Sikh Massacre in Milwaukee Gurudwara

PRESS RELEASE
Mike Ghouse, President
America Together Foundation
 (214) 325-1916 / text or talk
Mike@AmericaTogetherFoundation.com
MikeGhouse@aol.com

Sunday, August 11, 11:00 AM

We pray for the innocent people who died in the senseless shooting at the Sikh Gurudwara in Oak creek, Michigan.

We also condemn the senselessness of the murderer’s attitude towards fellow Americans, he was not alone, there are more like him and we need to find solutions.

As an American, Muslim and an Indian, I stand by the Sikh community and hope to find long term sustainable solutions to prevent the shameless events like this from happening in our nation.

It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain peace and justice in the society.

Standing up for others is the right thing to do, every human goes through a period of invincibility to vulnerability, and if we don’t stand up for those who are vulnerable, then who will stand up for us when we are vulnerable?

As Americans we need to come together to build an America where no one needs to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of the other.

I appeal to individuals and organizations to speak out against bigotry and terrorism and work on finding solutions, hating them will not solve it, pushing them to the corner will not cut it, engaging (there is no them, it is all of us) in a dialogue has a chance of mitigating bigotry and nurturing goodwill.

We need to learn about each other and demystify the myths about the others.

It starts out with knowing each other, knowledge leads to understanding and understanding to acceptance and appreciation of a different point of view. If we can learn to respect the otherness of others, and accept the God given uniqueness of each one of us, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Mike Ghouse represents America Together Foundation, The Foundation for Pluralism and the World Muslim Congress, all committed to nurturing pluralistic values.