Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting injures many
The Associated Press
Posted: Aug 5, 2012 1:18 PM ET
Last Updated: Aug 5, 2012 1:13 PM ET
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A police dispatcher in Wisconsin says there has been a shooting at a Sikh temple outside of Milwaukee.

Oak Creek Police Department dispatcher Stephanie Uljanec says the shooting took place Sunday morning at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin but she doesn't know how many people are shot or if there are fatalities.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that multiple people, somewhere between eight and 20, have been injured.

Oak Creek is south of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan.

Fran McLaughlin, spokeswoman for the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department, says a call came in at 10:26 a.m. She says officers are at the scene but she has no other information to report.

Just watching this on the news. They said the FBI is involved and they are treating it as domestic terrorism. I hope this is not another STUPID AMERICAN thinking the Sikhs are Moslems.

In fact after the news report they gave some info on the Sikh religion and the first thing mentioned was NOT ISLAM.

This happened right after 9-11 when an ignorant American asswipe killed a Sikh because he wanted to avenge what the Moslem asswipes did. WTF!

This letter to The Miami Herald was picked up and posted for a couple years on Sikh.net.

Peaceful Sikhs, noble warriors
Miami Herald
October 11, 2001

SHALE STONE

In her Sept. 29 article about Sikhs being mistaken for Muslims and bearing misguided reprisals due to the horrific actions of Muslim terrorists, Herald staff writer Donna Gehrke-White points out the honorable and peaceful nature of this 500-year-old religion. I met many Sikhs while traveling overland to India in the 1970s and can attest to their honorable and tolerant nature.

On many occasions, my partner, Jim, and I were assisted by Sikhs who were fellow travelers on the bus journey through Turkey and Iran. They were traveling from work in Europe back to their homes in India and took us under wing in these foreign lands. We
found that they indeed lived according to their creed, which enjoins them to succor the helpless. We always felt safer in our travels when we saw men in the familiar turban and beard.

The Sikhs are a warrior culture that, under the leadership of their last living guru, Gobind Singh, waged a resistance warfare with the ruling Muslim Moguls in Northern India in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. It was not a sectarian movement against Muslims, as Singh also fought oppressive Hindu rulers, and he had devoted Muslim followers in his own ranks.

Singh initiated his first khalsa (Sikh community) with five men who proved that they would give up their lives for him. Henceforth they were all surnamed Singh, meaning ``lion.´´

One of the five symbols of the khalsa is the kirpan (sword). However, unlike the fanaticism of the Muslims who had conquered much of the world by the sword, the Sikhs were not to use theirs for aggression or self-aggrandizement but for self-defense -- and as a last resort. As Singh wrote, ``When all other means have failed, it is but lawful to take to the sword.´´

I know it sounds romanticized and Arthurian to think that there really are noble warrior cultures, but that is the history of the Sikhs who inherited a code of conduct from Singh. Sikh men are called to help the helpless, fight the oppressor, have faith in one God and consider all human beings equal, irrespective of caste and creed. They also are not to have sexual relations outside the marital bond.

The sad irony is that a Sikh, an ally in the battle against religious oppression, was senselessly killed by an ignorant American fanatic.

Shale Stone is a resident of Miami Beach.

I watched a video clip with footage earlier. Very sad.

Shale wrote:

Just watching this on the news. They said the FBI is involved and they are treating it as domestic terrorism. I hope this is not another STUPID AMERICAN thinking the Sikhs are Moslems.

Haven't heard many details about the shooter but this was my first thought too. Won't be surprised at all if this is the case.

This is apparently being reported on several sites.

Quote :

Yet witnesses have described the shooter as a bald white man, standing about 6 feet tall, wearing black pants and a white T-shirt -- with a tattoo marking the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States visible on one of his arms -- said Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, a temple member who worked with police as an interpreter, talking to witnesses after the attack.


http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/05/us/wisconsin-temple-shooting-scene/

Here in BC we have many Sikh's. I have to disagree with the peaceful stuff. Sikhs came into being because the Hindu's wouldn't fight. While we have had many Sikh friends we also have worried about them lest they get into the arguments that frequently break out among them. They kill each other much quicker than they would kill an outsider. Don't want another temple, kill the opposition, don't want old people to sit on chairs at the meals in the temple kill over that too. They can think up some very gory ways to kill each other too I must say.

Suzi wrote:

Here in BC we have many Sikh's. I have to disagree with the peaceful stuff. Sikhs came into being because the Hindu's wouldn't fight. ...

I wouldn't doubt that they can have violent episodes, but many old cultures like Italians, Spanish and Greeks have the same family rows.

I think my article mentioned their warrior beginnings, which was an oath of loyalty to the death for their first guru. I only know the Sikhs I met in my travels and the guy who runs the local newsstand here on Miami Beach. The old Mr. Singh is quite contentious, the younger Mr. Singh not so much but I wouldn't cross him either.

As I said however we have had many friends and trusted each of them, and worried that they might get involved with the temple intrigues. One friend stopped going to Temple during the big table and chairs debate.

Good Grief.

When will it end? Unfortunately, I don't think it will.

Right to bear arms! Yeah!

Well the NRA lobbyists are buying off your politicians, are you all tired of it by now? Shouldn't the people you elect look after your best interests rather than the lobbyists of all sorts?