West Des Moines Police Increase Presence at Sikh Temple After Deadly Wisconsin Shooting
A memorial service will be held Sunday at the West Des Moines gurudwara.
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The Sihk Temple of Iowa is planning a public memorial service in West Des Moines Sunday for victims of a gunman’s rampage that left six people dead and three others wounded as they prepared to worship in Oak Creek, WI, a suburb of Milwaukee.
The memorial will be held at the gurudwara, or temple, at 1115 Walnut St. in West Des Moines, beginning at 9:45 a.m. It will include traditional Sikh kirtans (hymns), bhogs and ardas (prayers), and guru ka langar (meal) at the conclusion of the service at 1 p.m.
Jagtar Singh, a past president of the leadership board of the Sikh Temple of Iowa, said the memorial service is open to all Iowans who want to remember the victims. Sikh is an open and welcoming religion, based on the belief that there is one God, who has neither gender nor form.
West Des Moines police have joined police departments from Sacramento to New York in stepping up patroling around the gurudwara, where about 60 Iowans regularly worship.
Police spokesman Sgt. Ken O’Brien said cars routinely in the Valley Junction neighborhood will more closely monitor the gurudwara, tucked amid houses in a residential area of the city. The one-story brick building features an orange flag bearing the Sikh symbol hanging above the entry and a white picket fence in the yard.
No specific threats have been received, O'Brien said, but he urged people in the area to be aware of their surroundings.
“If something doesn’t look right, call the police and have us investigate it,” O’Brien said. “We’re here to rule things in or out, whether it’s a suspicious vehicle or person.”
Suspect Tied to Iowa Trucking Company
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Wade Michael Page, 40, the suspect in the Wisconsin shootings, once worked as a driver for a Granger, IA, trucking company.
Barr-Nunn Transportation said Page was employed by the company for four years, ending in August 2010 when he was reportedly fired for violating the company policy on impaired driving, which extends to personal vehicles on personal time.
Page, who was killed by police after he opened fire, reportedly had deep extremist ties and was described as a “white supremacist skinhead” and “frustrated neo-Nazi” who led a white power punk and metal band, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups.
A man worshipping in Sacramento said combating such terrorism is difficult.
“You’re sitting there remembering God and then somebody opens the door and starts shooting,” said Darshan Singh Mundy, a Sikh spokesman told a CBS News affiliate in Sacramento. “We are helpless; we can’t do anything.”
Iowa Sikh members say their traditional turban and long beard worn by Sikh men and the veils worn by women often confuse Westerners, who associate them with radical Muslims who carried out the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Jagtr Singh told Patch.
“It’s mistaken identity,” he said, pointing out that Sikhism is not related to Islam or Hinduism.
"It's tragic, and probably a misconception of who we are," 12-year-old Jeevanjot Singh told Patch Sunday following the news out of Oak Creek, WI. "I think it's because of the turbans, and the stereotype that people who wear turbans are Muslim, and after 9/11, people think Muslims are bad."
Robert E
11:50 pm on Tuesday, August 7, 2012
We need to put a stop these Christian extremists.
Jack F
12:14 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Robert- we will not tolerate HATE SPEECH here at the Patch. Please refrain.
Troy Murphy
1:05 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Actually he was a neo nazi white supremacist which makes him a nut case not a Christian. I will bet you won't find a record of him attending any church unless it is the white equivalent of Jeremiah Wright's and I would not classify it as Christian
Paul
1:09 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
He wasnt a Christian extremist, he was a Nazi... Big difference
Maria Houser Conzemius
9:12 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Paul, I fail to see the "big difference." Wish I could tell you that I do, but I don't. Take the Westboro (Phelps) Baptist Church, for example, which is a place for worship in name only. Anyone who would demonstrate at a soldier's funeral while holding up signs that say "God hates fags" is not just heartless but an extremist of the "Christian" persuasion.
Jack F
12:20 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Maria- if they have signs that say "God hates fags" that is not extremist. If they have a sigh that says "Jihad Against Fags" that would be extremist. I bet a lot of good Christians do not believe they should respect the homosexual LIFE STYLE but that does not make them extremist and does not indicate that they intend to shoot anyone. They just dont agree with their choice of sin.
Robert E
2:07 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Jack
It's time for people to stop using the bible as an excuse for bigotry. Bigotry and Hatred wrapped in Religion are still Bigotry and Hatred. Religion enables the bigoted and hateful to believe that their bigotry and hatred is virtue.
Troy Murphy
9:22 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Exactly my point, just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't make it so. Christians are identified by their actions not by name, Neither Westboro or Jeremiah Wright are Christians, just nut cases
Robert E
11:46 am on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Mike calling him a Christian is no different then calling Osama Bin Lardin a Muslim extreamist. He happins to be muslim but does not fowwow the Muslim faith. White supremasists and neo-nazis use the Christian bible as basis for their beliefs and are Christians not you everyday Christian but Christian extremists. What do you think that burning cross the KKK uses stands for. As for Christians identified by their actions as a non Christian I can tell you Most christians only act Christian when dealing with other Christians when dealing with non Christians they can be very un Christian.
Jack F
12:16 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
I dont think this guy was a leader in the Christian Faith like Osama Bin Ladin was a leader of the Jihad in the Muslim faith. I dont see in the Christian faith the call for a Jihad against Muslims like Muslims claim against Christians. So Robert, you are just wrong.
Robert E
2:13 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
They were explicitly Christian terrorist in ideology, basing their beliefs on a "religious foundation" in Christianity. The goals of the KKK included, from an early time on, an intent to "reestablish Protestant Christian values in America by any means possible," and believe that "Jesus was the first Klansman." Their cross-burnings were conducted not only to intimidate targets, but to demonstrate their respect and reverence for Jesus Christ, and the lighting ritual was steeped in Christian symbolism, including the saying of prayers and singing of Christian hymns. Many modern Klan organizations, such as the Knights Party, USA, continue to focus on the Christian supremacist message, asserting that there is a "war" on to destroy "western Christian civilization."
Robert E
2:14 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
During the twentieth century, members of extremist groups such as the Army of God began executing attacks against abortion clinics and doctors across the United States.A number of terrorist attacks were attributed to individuals and groups with ties to the Christian Identity and Christian Patriot movements, including the Lambs of Christ. A group called Concerned Christians were deported from Israel on suspicion of planning to attack holy sites in Jerusalem at the end of 1999, believing that their deaths would "lead them to heaven." The motive for anti-abortionist Scott Roeder murdering Wichita doctor George Tiller on May 31, 2009 was a belief that abortion is criminal and immoral, and that this belief went "hand in hand" with his religious beliefs.[70][71] The Centennial Olympic Park bombing in 1996, as well as subsequent attacks on an abortion clinic and a lesbian nightclub, were made by Eric Robert Rudolph; Michael Barkun, a professor at Syracuse University, considers Rudolph to likely fit the definition of a Christian terrorist, whereas James A. Aho, a professor at Idaho State University, argues instead that Rudolph was inspired only in part by religious considerations.
Robert E
2:14 pm on Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Hutaree was a Christian militia group based in Adrian, Michigan. In 2010, after an FBI agent infiltrated the group, nine of its members were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy to use of improvised explosive devices, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. Terrorism scholar Aref M. Al-Khattar has listed The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord, Defensive Action, The Freemen Community, and some "Christian militia" as groups that "can be placed under the category of far-right-wing terrorism" that "has a religious (Christian) component".
Maria Houser Conzemius
8:58 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012
Historically, most of the world's worst crimes have been committed in the name of religion. This has been true for thousands of years.
Troy Murphy
10:59 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012
Historically some of the worlds most touching, generous and kind acts have been done in the name of religion. This has been true for thousands of years.
Robert E
5:23 pm on Friday, August 10, 2012
For far too long priests and preachers have completely ignored the vicious criminal acts that the Bible promotes. The so called “God” of the Bible makes Osama Bin Laden look like a Boy Scout. This God, according to the Bible, is directly responsible for many mass-murders, rapes, pillage, plunder, slavery, child abuse and killing, not to mention the killing of unborn children.
It always amazes me how many times this God orders the killing of innocent people even after the Ten Commandments said “Thou shall not kill”. For example, God kills 70,000 innocent people because David ordered a census of the people (1 Chronicles 21).
Robert E
5:23 pm on Friday, August 10, 2012
). God also orders the destruction of 60 cities so that the Israelites can live there. He orders the killing of all the men, women, and children of each city, and the looting of all of value (Deuteronomy 3). He orders another attack and the killing of “all the living creatures of the city: men and women, young, and old, as well as oxen sheep, and asses” (Joshua 6). In Judges 21, He orders the murder of all the people of Jabesh-gilead, except for the virgin girls who were taken to be forcibly raped and married. When they wanted more virgins, God told them to hide alongside the road and when they saw a girl they liked, kidnap her and forcibly rape her and make her your wife! Just about every other page in the Old Testament has God killing somebody! In 2 Kings 10:18-27, God orders the murder of all the worshipers of a different god in their very own church! In total God kills 371,186 people directly and orders another 1,862,265 people murdered.
Robert E
5:24 pm on Friday, August 10, 2012
The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).
This type of criminal behavior should shock any moral person. Murder, rape, pillage, plunder, slavery, and child abuse can not be justified by saying that some god says it’s OK. And just in case you are thinking that the evil and immoral laws of the Old Testament are no longer in effect, perhaps you should read where Jesus makes it perfectly clear: "It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid." (Luke 16:17)
I know that most Christians believe that God is a good and loving god, and wants people to do good things. I believe that most people want to do good things and behave morally. I also believe that many Christians haven’t really read the Bible, or just read certain passages in church. This is understandable, as the Bible is hard to read due to its archaic language and obscure references. Also many priests and preachers don’t like to read certain passages in the Bible because they present a message of hate not love.
Maria Houser Conzemius
8:59 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012
+1, Robert E.