obama-first-lady-white-house-conference-bullying-prevention.

The First Lady expressed how this particular issue hits close to home because of their own two children, and the fear every parent has that their child is being bullied at school.  She emphasized that the burden of dealing with bullying is not only for the parents to bear, but the responsibility extends to all of us, especially teachers and other students.  It is our job as adults to lead by example and show our children the appropriate way to treat people.

President Obama focused on how and to what extent bullying affects young people in this country.  Statistics show one-third of middle school and high school students reported being bullied; three million students reported being pushed, shoved kicked or even spit on; and bullying causes increased school absences.  Unfortunately, bullyings’ reach has extended beyond the school gates into the homes of many children, via cyber-bullying, giving bullied kids no relief from the attacks.  The ‘bullied’ are mostly those perceived as being different in the eyes of students, whether they are of a different race, ethnicity, have different religious beliefs, or are of a different sexual orientation than the masses.  Regardless of these differences, the goal for the President and the conference is to create an environment where all kids feel like they belong.  It is going to take the cooperation of everyone in order to realize this type of change.  The PTA has already lended its support through a new campaign aimed at getting information into the hands of parents.  MTV also stepped up with its new tv campaign that speaks out against bullying, in a language that children can understand.  Students, teachers and parents at the local level have taken a stand against bullying, and the President was pleased to acknowledge these accomplishments.  However, he emphasized that there is still a long ways to go and that the conference is about creating an environment where all of our children can thrive.  President Obama recognized that children are going to make mistakes, it is part of growing up, but at the very least we must teach them the golden rule: treat others the way you want to be treated.

UNITED SIKHS collected data in the community regarding bullying and focusing on how it effects Sikh children and we came across some shocking results.  Our research shows that of the roughly one-third of children who experience bullying in school, over 50 percent of those children are Sikhs.  Based off this information and personal accounts of bullied Sikh children, UNITED SIKHS began a Bullying Prevention Initiative.  This Initiative attempts to inform other children about the Sikh faith and explain the harmful effects bullying has not only on the child being bullied but on the bully him/herself.  UNITED SIKHS hopes Bullying Prevention Initiatives such as this one will dispel fear, othering and hate that is at the root of such biased based bullying. Through our Bullying Prevention Initiative we also hope to create an effective program that eradicates bullying through education, awareness, empowerment, and accountability. UNITED SIKHS will work to create safe spaces for not only Sikh youth, but all youth at school, on the playground, on the computer, so youth no longer fear being bullied or feel the need to be a bully.

Review your risk for developing diabetes and take steps to lower it.

How high is your risk? Take this short simple assessment by the American Diabetes Association available here.

Reduce your risk by following these simple steps:

• Exercise regularly and/or increase physical activity: Be active for 30 minutes a day at least 5 days a week.
• Eat a healthy diet, reduce fat and calorie intake
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Get regular health screenings
• Manage stress

Diabetes Alert Day was on March 22, 2011, so join us for a healthy cooking demonstration! Remake popular snacks that are low in fat, low in calories and high in fiber.

Date: Friday, March 25, 2011

Time: 4 pm to 8 pm

Venue: Sikh Cultural Society, Inc. 95-30 118 street , Richmond Hill, NY 11419.

Contact the UNITED SIKHS Community Health Worker, Rucha Kavathe, for more information on wellness, nutrition, stress relief, and prevention of diabetes at rucha.kavathe@unitedsikhs.org.

UNITED SIKHS is a community partner on Project RICE, a 5 year community driven research initiative to promote diabetes prevention among Asian Americans in New York City through the work of community health workers.

Project RICE is the core research project of the New York University Health Promotion and Prevention Research Center, and is funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).