Sikh Coalition

A demonstrator was reportedly Donald Trump's rally in the US state of Iowa. The protester reportedly interrupted the Republican presidential frontrunner's speech by displaying a banner that read ‘Stop Hate’.

In the cover of darkness between Saturday night and Sunday morning, a California Sikh gurdwara (house of worship), along with a community member’s truck in the parking lot, were vandalized with hateful graffiti.

The Sikh Coalition and the Los Angeles Clippers hosted nearly 400 members of the California sangat on Saturday, November 14th for a Sikh Awareness & Appreciation game.

A gunman opened fire at a recruiting center and another US military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga yesterday, killing at least four Marines. The attacker was also killed. US Federal authorities said they were investigating the possibility it was an act of domestic terrorism, and the FBI took charge of the case.

The Sikh Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are thrilled to announce that a Sikh employee at Walt Disney World will no longer be kept hidden from public view of Disney visitors because of his religious appearance.

n April 2015, the U.S. Army released new rules that will make it easier for observant Sikhs to request religious accommodations for their articles of faith. The prior procedures forced turbaned and bearded Sikh recruits to violate their religion while asking for a religious exception to serve - a Catch-22.

For the second consecutive year, the Office of the Pentagon Chaplain commemorated Vaisakhi in a 400-seat auditorium last Friday. Guests included congressional staffers, military officials, service members, interfaith leaders, and nearly 200 sangat members from across the country.

Earlier this week, the Sikh Coalition trained over 100 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees, including security officers, on Sikhism and Sikh air travelers’ rights during the screening process. The organization’s Operations Manager Balbir Singh and Legal Fellow, Attorney Katie Mallon conducted eight in-person training sessions over two days at Dulles International Airport in Washington D.C. These trainings were also available through a live webcast and recorded to be used as part of a nationwide TSA webinar.

The Sikh Coalition has released (on YouTube) The Struggle To Serve – a short documentary encapsulating our ambitious six-year campaign to end discrimination by the U.S. Department of Defense, the largest employer in America.

A community update by the Sikh Coalition says: [f]or the third year in a row, members of the U.S. Congress plan to introduce a resolution honouring the Sikh community’s celebration of Vaisakhi.

The Sikh Coalition reportedly worked with the local sangat in Georgia to provide a rapid media response in the wake of a viral school bullying video that was recently circulated on the Internet.

“The decision to include Sikhism was clearly the right thing to do. The Sikh American community has been contributing to the rich diversity that makes New York and this nation great for generations. We are incredibly grateful to the Sikh Coalition for tirelessly working with us over the past year to make sure we got it right.”