Congress must act to curb devastating hate crimes

On Aug. 5, 2012, a white supremacist gunman attacked the gurdwara, or Sikh house of worship, located in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

He took six innocent lives that day, and a seventh person succumbed to his wounds years later. His destruction also left in its wake families without fathers and mothers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, siblings and spouses.

This event profoundly affected Sikhs across the nation; our own community here in Oviedo stepped up our security and raised funding for a memorial plaque to commemorate the tragedy. Now, as our nation pauses this week in remembrance of Oak Creek — or perhaps, for some Americans, learns about it for the first time — I am reflecting on what more we can do to combat hate throughout our society.

The Sikh community isn’t widely known in the United States; despite being the fifth-largest religion, we often find ourselves explaining who we are, what we believe and why we keep articles of faith like turbans or unshorn beards.

Part of our efforts to engage our community often include seva, or selfless service; during the pandemic my own gurdwara opened up our free community kitchen to serve families in need. The Oak Creek community showed their resilience through a similar emphasis on helping others even after experiencing such a difficult tragedy.

Ignorance and hatred isn’t limited to explosive acts of violence either — whether on the horrific scale of Oak Creek or more isolated instances like the 2013 drive-by shooting of Kanwaljit Singh in Port Orange. Our children face bullying in schools, employees are denied the right to wear their turbans or keep their beards in their workplaces, and I myself experienced bias-motivated graffiti left on my car just a couple of years ago.

These things are of course smaller in scope and impact than a horrific mass shooting, but they are symptoms of a broader problem: white supremacy. To prevent further tragedies on the scale of Oak Creek, we must commit to taking action together.

At the most basic level the Congress needs to pass the Justice for Victims of Hate Crimes Act. This legislation will close a loophole that currently keeps the federal government from prosecuting many hate crimes both large and small. Then it should pass the Nonprofit Grant Security Program Improvement Act, which will make more grant money available for religious institutions to better protect their physical space and worshippers.

And finally they must reintroduce and pass the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act — a piece of legislation that will ensure law enforcement and government agencies focus on the kinds of extremism that devastated Oak Creek and too many other communities in the 10 years since.

I am committed to taking action to achieve these goals on behalf of my Sikh brothers and sisters in Oak Creek, but also for all those who have been devastated by hate in our country. As recently as Buffalo and as far back as Charleston, we have seen time and again mass shootings targeting those who look, pray or love a certain way.

Remembering and honoring these victims is essential, as is standing in solidarity and support with the survivors. But we have to be willing to do more — to not accept this terror as a unique consequence of living in America but instead recognize that our democratic system of government gives us the power to change policy for the better.

That’s why I’ll be taking a stand against hate on this anniversary of Oak Creek, and I hope you will join me in doing the same.

Now, as our nation pauses this week in remembrance of Oak Creek (Wisconsin mass shooting at a Sikh house of worship) ... I am reflecting on what more we can do to combat hate ...