On Saturday, leaders across the country issued statements of remembrance for the victims of a shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
It has now been 11 years since the massacre on August 5, 2012, at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. The shooting took the lives of six people that day: Paramjit Kaur, 41; Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65; Prakash Singh, 39; Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh, 49; and Suveg Singh, 84. Lieutenant Brian Murphy, one of the responding officers, died from his wounds in 2020.
The shooter Michael Wade Page was linked to white supremacist groups.
Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus issued statements on the day of the anniversary.
“Today, we solemnly remember the victims of a mass shooting that took place 11 years ago at an Oak Creek gurdwara. We honor the victims, their loved ones, the Oak Creek Sikh American community, and Sikh communities across the country—whose lives were forever impacted by a white supremacist’s hate,” CAPAC Chair Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) said.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers also issued a statement on Twitter.
Eleven years later hate and violence against Sikh Americans still persist.
“Oak Creek can be seen as a warning of the increasingly violent and assertive role that white supremacy has set out to play in American society over the next decade,” Sim J. Attariwala, a senior policy and advocacy manager of the Sikh Coalition told CBS News. “Our community, the AAPI community, the Latino community, the Black community, the Jewish community, the Muslim community — they’re all, I think, at a heightened sense of vigilance.”
The Sikh Coalition has partnered with The Revolutionary Love Project to create a website called Remember Oak Creek. The website has reading materials, teaching guides and resource lists.
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