Sikh-owned gas station burnt in USA

Gas station owners, Sarabjit Singh and Sukhjinder Singh, said no graffiti existed on the gas station property before the fire.

The Sikh Coalition has reported the matter to both the Civil Rights Division of the United States Justice Department and the FBI. The Chesterfield County Police department are investigating the incident.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations' Virginia office is also in communication with the FBI and with local representatives of the Sikh Coalition, the group that first reported the incident.

Hate crimes against religious minorities have been on the rise in the US since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to recent media reports, quoting Federal Bureau of Investigation sources, the hate crimes almost doubled in 2003.

A few months ago, fifty-year-old Rajinder Singh Bammi, a limousine service provider, was attacked by four persons in New York. "I was just walking by them in a restaurant when they pounced upon me," he recalls. Bammi suffered multiple injuries and his case made national headlines. He was featured by national dailies and the New Yorker magazine.

In the wake of the terror strikes of September 11, 2001, Sikhs in general and cabbies in particular, became the target of racial violence because of their resemblance to Middle East Muslims. "Now they call us Osama bin Laden. In 1979, when Iranians held Americans hostage, they used to call us Ayatollahs,'' says Bammi.

Singh emphasized the need for a stronger hate crime bill, which was rejected last month by the House of Republican Negotiators.

The bill, called Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act, proposed to expand the protection to all victims of hate crime and financial support for state and local investigations and prosecutions of hate crimes.

Welcome to
(DP) Board    

Check it out!