Call for US Congressional hearing on hate crimes

Thursday, 23/08/2012

http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

WASHINGTON: In the wake of the Wisconsin gurdwara tragedy, a group of more than 150 organisations have called for a Congressional hearing on hate crimes.

Six Sikh worshipers, including four Indian nationals, died when an ex-soldier went on a shooting spree inside the gurdwara at Oak Creek in Wisconsin on August 5. While the police are yet to determine the reason for the shooting, Sikh advocacy groups have termed it a hate crime.

Led by Washington-based Sikh Coalition, the 150 organisations representing a wide range of faith-based and rights advocacy groups, on Tuesday sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee to conduct hearings on hate crimes and the proliferation of hate groups in the US.

Citing the Oak Creek massacre and a string of attacks on Muslim communities nationwide during the past month, the letter notes that hate violence continues to affect lives of thousands of individuals due to their race, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, and immigration status.

“We want to do everything in our power to make sure what happened in Oak Creek never happens to anyone again,” said Rajdeep Singh, director, law and policy, Sikh Coalition.

“Given the persistence of hate crimes and the sheer number of hate groups in the US, we want our policy-makers to be proactive about uprooting bigotry in the US. As First Lady Michele Obama visits the aggrieved families in Oak Creek, we hope that the Congress will do its part by looking at ways to improve our nation’s hate crime laws,” Rajdeep said.

“During the past month alone, six worshipers at a gurdwara in Wisconsin were massacred by an attacker with known ties to hate groups, and about 10 Islamic institutions and Muslim communities in seven states have experienced attacks, including vandalism, a suspicious burning, shootings, and the desecration of religious sanctuaries,” the letter said.

The letter said that according to the Southern Poverty Law Centre, the number of hate groups in the US (currently numbering over 1,000) has grown by almost 60% since 2000.

In 2010, more than 47% of hate crimes were racially motivated, 20% motivated by the religion of the victim, 19% based on sexual orientation and almost 13% were based on ethnicity or national origin, it said. “Given the persistence of hate crimes and the proliferation of hate groups, we believe a hearing is both timely and necessary,” the letter said.

“We are especially interested in examining the status of the implementation of the Matthew Shepard Act improvements to hate crime reporting and data collection and the need for more robust hate crime prevention measures, consistent with protections for First Amendment rights and civil liberties,” the organisations said in the letter addressed to the Senate Judiciary Committee.