 Coalition Featured on Religious Panel
(New York, NY) A Sikh Coalition representative was invited to speak at The Women’s Mosaic event entitled Girls, God, and Goddesses: Women’s Relationship to Religion and Spirituality . The event was meant to be a personal discussion on religion and spirituality with members from 7 different religions including Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, Islam, and Sikhism. The panelists were asked to relate their personal reflections on their faith and women’s roles in them. The Coalition would like to thank The Women’s Mosaic for hosting the discussion and applauds them on their dedication to women’s empowerment and multicultural education and understanding.
Coalition Conducts Trainings for the National Park Service
 (Ellis Island, NY) The Coalition conducted two trainings during the first week of June for the National Park Service (NPS) at the Statue of Liberty National Monument in Ellis Island. The Parks Service agreed to the trainings because recently, there was an incident in which Sikhs were not allowed to tour the Statue because they were wearing kirpans and “looked suspicious”. Even after the Sikh visitors agreed to remove their kirpans, but then were harassed and treated as criminals. Because of this attitude from NPS officials, one of the Sikhs contacted SALDEF for assistance. Since then, the NPS has issued a formal apology to those Sikhs and has also asked SALDEF and the Sikh Coalition to deliver Sikh Cultural Awareness Trainings for NPS personnel. The Coalition appreciates the efforts of the NPS, and is grateful to have worked with SALDEF to deliver the informative and meaningful presentations.
The Coalition is particularly grateful for the hard work of the New York office of the Community Relations Service (CRS) of the United States Department of Justice. CRS was responsible for organizing the trainings and CRS materials were used to conduct the trainings.
Coalition Trains New Jersey Division of Civil Rights Staff
(New Jersey) The Coalition recently conducted two trainings at the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights. Frontline Division staff attorneys and civil rights investigators were briefed on Sikhism and Sikh civil rights concerns.. The Coalition conducted its first training for the Division’s Newark staff on May 15 and a second training for the Division’s Trenton staff on May 17.
The Coalition would like to thank the Director of the Division on Civil Rights, Frank Vespa-Papaleo, and all the staff at the Division for their commitment to ensuring equal rights for all.
Immigration Reform Community Education Tool Kit Issued By SAALT
(Washington, DC) South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) has issued an excellent, comprehensive community education document on the current status of the immigration reform bills in Congress. The Coalition encourages all those interested in the immigration reform debate to review it.
It is important to note that no new immigration law has been passed by Congress yet. As SAALT’s community education document states the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives must reconcile their significantly different immigration bills and then the President must sign the reconciled bills into law.
Coalition co-signs Letter to New York Senators to Support Comprehensive Immigration Reform
(New York, NY) The Sikh Coalition along with the New York Immigration Coalition co-signed a letter last month to Senators Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) calling for a fair and comprehensive federal immigration reform. The letter urges the senators to fight in Congress for an earned path to citizenship, a measure to reunite families, and a program that protects both immigrant and American-born workers. The letter also calls for an orderly enforcement of these measures that safeguards immigrants’ civil rights.
Coalition Delivers Presentation at Briarcrest School
(Shoreline, Washington) The Coalition was invited to do a presentation on Sikh beliefs on May 26 at the Briarcrest School in the Shoreline School District of Washington state. Principal Bob Koontz wanted to use this as an opportunity to educate the students, in particular the fifth and sixth graders, in order to try to quell some recent bullying of Sikh students. The Coalition was contacted shortly afterwards that the presentation positively influenced many of the students at this school, and bullying is no longer an issue. The Coalition would like to thank Principal Bob Koontz and the staff at Briarcrest School for attempting to solve the bullying problem through education.
Coalition Signs on to Letter Ending Bankruptcy Education Discrimination
On May 12, the Coalition along with coalition of civil rights and community-based organizations wrote to the Department of Justice requesting that the Department taking stronger action to ensure the rights of Limited English Proficient (LEP) debtors in bankruptcy proceedings.
The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act requires all debtors to have “credit counseling” before filing for bankruptcy, and to complete a “personal financial management” course. These two requirements can only be fulfilled by approved non-profit agencies. However, most of these agencies can only provide presentations in English. LEP debtors are hindered when trying to gain access into the bankruptcy system. In letter requests competent interpreters be provided for debtors and translations of all materials needed for the bankruptcy courses, free of charge. The Coalition is hopeful that EOUST will amend their current policies to provide an equal opportunity to LEP persons when entering the bankruptcy system.
The Coalition thanks the Language Access Project of Community Legal Services in Philadelphia for initiating the letter! |
(Bayshore, NY) Last April, the Coalition organized a workshop for student writers in Bay Shore, New York because many racial and religious bias incidents had taken place in Long Island over the last few months. As a result, the Bay Shore School District held the Ethnic Pen Student Writers’ Conference where participants viewed Kevin Lee’s film,