Oak Creek shooting
What is the Sikh faith about?
OAK CREEK - After the massacre at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, many people are trying to understand just what the Sikh faith is all about.
Kazneet Singh is the Managing Director of the Sikh American Legal and Defense Fund. He says there are roughly 500,000 to 700,000 Sikhs in this country.
Sikh men can commonly be seen with turbans and long beards.
"It really helps them stand out in a crowd, but also associates them with the images of Al-Queda and terrorism in the local media."
Singh says the religion has roots all the way back to 15th century, and it greatly differs from the Muslim faith.
One of the pillars on the Sikh faith is religious freedom.
"Throughout the history of the faith, you have seen the faith advocates for things that they necessarily don't support religiously, but because of religious freedom that we support, have been on the side of those issues."
He expressed the thoughts that many Sikh believers have about the possibility of racial or religious-based hatred leading to the shootings.
"Our hopes are that these are not tied to any sort of racial hatred, bias motivations that we've seen similar to across the country since the attacks of 9/11, said Singh.
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