An article published in The Sacramento Bee newspaper revealed that some representatives of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) have spread false propaganda against the Sikhs living in California. The false statement made by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) was not only made against the Fremont Gurdwara but against the entire Sikh community. A representative of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF) calling the Gurdwara Sahib institutionally linked to drugs, arms and organized crime, these statements are not only inflammatory and insulting, but baseless. On this statement, the Fremont Police say that they did not find anything related to illegal weapons or drugs at the Gurdwara Sahib in Fremont.
This hate crime by the Hindu American Foundation is directed against Sikh Americans in good standing, including Raj Singh Badhesha, most recently Fresno’s city attorney, whom Newsom called in June on duty in traditional Sikh dress in America. Appointed as the first Sikh judge to serve. Gurdeep Singh Shergill, an elected member of Fresno’s school board and a Sikh recipient of the James Irwin Foundation Leadership Award for his work with the Nandeep Jakara Movement, a Sikh youth civil rights organization.
Founder of American Sikh Caucus Committee and member of Fremont Gurdwara. Pritpal Singh said that he was shocked by the insulting comments about the Gurdwara Sahib. It is worth noting that after this false propaganda of the Hindu American Foundation, prominent Sikh organizations around the world Sikh Coalition, Jakara Movement, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SELDEF), and the American Sikh Caucus Committee issued a joint statement saying that we are Hindu America. Foundation (HAF) Community Outreach Director Ramya Ramakrishnan is outraged that Northern California gurdwaras are institutionally linked to drugs, firearms and organized crime. Given the shared respect in Hindu and Sikhism traditions for the importance of houses of worship, we sincerely hope that HAF will issue an immediate public apology for these comments. We look forward to doing our own outreach to correct any misinformation or misinformation shared. “This statement from the Hindu American Foundation, singling out individual members of the Sikh community and accusing them of terrorism, is disheartening to think that in a post-9/11 world one community would commit such a hate crime against another. can
