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Protest against expulsion of
turbaned Sikh from North
Carolina charity
WSN Network
Washington: On
Friday, the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF),
the oldest and largest Sikh American civil rights and advocacy
organization in the United States, in concert with 13 national
interfaith and civil rights organizations, issued a letter of
concern to Union Mission of Roanoke Rapids, a North Carolina
charity, in response to the expulsion of a Sikh American donor from
the facility a few days before Thanksgiving.
Gurnam Singh
Khera, a Sikh American, went to Union Mission along with his wife on
Nov. 18 to make a Thanksgiving donation but was reportedly told that
“this is the
United States”
and that he would have to remove his religiously-mandated dastaar
(Sikh turban) or take his donation elsewhere. When SALDEF wrote to
Union Mission on Nov. 20 to express concern about the treatment of
Khera and the rejection of his donation, Rev. Ron Weeks, Executive
Director of Union Mission, responded, “I can think of several
options; send it by another person, mail or internet [or] donate to
another charity.”
Now SALDEF and
its national coalition partners are calling upon Union Mission to
issue a public apology to Khera and revise their policy to allow all
visitors, regardless of religion, to wear articles of faith. "We
hope that Union Mission will live up to its creed and join the
mainstream majority of Americans who believe that there is strength
in diversity,” said Rajdeep Singh Jolly, Legal Director of SALDEF.
10 December
2008
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