Sikh Americans remember Wisconsin Gurdwara Shooting on tenth anniversary
On the tenth anniversary of the attack on a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the Sikh and Gurdwara communities in America have urged the US Congress to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act.
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Washington, Aug 8: Remembering the "senseless shooting", members of the Sikh Coordination Committee East Coast (SCCEC) and American Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (AGPC) prayed for the victims and their families. US President Joe Biden on Aug 5, called for strict measures to reduce gun violence and defeat domestic terrorism and hate in all its forms.
On the tenth anniversary of the attack on a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, the Sikh and Gurdwara communities in America have urged the US Congress to heed the call by the Sikh Coalition and Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act. "On this day we also join the call to US Congress by Sikh Coalition and SALDEF to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act," Sikh Coordination Committee East Coast (SCCEC) and American Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (AGPC) said in a statement on Aug 5.
On Aug 5, 2012, a 40-year-old army veteran Wade Michael Page shot several people, killing six and injured four people at a gurdwara in Oak Creek in Wisconsin. Besides one more person in a mass shooting at a gurdwara in Oak Creek in Wisconsin died in the year 2020. Meanwhile, on Friday, the SCCEC and AGPC also remembered the church mass shooting in Charleston where nine Black worshipers were shot and killed in 2015 and the shooting incident at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh where 11 worshipers were slain in 2018.
Mourning the loss of lives in the 2012 gurudwara attack, Biden said, "The Oak Creek shooting was the deadliest attack on Sikh Americans in our nation's history. Tragically, attacks on our nation's houses of worship have only become more common over the past decade. It is up to all of us to deny this hate-safe harbour."