Recalling when six Sikh worshippers got shot to death, and pledging not to forget
On Aug. 5, 2012, a white supremacist stormed into a gurdwara, or Sikh house of worship, in the city of Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Families — mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, and grandparents — were just gathering for the start of religious services.
By the time the shooter had turned his gun on himself, six worshippers had been slain. Others received life-altering injuries — including a religious leader, who passed from his wounds in 2020. A responding police officer was shot 14 times. And so many members of that community walked away with trauma from having their house of worship invaded by a gunman with hate in his heart.
When Oak Creek happened 10 years ago, I was just 8 years old. I still remember being unable to understand why someone would shoot innocent members of my community. And while sitting in the prayer hall of my local Gurdwara Sahib that week, I couldn’t help but turn around periodically, looking at the doors, to assure myself that everything was all right.
There are lots of things people don’t know about Sikhs. We’re members of the world’s fifth largest organized religion; there are 25 million of us around the globe, roughly 500,000 in the United States, and about half of that here in California. We maintain articles of faith, including turbans, steel bracelets called karas, and unshorn hair. Perhaps more than anything though, an important thing to know is that we refuse to be victims. Time and again, we’ve faced persecution and violence throughout our more than 500-year history; time and again, we are resilient in response.
After Oak Creek, the local community showed their chardi kala, or eternal optimism, as they banded together to share with the country who Sikhs are and what we believe. Sikhs across the nation began holding charity events and service projects to better their communities and build bridges with others. And we began advocating, too — including by urging the FBI to track anti-Sikh hate crimes, which they began to do in 2014.
This advocacy hasn’t finished, though. Oak Creek warned of the more aggressive and destructive role that white supremacy would play in our country for the next 10 years, and hate continues to surge — from crimes against Asian Americans to the shooting in Buffalo to continued threats against Sikhs, Jews, Muslims, and other religious minorities.
Congress failed to pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act earlier this year, but reintroducing and passing it now would give federal agencies the tools they need to counter exactly the kind of hate that devastated Oak Creek, Buffalo, and so many other places. Additionally, they can pass the Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act and the Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act. The former would make more federal money available for houses of worship to install security improvements, and the latter would help the federal government prosecute more hate crimes throughout our nation.
After Oak Creek, I at first felt helpless — like there was so little I as a child could do. But soon, I joined my dad to give Sikh awareness presentations to local schools; I also read books about Sikhism to my classmates and shared the importance of my internal and external identities as a Sikh during meetings with teachers. Even as a young girl, I realized I could make a difference.
I ask that you join the Sikh community in remembrance of that day, but then turn your sympathy to action. Anyone can make these simple requests to their representatives and senators in Congress. We all have to fight for the society that we want to believe in — and that starts with opposing the violent hate that still threatens us all.
Prabhleen Kaur is a Sikh American native of Fremont, and a freshman at Carnegie Mellon University.
