U.S. Ambassador Int'l Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain visits Wisconsin Gurudwara on 10th anniversary

Washington, Aug 9: U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain traveled to Oak Creek, Wisconsin Aug 5 - 6 to participate in the 10th Annual Oak Creek Sikh Memorial Anniversary Candlelight Remembrance Vigil. The event convened federal and state govt representatives, civil society, and religious leaders to honor the victims of the 2012 attack and to stand in solidarity with the Sikh community.

 

 

 

 

Ambassador Hussain met with community leaders and local government officials to discuss our continuing efforts to work together to combat hate and protect religious freedom and places of worship everywhere. 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 the tenth anniversary of the attack on a Sikh gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

"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. Remembering the "senseless shooting", members of the SCCEC and AGPC prayed for the victims and their families.

 

According to a statement by the SCCEC and the AGPC, "Today is the 10th anniversary of the August 5, 2012 mass shooting at the Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin by a white supremacist. It was the deadliest act of anti-Sikh hate in US history that took the lives of seven Sikh worshippers while they were praying."