The Sikh community is seeking a comprehensive response to two violent attacks against their members last month, and the mayor's office convened a meeting Wednesday to begin to address their concerns.

"We'll hopefully get some action to prevent it in the future," said Gurjit Chima, the daughter of the victim of the most recent assault. "This goes so underreported, I think this should be publicized. You want people to know what's going on."

Her father, Ajit Singh Chima, 69, was beaten in the face and kicked before dawn by an unknown attacker last week. Less than three weeks prior, a 10-year-old boy, Gagandeep Singh, was jumped while walking home from school. His turban was removed and his hair was cut off, an offense to Sikhs who grow their hair as a sign of religious devotion.

The two cases are being investigated as bias crimes by the Carteret Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's office, but no arrests have been made. [Link]

A drunken man was arrested early Wednesday morning after police say he repeatedly punched a taxi driver in the back of the head, complaining that he was an immigrant from a Muslim nation.

Police say the man continued to threaten the diver near 15th Avenue Northwest and Northwest Market Street until officers were called.

The man was booked for into King County Jail for investigation of malicious mischief.[Link]

A man and a young boy were attacked because of their religion Monday night.

A 67-year-old New Jersey man, a Sikh, was beaten and bloodied, while a 10-year-old boy was also attacked.

"It shouldn't happen to anyone," Ajit Singh Chima said.

Battered and brave is 67-year-old Chima, talking about how his usual morning exercise on Carteret St. Monday suddenly turned into a violent exercise in hate.


"I said, 'what do you want?' And he hit me," Chima said. "A blow on the nose knocked me to the ground, [then] he kept punching and punching."

The man who jumped him was in his twenties, had a medium complexion and may be the same suspect in another bias attack on a young boy three weeks earlier.

10 year old Gagandeep Singh was walking home from school. His main injury is something he does not want anyone to see – to his hair, which Sikh boys and men consider a gift from god and keep long.

"He came out of nowhere," Singh said. "He just came up behind me, threw me on the floor, held me with his feet and cut my hair with the knife or scissor. Then I jumped a few fences and ran away because I was so scared."

Singh could not see the face of the suspect, who wore a mask. Because both victims are Sikh and because there was no theft, police believe the motive is hatred, based on the victims' religious beliefs.

"The Sikh community in Carteret is very tight-knit, numbering at about a thousand people. The question members have for the attacker or attackers is why.

"Why did you cut my hair?" Singh asks. "What do you want from Punjabis?"

Gagandeep's sister Jasvir Kaur summed the problem up.

"We respect other religions, and we want them to respect us too." [Link]

Muslim woman said masked man targeted her over religion

She said she was the victim of a hate crime, but now police say a 19-year-old Elmhurst College student made up her story that a masked man attacked her in a campus restroom because she's a Muslim.

Safia Z. Jilani, a 19-year-old sophomore at the school, was charged Friday with filing a false police report, a Class 4 felony punishable by one to three years in prison, Elmhurst police said. [Link]

A 10-year-old girl sprayed in the face with a chemical Friday, Sept. 26, while at a local Islamic mosque was not the victim of a hate crime, police Chief Richard Biehl said.

The girl was watching children whose parents and relatives had gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, 26 Josie St., to celebrate Ramadan when she noticed two men standing outside a basement window about 9:40 p.m., according to police.

One of the men then sprayed something through the open window and into the girl's face from a white can with a red top, according to a police report. The girl said she immediately felt burning on her face and felt "sick to her stomach," the report stated.

Other children and a woman in the room felt affects from the chemical and the mosque was evacuated.

"The men didn't say anything to her (before she was sprayed)," Biehl said. "There was nothing left at the scene or anything that makes us believe this is a biased crime."

HAZMAT crews called to the scene started testing for chemicals less than 20 minutes after a member of the mosque called 911, team coordinator Denny Bristow said.

"Whatever chemical was released it dissipated too quickly for us to determine what it was," Bristow said. "We can test for about 130 to 140 chemicals, including pepper spray, and all our tests came back negative."

Bristow said there were no chemicals found on the 10-year-old girl.

A few of the 300 people celebrating the last 10 days of Ramadan with dinner and a prayer session were treated for eye irritation at the scene. [Link]

Officials from the Dayton fire department and HAZMAT have not determined what type of chemical was released during a Friday night service at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton center, 26 Josie St., according to Dayton Fire Lt. John Strukamp.

The Society held the service to recognize and celebrate Ramadan, but the service was disrupted by a suspected chemical irritant that forced members out of the church and into the streets. [Link]

Two Greater Boston men and a juvenile were charged yesterday with committing a hate crime against two Muslim families in Revere, according to a statement from US attorney Michael J. Sullivan.

Adam J. Bonito, 21, of Revere and Christopher D. Giaquinto, 22, of Winthrop were charged with carrying out a criminal conspiracy that interfered with the fair housing rights of two Muslim families living in a duplex in Revere, according to Sullivan.

Bonito and Giaquinto repeatedly damaged and vandalized vehicles parked in front of the duplex shared by the families in 2004 and 2005, Sullivan said.

The intended victim was a Muslim of Middle Eastern descent who lived at the duplex.

A person at each of the homes of Bonito and Giaquinto said the men declined comment last night.

Bonito and Giaquinto, along with others, allegedly vandalized a Nissan van parked outside the house on Sept. 19, 2004, breaking a windshield and several windows and damaging the body of the van, Sullivan alleges.

During January and March 2005, Bonito and another person vandalized a Dodge van parked in front of the house that they believed belonged to the same victim, the US attorney said.

Another male, whose name was not released because he is under 18, has been charged in juvenile delinquency proceedings for his "bias motivated acts of vandalism," Sullivan said. [Link]

Incidents of violent hate crime targeting a number of minority groups are increasing or occurring at historically high levels in many of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) member-states, as governments fail to combat such crimes, a new report finds....

Despite ample evidence of acts of violence targeting Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims across Europe and North America, only five of the 56 OSCE governments publicly report on such incidents. [Link]

Public Diplomacy Officers from US Embassy Lisa Swenarski said on Wednesday that US is ashamed over the killing of the Sikhs in America post September 11 due to hate crime.
“We feel great shame over the killing of the Sikhs in US post 9/11 due to hate crime,” said Swenarski while talking to media at Amritsar today.

A delegation of American embassy is currently on a visit to Amritsar under “America Day” program initiated by the US Embassy in New Delhi.

“I believe the Sikhs have been killed in hate crime due to US peoples’ ignorance about different cultures and religions,” she said.

Swenarski also gave assurance that the US government is taking various measures to acquaint their security officers with the identity of Sikhs and their five religious symbols. She said that the transport authority had developed a video featuring Sikh employees and the significance of their five religious symbols.

The US embassy employee also said that she knew the first Sikh gentleman who became victim of hate crime in Texas, there was outpour of support from his neighbors.

People including children raised money even by car wash and when his widow arrived in America she was received with much love and affection.

She said Sikhs are most welcome in US. [Link]

Prosecutors filed hate-crime charges against a Seattle man accused of beating a convenience store clerk while yelling anti-Muslim and anti-Arab slurs.

The attack happened on July 3 in Fremont.

Court documents said that Edward Hugh Campbell was dressed in green camouflage and called the clerk a "bin Laden sympathizer" who did not respect his military uniform.

Prosecutors said Campbell smashed a beer can against the clerk's face, causing severe cuts around the victim's left eye.

Campbell is not an active member of any armed service. [Link]

A Queens teen convicted of bias for cutting the hair of a Sikh schoolmate ducked jail time on Thursday in exchange for a year of community service and an essay for the judge.

Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Joel Blumenfeld ordered Umair Ahmed, 19, to complete 180 hours of community service and write about what he'd learned since his attack on 16-year-old Harpal Vacher.

Based on Ahmed's conduct in the next year, Blumenfeld will decide next June whether to put him behind bars.

"What you did was incredibly stupid," Blumenfeld told Ahmed. "Incarceration just can't be the only answer. For this next year, the threat of jail hangs over your head."

Sikh leaders were upset.

"The whole thing was a disgrace. It just wasn't an appropriate sentence," said Prabhjot Narula of United Sikhs, an advocacy group that accompanied a devastated Harpal from the courthouse. "For a hate crime, it was a slap on the wrist."

Ahmed faced 11/3 to fouryears behind bars for the May 24, 2007, attack on Harpal, in which he dragged the Newtown High School freshman into a school bathroom, ripped off his turban and cut off his waist-length hair, a violation of Sikh religion, prosecutors said. [Link]

The teachers who lead three culturally based clubs at Hightstown High School are convinced that the burning of a Sikh student’s turban earlier this month was not a hate crime.

Wilson Hernandez, faculty advisor for the Adelante Club and Jewish Student Union, and Marilyn Jose, faculty advisor for the South Asian American Club, said Wednesday that the consensus throughout the school is the victim was not targeted for his religious beliefs.

On May 5, Garrett Green, 18, a senior at the high school, was charged by borough police with arson and criminal mischief for allegedly lighting a 16-year-old’s turban on fire with a cigarette lighter during a fire drill. On May 14, just before Mr. Green’s arraignment in Municipal Court, police added charges of bias intimidation and aggravated assault.

”When this student was flicking his cigarette lighter all over the place it was nothing more than a lack of impulse control,” Ms. Jose, who did not witness the incident, said. “None of us believe it was a hate crime, especially the kids.” [Link]

The threatening letters arrived throughout 2006 and 2007 at two of Beacon Hill's most popular restaurants. They came with photos of gun-toting men and taunting messages for the owner of both eateries, a successful businesswoman who was born in Iran, came to the United States decades ago, and is an American citizen.
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A photograph of an Israeli soldier brandishing a machine gun was tucked inside one letter, while another contained an image of actor Dustin Hoffman, lifted from the 1976 movie thriller "Marathon Man," pointing a gun directly at the viewer.

"See you at the Taj!" the writer taunted in a letter sent last June, two days before the owner was to present food from her two eateries at Taste of Beacon Hill, a local restaurant fair hosted by the Taj Boston Hotel.

After months of investigation, the FBI announced yesterday that agents had arrested 65-year-old real estate broker Earl F. McBride Jr., who lives in a Bowdoin Street boarding house just a few blocks from the restaurants.

He's charged in a one-count federal indictment with mailing a series of threatening communications to the restaurant owner, beginning in November 2006.

"The reason the FBI takes this case so seriously is we do look on it as a potential hate crime," said Warren T. Bamford, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, adding that investigators believe McBride targeted the restaurant owner because she is a Muslim.

"We're still trying to determine what [McBride's] motive and thought process was," Bamford said.

The restaurant owner, who is identified in the indictment only by her initials, does not know McBride, according to the FBI. She declined to comment about the case yesterday and asked the Globe not to name her.

"She's a hard-working, loyal American citizen who has been threatened for no reason other than her ethnic background," said Assistant US Attorney Brian T. Kelly, following a bail hearing for McBride yesterday in US District Court.

Initially, McBride was given a federal defender, who is paid by the government to represent defendants who cannot afford to hire their own lawyers.

But that quickly changed when Kelly told the court that when McBride was arrested yesterday morning he had a bank receipt in his pocket that indicated he had $90,000 in an account.

"I know based on this bank account he's not eligible for court-appointed counsel," said US Magistrate Judge Timothy S. Hillman, who instructed McBride to hire his own lawyer. An arraignment was sceheduled for May 22.

The magistrate released McBride on a $20,000 unsecured bond and ordered him to stay away from the two restaurants, all of their employees, and potential victims or witnesses in the case.

Dressed all in black - turtleneck sweater, dress slacks, and boots - McBride declined to comment as he left the courthouse after signing bond papers, saying he had been advised by his lawyer not to discuss the case.

The first threatening letter arrived at one of the woman's restaurants in November 2006, shortly after it opened. Then, according to the indictment, more letters soon arrived at the owner's other restaurant.

"It's an indication that this can happen anywhere, in suburbs and in affluent sections," Bamford said.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, there was a spike in hate crimes against American Muslims for several years, according to Bamford.

While the number of such crimes has since dwindled, Bamford said they still happen, prompting the FBI to constantly do outreach in the American Muslim community so victims will come forward and report attacks or harassment. "We still continue to look at hate crimes as extremely serious cases," he said. [Link]

The John Michael Kohler Arts Center offers a free screening of the documentary film "A Dream in Doubt" at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29.

Part of the Arts Center's "Independent Lens" series, "A Dream in Doubt" tells the story of Rana Singh Sodhi, a member of the Sikh religion whose brother was murdered in one of America's first post-9/11 hate crime murders.

Four days after the 9/11 attacks, Balbir Singh Sodhi was gunned down at his Phoenix-area gas station by a man named Frank Roque. To Roque, Balbir Sodhi's beard and turban — articles of his Sikh faith — symbolized the face of America's new enemy. Seeking retaliation for 9/11, Roque killed Sodhi and went on to shoot at a Lebanese American man and fire multiple rounds of ammunition outside an Afghan American family's home.

"A Dream in Doubt" follows Rana Singh Sodhi, Balbir's brother, as he attempts to fight the hate threatening his family and community. The Sodhis had fled ethnic violence in India to pursue their version of the American dream. Sodhi finds himself coping with national tragedy and murder, finding support in community and attempting to reclaim the American dream. "A Dream in Doubt" also probes a difficult question: In a country with millions of immigrants, what does an American look like? [Link]

When vandals attacked Montreal's École Les

Jeunes Musulmans Canadiens last year, it took thousands of dollars to replace the school's shattered windows and months of counselling to help its traumatized students.

But no amount of money and no amount of counselling could completely erase the nagging worry that it could happen again or the knowledge that under Canada's Criminal Code, the hate-based attack on their Muslim school carries no more penalty than spray painting initials on a wall.

That's why Nabiha El-Wafai is among those who supports legislation tabled by Bloc Québécois MP Carole Freeman that would amend the code to prohibit hate-based vandalism against all buildings used by religious, ethnic and sexual minority groups,

"I think a bill like that could be perfect," El-Wafai, head of the school's primary sector, said in a telephone interview. "If there is a law that would protect places like schools, it could make people who think of committing such acts back up before doing it."

El-Wafai said adopting the bill would send an important message to communities like hers that the Canadian government cares about their welfare.

She's not alone.

Yesterday, members of all three opposition parties teamed up with representatives of a variety of religious and ethnic groups to show support for Freeman's bill, which is scheduled to begin debate tomorrow.

Bloc officials said yesterday that if all goes well, the bill should make it through committee and a final vote by the House of Commons by May or June. [Link]

SALDEF works with local authorities to ensure attack is classified as hate crime

A Sikh graduate student at Texas A & M University was viciously attacked by an unknown individual in Bryan, TX and had his turban forcibly knocked off of his head. The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) filed formal complaints with the Bryan Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has learned that the attack has been classified as a hate crime.

On February 28, 2008, Mr. Singh (name withheld for privacy) was walking back to his vehicle at a local Wal-Mart parking lot when he was approached by an unknown male who called Mr. Singh a ‘terrorist’ and then made other disparaging and racist remarks. Mr. Singh responded by telling the suspect that he did not want any trouble at which time the individual approached Mr. Singh and punched him in the face and head, knocking both Mr. Singh and his daastar (turban) to the ground. Mr. Singh did not sustain any major injuries.

The immediate reaction of some of the police officers involved in the case was less than ideal. Mr. Singh was initially discouraged from making a police report on the night of the incident. Within two weeks of the incident occurring, the Bryan Police Department allegedly closed the case, despite overwhelming evidence involving witness identification of a vehicle at the scene of the crime and a partial license plate which later matched the vehicle description.

After Mr. Singh reported the incident, SALDEF immediately contacted Bryan Police Department Chief Ty Morrow inquiring about the status of police investigation. SALDEF asked for a vigorous investigation and for crime to be prosecuted and classified as a hate crime. On March 31, 2008 the Bryan Police Department informed SALDEF that the incident had been re-classified as a class ‘C’ assault with hate crime enhancement. The necessary paperwork has been filed and the case is currently in active investigation. [SALDEF Press Release]

An investigation is underway into the January 27 bombing of the Blaine Dairy Store. It appears the crime was racially-motivated. The owner of the store is Muslim.

On January 27, 2008, three men entered the Blaine Dairy Store at closing time. Without provocation, they began to ignite and launch petrol bombs.

The owner, Mohammad Ismail, narrowly escaped with his life. The store burst into flames. Racial obscenities were spray-painted at the scene of the crime.

Family and friends of Mohammad Ismail are offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Anyone with information is asked to call the Blaine Police Department at 763-785-6168. [Link]

The FBI is investigating the possibility that arson at a Blaine convenience store was a hate crime.

On Jan. 22, Muhammad Ismail was getting ready to close the Blaine Dairy Store when three men came in and threw bottles that burst into flames. Investigators also found the word "Arab" spray-painted on the building. [Link]

A Sikh man was verbally abused by two racist thugs and had his turban torn off while up to 40 onlookers stood by and did nothing.
The attack on Rattandeep Singh Ahluwalia in Oxford city centre comes a day after 19-year-old student Tom Grant was stabbed to death on a train after going to somone's aid.
Mr Ahluwalia was waiting at a bus stop outside HSBC bank in Queen Street at midnight on Sunday when a man started swearing and shouting racist insults at him.
The stranger grabbed hold of the 26-year-old's turban a traditional head-dress worn as a sign of devotion to God and threw it on the pavement.
As Mr Ahluwalia struggled to defend himself, another man waved his fists in his face and also shouted racist abuse.
The former student, who was heading home to Whitson Place, Cowley, after a day of praying in London, was shocked none of the people around him tried to help.
He said: "I was really scared. No-one showed any sympathy. There were at least 30 to 40 people and no-one did anything.
"He could have stabbed me."
He was not seriously injured but has been left traumatised and shaken by the attack.
He added: "A turban is part of a Sikh's religion, our costume. What that man did was the biggest sign of disrespect and the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me in my life."
'I always thought this was the best city I have ever been to in my life'
Rattandeep Singh Ahluwalia
Mr Ahluwalia, who moved to the city to study for a Masters at Oxford Brookes University, has also criticised the police for not understanding the significance of what happened to him.
He said when the officers arrived, he was standing against the wall petrified to be seen in public with his hair exposed, but was forced to run over the road to meet them.
Mr Ahluwalia said: "I always thought this was the best city I have ever been to in my life. Now I will not go out late at night on my own."
This is the first time Mr Ahluwalia has been physically attacked.
Oxford police spokesman Kate Smith said officers attended the racially-aggravated common assault on Sunday at 12.12am but no arrests hade been made.
She added: "We take all racist incidents extremely seriously and a thorough investigation is under way."
The attack has been condemned by members of the Sikh community, including Gurdip Singh Saini, vice-chairman of the Asian Cultural Centre in East Oxford. He said: "It is very shocking. These sorts of incidents are increasing day by day in the UK and it is getting worse. It is all the more wrong that no-one came to his rescue."
Anyone with information should call Pc Chris Miles via 08458 505505 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
http://www.oxfordmail.net/mostpopular.var.776820.mostviewed.sikh_attacked.php
also posted on http://ethnicconfusionbritain.blogware.com/blog

"Arab die Muslim die" was spray-painted in a house in the 600 block of LaRue Drive, police said.

Burglary of a habitation and a hate crime were reported at 11:20 p.m. Monday by the victim, 63-year-old Moonis Ali, Police Chief Howard Williams said.

Police are still investigating the incident, he said. [Link]