United Sikhs to 'push' Obama for visiting Sikh srines in US and abroad

##ad_1##NEW YORK, USA: UNITED SIKHS is disappointed that President Obama will not be visiting Harmandar Sahib on his trip to India next month. Although the community feels disheartened by this decision, UNITED SIKHS will actively encourage the U.S. President to visit Sikh places of worship in America and abroad. 

More importantly, with the White House's confirmation of President Obama's visit to Pakistan in 2011, we want to implore the President to visit Sikh places of worship on that trip.  

This week our Senior Staff Attorney, Hansdeep Singh, told political news magazine, Politico, that UNITED SIKHS would “continue to push” Obama to visit Sikh shrines in the United States and abroad. "We want to have a continuing dialogue with the White House,” he said. 

Press reports speculated last week that the alleged reason for the cancellation of the visit to Harmandar Sahib was due to the President wanting to avoid being perceived as a Muslim. In a press briefing yesterday, the White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication, Ben Rhodes, lead planner for the trip, denied this. He said: “It’s a big country where we’d like to do a lot of things.  It’s an extraordinary country and we can never do as many events as we’d like to do.” During his November trip to Asia, the President has planned visits to Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim places of worship. Places of worship representing religious minorities, including Sikhs, are conspicuously absent from the itinerary. 

Despite this setback, UNITED SIKHS will continue to advocate on behalf of Sikhs all over the world for President Obama to recognize our community. His trip to Pakistan next year is poignant because the thrust of his message and visit will be to energize the global community to recognize and continue helping the country recover from the devastating floods. Please click here to read about UNITED SIKHS’ continuing efforts with Pakistan flood relief help. 

Avtar Singh Makkar, President of Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) and Paramjit Singh Sarna, President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), told UNITED SIKHS that they hoped the President would visit a Indian Sikh gurdwara in the future to recognize the unique Sikh faith, its diversity and its contribution to the west.

##ad_2##Moreover, there are many significant Gurdwaras in Pakistan. One of these is Nankana Sahib (birthplace of the first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak). There is also Panja Sahib, where UNITED SIKHS is currently undertaking Humanitarian Disaster Relief work in assistance of displaced Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh victims of the floods. 

President Obama has already recognized UNITED SIKHS for our work in Haiti. A visit to Pakistan would be an ideal opportunity to recognize the humanitarian work of Sikhs in serving all communities and amplifying our voices to help us continue our mandate of protecting others. Whatever the reasons for President Obama for not visiting Harmandar Sahib, we urge him not to spurn the Sikh community again during his trip to Pakistan in 2011.

The Pakistan trip presents another opportunity for President Obama to not only recognize a religious minority that has suffered the double injustice of unprecedented natural disasters but the constant threat of the Taliban and the choice between forced conversions and death. For example, Afghani Sikh, Jaspal Singh, was brutally beheaded by the Taliban, earlier this year.

UNITED SIKHS director, Kuldip Singh, says: "President Obama's visit to Harmandar Sahib would have brought a message of peace and harmony to all multifaith communities when the world needs it the most.