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Hate Crime: California’s Gurdwara Sahib defaced with Swastika graffiti symbol

Although there is a decline in the overall count of hate crimes incidents in the United States of America, but the incidents of hate crimes against Sikhs have inclined during the past few years. Within a month after an attack on Sikh taxi driver, another incident of hate crime against Sikhs came to fore during the morning hours of January 14.

A Gurdwara Sahib named Guru Maneyo Granth, which is situated in Orangevale (California), was reportedly defaced with Swastika sign and the words “White Power” by some unidentified elements during the intervening night of January 13 and 14. The police officials have recorded statements of the Granthi (priest) of Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara Sahib.

Meanwhile, the Indian-American Congressman Dr Ami Bara has strongly condemned the racist graffiti spray painted at a Sikh house of worship in Orangevale. “The California’s 7th congressional district is a community of diversity and inclusion, and the Sikh community is an integral part of it,” he said.

The swastika (as a character, 卐 or 卍, respectively) is a geometrical figure and an ancient religious icon in the cultures of Eurasia. In the Western world, it was a symbol of auspiciousness and good luck until the 1930s when it became a feature of Nazi symbolism as an emblem of the so-called Aryan race. As a result of World War II and the Holocaust, most people in Europe and the Americas associate it with Nazism and anti-Semitism.