US to track hate crimes against Sikhs, minorities

Making the Announcement on Friday Attorney general Eric Holder said the Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller had approved a recommendation from the agency39s advisory policy board to track hate crimes against Sikhs Hindus Arabs Buddhists Mormons Jehovah39s Witnesses and Orthodox Christians Family and friends and community members gather at Oak Creek High School to mourn the loss of 6 members of the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin on August 10 2012 in Oak Creek Wisconsin PicAFP quotAs we look toward the future I39m confident that this change will help us better understand the law enforcement challenges we facequot Holder wrote in a Justice Department blog post quotIt will empower us to better enforce relevant laws to protect everyone in this country And it is emblematic of our unwavering resolve to prevent and seek justice for acts of hate and terrorquot he said quotThis Monday August 5th marks the oneyear anniversary of the senseless murders of six Sikh worshippers Satwant Singh Kaleka Paramjit Kaur Prakash Singh Ranjit Singh Sita Singh and Suveg Singh at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek at the hands of a lone gunmanquot Holder wrote quotIn the aftermath of this terrible tragedy individuals and communities of faith across the country were badly shakenquot he wrote in the blog titled quotHealing Communities and Remembering the Victims of Oak Creekquot Holder also announced that the Justice Department39s Office for Victims of Crime will offer an emergency assistance grant to the Wisconsin Department of Justice providing over 512000 to help reimburse and continue to pay for mental health and trauma services for the victims and survivors of this horrific shooting quotThese funds are intended to assist all those affected including family members witnesses first responders and the wider Oak Creek community as they continue to rebuild their lives and keep displaying the extraordinary resiliency so many of us have come to admirequot he said quotMore broadly we also must engage in an inclusive dialogue about how we can prevent these tragedies in the future including through the improved tracking of hate crimes reportingquot Holder said The Justice Department decision was commended by the community as also several lawmakers including the lone IndianAmerican House member Ami Bera and the first HinduAmerican legislator Tulsi Gabbard Other lawmakers applauding the decision were Joe Crowley Eliot Engel Bill Pascrell Michael Honda Adam Schiff Gary Peters and Eric Swalwell quotOne year after the Oak Creek killings we are thrilled the FBI has agreed to begin tracking and documenting hate crimes against Sikh Hindu and Arab Americansquot they said in a statement quotThis groundbreaking decision to collect valuable hate crime data will go a long way towards protecting communities living in fear of being victims of a hate crimequot Amardeep Singh programme director of the Sikh Coalition said that while he welcomed the announcement as a quotcritical first stepquot the underlying conditions that caused the killings remain quotThe last year has once again seen violent shootings and beatings of Sikhs throughout the countryquot he said quotIt will take more than tracking hate crime statistics to stem the tidequot