NY mayor lauds Sikh community’s resilience against hate crimes
Sunday, 17/04/2016
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
NEW YORK: Against the backdrop of growing hate crime against Sikhs in New York, city mayor Bill De Blasio has lauded the community’s resilience in overcoming the challenges of discrimination and making the US “vibrant”.
“I have admired all of the South Asian communities in the city for the crucial role in making New York vibrant but the Sikh community for me has been a revelation,” said Blasio, expressing gratitude to Sikhs for “giving back so much to the city and America”. He said he became friends with the community and got to know the glory of its culture and history, besides “the challenges, discrimination and unfairness” the community has confronted and overcome time and time again.
He added that he espoused the long-held beliefs of the Sikh community of “commonality of all humanity”. The remarks by the mayor come against the backdrop of increase in recent months in hate crimes targeting Sikhs. Last year, on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary, Inderjit Singh Mukker (53) of Illinois was assaulted and called “terrorist” by a teenager. In March, hate crime charges were filed against an individual for attacking Los Angeles County bus driver Balwinder Jit Singh, a Sikh.
In 2014, Sandeep Singh, a Sikh in New York City, was run over and dragged 30 feet after being called a “terrorist”. In 2012, a gunman with Neo-Nazi ties walked into a gurdwara and and killed six innocent Sikhs at Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in one of the most brutal attacks on the Sikh community in the US.