Joint Statement on First Anniversary of Oak Creek Gurdwara Shooting

On August 5, 2012, a gunman with neoNazi ties stormed into a gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and opened fire killing six American Sikh worshippers and injuring three others. It was one of the most lethal attacks on an American house of worship since the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.

One year after one of the deadliest hate crimes in our nation’s history, The Sikh Coalition, Muslim Advocates, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, AntiDefamation League, Interfaith Alliance, Rights Working Group, and American Civil Liberties Union remember the victims and their families. We hope that our national leaders will address the escalating crisis of violence and discrimination against religious minorities in America. Too many lives have been destroyed because of hate violencefrom the shooting at the Oak Creek gurdwara to the multitude of violent attacks on members from the Arab, Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, and South Asian American communities. Approximately 100 organizations and 37 members of Congress have called on President Obama to directly tackle the problem and host a summit to find solutions on how to protect religious minorities and prevent violence and discrimination. Now, more than ever, President Obama’s leadership is critical to this issue; we hope that he will take action and that tragedies such as these never happen again.