Explore histories of migration, citizenship and belonging in Germany and the U.S. over the centuries.
On August 5, 2012, Wade Michael Page opened gunfire on a Sikh Gurdwara (temple) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin taking the lives of six Sikh men before being shot and killed by the police, representing only one of numerous attacks against the Sikh community post-9/11. Page was a 41-year-old white male veteran and a member of a white supremacist rock band.
At the time of the massacre, the New York-based Sikh Coalition reported that Sikh communities in the U.S. had suffered more than 300 acts of physical violence since the 9/11 terror attacks.
The Sikh faith is the only religion that mandates its male followers to wear a turban and this article of faith is often mistakenly associated with Islam. Within weeks of the massacre, Sikh and Muslim communities across the United States witnessed numerous other attacks, including an arson attack on a mosque in Joplin, Minnesota and the murder of a Sikh man named Dalbir Singh in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
BRENDAN J O’BRIEN, JAMES B. KELLEHER. “Sikh Temple Gunman Was Ex-soldier Linked to Racist Group. Reuters. August 6, 2012. Date accessed: September 13, 2015.
Missouri Mosque Destroyed in Second Fire in a Month. CNN. August 7, 2012. Date accessed: September 13, 2015.
The Sikh Coalition. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
United Sikhs. Date accessed: June 16, 2015.
