Thoughts on the Sikh Temple Shooting

On the morning of August 5, 2012, a lone gunman stormed into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing six and critically injuring three before being killed by police.  It is a heartbreaking to tragedy, especially so close in timing to the Colorado Massacre.  That being said, I would like to bring to light some interesting observations.  Although major newspapers did have the story on their front pages, our local newspaper’s web site had the story subordinated to the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars.  When discussing the incident with a friend, we noticed how little it was being mentioned on Facebook.  In contrast to the hundreds of posts I observed on the Colorado shooting, when scanning through my various Facebook news feeds, I found only two comments made in the three days following the incident.  Admittedly the tragedy was not of the same magnitude as the Colorado massacre, where there were over 80 casualties.  Still, given the fact that such a tragedy befell a group of people in their sacred place of worship and whose core values are peace and harmony, I would have expected more public outrage.

Although we will never know his motives, the gunman, identified as Wade Michael Page, was alleged to be a white supremist and the tragedy is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. Sikhism is a monotheistic faith based in south Asia which has about 27,000,000 followers, 500,000 of whom are in the United States.  The males are often mistaken for Muslems as they wear turbans and do not cut or shave their hair.  Although the vast majority of Muslems are also peaceful, loving individuals, they are often branded as terrorists due to the actions of a very few highly visible extremists who profess that faith.  I find it a shame to see a whole major religion held in contempt based on a few extremists.  What this incident reiterates is that there are extremists right here in this country, and U.S. citizens at that.

I would like to leave us with one question: if a bearded, turban wearing man barged into a small-town Christian church here in the U.S., killing six people, would we have reacted with more outrage?  I hope we can all open our hearts to recognize that everyone on our planet is our equal, a member of Humanity and part of a Greater Whole despite their outward appearances and professed creeds.