Sikh Student assaulted in OZ

Venkatesan Vembu / DNA
Friday, June 12, 2009 11:12 IST

Melbourne: Race-based violence against Indian students in Australia spread to Adelaide, when a 22-year-old Sikh student was taunted and beaten at a mall on Thursday. "He was out with friends at Rundle Mall when a Caucasian teenager picked on him and taunted him about his turban," Federation of Indian Students of Australia (FISA) founder Gautam Gupta told DNA.

The student suffered face injuries and had a tooth dislodged. Vikram Madan, president, Indian Australian Association of South Australia, said the student suffered a minor fracture to his jaw and a broken rib.

The 17-year-old Caucasian was arrested and charged with assault. South Australian premier Mike Rann called the incident a "disgrace". "It would be madness for anyone to think that racial violence is acceptable in our community," Rann said. He assured international students they were welcome to state educational institutions.

Federal education minister Julia Gillard on Friday joined state-level ministers in condemning the "violent incidents and problems that international students have experienced in Australia in recent times".

The government announced the establishment of an international student taskforce to develop strategies to support the welfare of international students.

Indian community representatives in Adelaide met on Friday evening to discuss the recent attacks on Indian students. They urged Indian students not to retaliate, as happened earlier this week in Sydney.

Shere Panjab Shaheedi Football Tournament

Please fill in the registeration form and email it to the given address - bssf@live.co.uk - (state, "football tournament" and "team name" in subject box.

1984 RALLY - 7TH JUNE 2009 LONDON

1984 REMEBRANCE RALLY IN CENTRAL LONDON -

Over 25,000 People attended including members of the Tamil community, who are also fighting for a independent Tamil Nation in Sri Lanka, just like Sikhs in Punjab.

Sikhs are shown protesting at Trafalgur Square against the attack on Sri Darbar Sahib and Sri Akal Thakt Sahib in June 1984.

Plycards for Shaheed Singhs of Babbar Khalsa and Bhai Gajinder Singh (founding member of Dal Khalsa) were seen in large numbers.

The U.S. Army Rejects the Sikh Identity

On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman officially desegregated the United States Armed Forces. In his Executive Order, the President promised equality of treatment and opportunity for everyone who chooses to serve. Today, 61 years later, his promise is broken.

On April 14, 2009, the Sikh Coalition launched a campaign to end the ban on Sikhs in the U.S. Army. The Coalition is acting on behalf of two Sikh army recruits – Captain Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi and Second Lieutenant Tejdeep Singh Rattan – who are being forced to choose between their religion and their service.

Please sign petition - www.sikhcoalition.org/army.asp

American Sikh Kirpan victory

The entire California State Assembly yesterday passed a proposed law that would train law enforcement personnel about Sikhs and kirpans. The bill now goes on for a vote by the California State Senate, and then to the Governor's Desk to hopefully be signed into law. Yesterday's Assembly vote passed 59-0. Extensive advocacy efforts led by the Sikh Coalition and local sangat members resulted in bipartisan support of this legislation.

Should it become law, this would be the first law specifically pertaining to the kirpan in the United States. The California State Assembly, and Assemblymember Warren Furutani in particular, should be commended for their hard work and pioneering spirit in passing this bill.

AB 504

The proposed law (AB 504) would create and include training about the kirpan in the state curriculum for law enforcement officer training. The bill states explicitly, "It is the Legislature's goal to promote education and awareness of the carrying of the kirpan by Sikhs in California." The training would advise officers about "how to recognize and interact with persons carrying a kirpan."

The legislation arose out of a number of Sikhs being arrested for carrying kirpans because police mistakenly believe them to be in violation of concealed weapons laws. Such arrests violate Sikhs' rights and are a waste of taxpayers' money. Our hope is that being educated about the kirpan and its religious significance will decrease the number of wasteful arrests.

Assemblymember Warren Furutani: A Champion for California's Sikhs

The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Warren Furutani (D-Long Beach) in February 2009. Since then, Assemblymember Furutani and his staff have worked tirelessly with the Sikh Coalition and local Sikh activists to ensure that the bill is a priority for the legislature and for the California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus. Under his guidance, the bill passed unanimously through both the Public Safety Committee and the Appropriations Committee of the State Assembly. We thank Assemblymember Furutani for his strong leadership on this issue.

Numerous Sikhs have also contributed to the passage of this bill. Over 150 people emailed their local assembly person to ask for support over the past week. The Coalition would also like to thank Nitasha Kaur Sawhney, Niranjan Khalsa and Darshan Mundy, each of whom took the time to personally meet with members of the Assembly asking them to support the legislation.

Next Steps

The bill will now make its way to the Senate side of the legislature. There, it will first be voted on by the Public Safety Committee and then by the Appropriations Committee before making it to the Senate floor for a full vote in September. If the bill is passed by the Senate, it will end up on the desk of Governor Schwarzenegger to be signed into law!

For more information about AB 504, or to join our lobbying efforts for this bill, please email us at legislative@sikhcoalition.org.

Further attacks on Sikhs in Australia

Source:The Sikh Times

A Sikh Gurdwara has been vandalised in Shepparton, a small town 90km north of
Melbourne, Australia.

A young Sikh man was also attacked, Nardeep Singh, a 20-year-old from Ludhiana, he was attacked by five people because he refused to give them money; one of them stabbed him in the chest. Nardeep is a student of nursing at the Chisholm Technical Institute.

Racist graffiti and swastikas were scribbled on its walls, eggs thrown at it and the fencing around the Gurdwara smashed by a car. On Tuesday, another Indian student was stabbed in the chest by a box-cutter knife on his way to college in east Melbourne, TOI has reported

Meanwhile, Australia set up an inquiry committee to look into the attacks even as Union minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi said his ministry would prepare and maintain a register of all Indians studying abroad and streamline campus placements to foreign universities.

Sikh group takes out genocide remembrance march in Amritsar

Amritsar, June 3- ANI: Sikh radicals on Wednesday took out a 'genocide remembrance march' in Amritsar to mark the start of events linked to the 25th anniversary of Bluestar the military operation.

The focus of the march was to demand a memorial for those who lost their lives in the Operation Bluestar of the Indian Army.

"We are demanding a memorial for those who lost their lives in Operation Bluestar. Seven year back the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee had announced that they will erect a monument in the memory of those who died during the operation," said Harnam Singh Dhooma, Chief, Damdami Taksal Bhindranwala, a radical Sikh Group.

Security forces had launched a campaign codenamed "Operation Blue Star" in 1984 to flush out a Sikh militant leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala and several of his followers, who had taken shelter in amritsars Golden Temple.

Bhindranwale was one of the main architects of militancy in Punjab, which saw nearly 3,000 people lose their lives to regular bombing of buses and markets.