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Terrorism At Home In America:
Three Years Ago, Oak Creek, Wisconsin
- Now Charleston, South Carolina

DANIELLE PAQUETTE

 

 

 





Oak Creek, Wisconsin, USA

Three years ago, before gunfire erupted at a Sunday morning service, members of the close-knit Sikh community in suburban Milwaukee seldom locked the gurdwara doors.

Those who arrived her on Thursday (June 18, 2015) evening to pray for the victims in Charleston, South Carolina, are still adjusting to ringing a buzzer for a security guard to let them inside. This is life at the Gurdwara of Wisconsin after a gunman killed five men and one woman in 2012, the last major bloodshed at a place of worship in the United States.

“It used to be in the Sikh religion, all doors stayed open,” said Balhair Singh, vice president of the gurdwara’s management committee. “But what happened here, and what happened in South Carolina -- these things could happen anywhere. No one is immune.”

The gurdwara’s Thursday gathering focused on Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historic African American church where a white supremacist aged 21 fatally shot nine people during a Wednesday night service in an apparent hate crime.

News of the tragedy rocked the Sikh community in Wisconsin. Members recall the day that another white supremacist stormed their gurdwara and sprayed automatic gunfire as priests were preparing lunch.

Worshipers scattered in the chaos that August morning, locking themselves in bathrooms and rushing outside. The bullets killed six and wounded three. After an Oak Creek police officer shot the terrorist in the stomach, the latter put the weapon to his head, taking his own life.

There have been 13 mass murders at a house of worship since the Birmingham, Alabama bombing that killed four African American girls in 1963, according to the FBI. The Charleston shooting was the bloodiest since Johnathan Doody killed nine people at a Buddhist temple near Phoenix in 1991.

When violence shakes a house of worship -- a symbol of comfort and safety for millions across the globe -- confusion often intensifies loss, said Mary Moschella, a professor of pastoral care and counseling at Yale Divinity School. The place where many would seek comfort after a traumatic event is also the site of the nightmare.

“It represents a home, especially for those who come not just on Sunday but for a Wednesday night Bible study,” Moschella said of the Charleston church. “Going back becomes an act of courage, a way of reclaiming the space as sacred.”

Bishop Robert Guglielmone of the Diocese of Charleston called the church a “sanctuary” in a Thursday statement. “For anyone to murder nine individuals is upsetting,” he said, “but to kill them inside of a church during a Bible study class is devastating to any faith community.”

Dismantling that community wasn’t an option after the gunman invaded the Wisconsin gurdwara.

After the shooting, gurdwara caretakers met with state leaders and a terrorism task force to design a new security system for the 17,000-square-foot building. The $75,000 protections resemble those at a military base. Twenty-four cameras monitor the sprawling grounds, broadcasting footage to the local police department.

Contractors have reinforced windows to withstand bullets. New safe rooms have the capacity to hide the gurdwara’s approximately 500 worshipers, Balhair Singh said. Only a couple of suspicious people have drawn police to the premises, he said, and ultimately they proved harmless.

An estimated half-a-million Sikhs live in the United States. The Oak Creek gurdwara, one of two prominent congregations in greater Milwaukee, started in 1997. Membership has grown since the tragedy.

Worshipers enter the light-brown brick building without fear, Balhair Singh said. Those who lost family members and friends in the 2012 rampage come to pray each week. “They never stopped,” he said. “That only makes us stronger.”

He said he hopes those who lost loved ones in Charleston will also find comfort in their faith.


[Courtesy: The Washington Post. Sarah Pulliam Bailey contributed to this report. Edited for sikhchic.com]
June 20, 2015
 

Conversation about this article

1: Baldev Singh (Bradford, United Kingdom), June 20, 2015, 7:10 PM.

Sikhs should offer their full support to the African-Americans ...

2: Harsaran Singh (Indonesia), June 22, 2015, 10:21 AM.

The mindless killings in Wisconsin and Charleston are the manifestation of misguided anger and ideals which turn ordinary people into devils. Guru Nanak says "Violence, attachment, greed and anger are like four rivers of fire, falling into them one is burnt. One is saved only by holding fast to good deeds" [GGS:147] Let us pray for the departed souls of this bloodshed and hope it is not repeated.

3: Arjan Singh (USA), June 22, 2015, 6:15 PM.

Baldev Singh ji: Sikhs may offer moral support to African-Americans, but nothing more. My logic is I can only help you if I have my own house in order. Since the Sikh communities prosper no matter which part of the Globe they are in, my prediction is that more violence will be coming. It will serve them better if they create defense mechanisms before a tragedy strikes, not after. Installation of a new security system at the Oak Creek facility is a reactive rather than a proactive safety measure. The fact that they had to wait for human lives to be lost demonstrates how lacking the vision of this community is vis-a-vis safety. Sikh community has faced a disproportionate level of violence in Pakistan, India and USA. By now they should have learnt to protect their gurdwaras with the cooperation of local authorities and common sense measures. More often than not, most gurdwaras are mired in petty internal disputes or completely isolated and do not work with the local authorities. One of the items in their mission statement must be to teach the local police authorities about their culture so that in the time of emergency the police are able to intervene with the right training. But the reality is sadly different. A good example of mob violence against the Sikh community is the Television film titled 'Tamas', released in 1988. Although a fictional plot, it depicts a historical incident in a Sikh gurdwara attacked by a mob during the Partition of Punjab. The film shows how even in the most desperate times the Sikh community faces the existentialist threat with courage and boldness. In a gut-wrenching scene all the women in the gurdwara decide to end their lives by jumping into a well, rather than be brutalized and then killed at the hands of the mob. The film is available on Amazon.com.

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Three Years Ago, Oak Creek, Wisconsin
- Now Charleston, South Carolina"









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