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7 Slaughtered In USA In a Sikh Temple


Mame Biram Diouf

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At least seven people, including a gunman, have died in a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in the US.

The attacker "ambushed" a policeman at the scene, shooting him multiple times, before a second officer returned fire, killing the gunman, said authorities.

The shot officer was among three men critically injured in the attack in Oak Creek, suburban Milwaukee.

Later local TV showed police vehicles at another suburb, near what is believed to be the gunman's home.

Reports said the FBI and a bomb squad had gone to search the building, in Cudahy, about 2.5 miles (4km) north of the temple, and had evacuated several blocks.

Police said they believe there was only one shooter, despite initial witness reports of more than one gunman.

'Terrorist-type incident'

President Barack Obama spoke of his sadness at the shooting, as he did after the gun massacre that left 12 people dead at a Colorado cinema just over two weeks ago.

At a press conference, Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said they were treating the attack as a "domestic terrorist-type incident", and that the FBI would take over the criminal investigation.

He said he could not release any information about the shooter, who local media reports said was a white male.

Women and children hid in closets as the gunfire erupted shortly before 10:30 local time (15:30 GMT) on Sunday.

Four people were dead inside the temple and three outside - including the gunman, said the authorities.

"The best information is that there was only one gunman," said Chief Edwards.

'Shot in face'

He said the gunman had opened fire on one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, as the officer tended to a victim outside the temple.

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The policeman was shot multiple times, before a second officer exchanged gunfire with the suspect, fatally shooting him, added Chief Edwards.

At least three critically injured men were being treated at Milwaukee's Froedtert Hospital, said officials at that facility.

They included the shot police officer, although he was expected to survive, said Chief Edwards.

Local news station WISN 12 reported that one of the injured had gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen, the second had shots to the face and the third had gunshot wounds to the neck.

Oak Creek is a town of about 30,000 people in the south-east corner of the state.

'Insanity'

The website for the temple says it opened in 1999 and now has a congregation of 350-400. Sunday morning was the busiest time of worship, members of the congregation said.

Devendar Nagra, whose sister escaped injury by hiding in the temple's kitchen, told the Associated Press: "We never thought this could happen to our community. We never did anything wrong to anyone."

Suni Singh told Newsradio 620 WTMJ that he had spoken to a friend inside the temple at the time.

"My friend called and said, 'I heard the shot, and two people falling down in the parking lot.' He saw the shooter reloading the gun," Mr Singh said.

Darshan Dhaliwal, who identified himself as a leader at the temple, told the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel: "This is insanity."<p>Continue reading the main storySikhism at a glance

  • Sikhism is a monotheistic faith founded more than 500 years ago in South Asia
  • Observant Sikhs do not cut their hair; male followers often wear turbans and do not shave their beards
  • The faith has about 27 million followers worldwide. There are up to 500,000 Sikhs in the US, where they have sometimes been confused with Muslims
  • In Sept 2001, an Arizona gas station owner, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was shot dead by a man said to be seeking revenge on Muslims for 9/11

President Obama said he was "deeply saddened" by Sunday's incident.

"Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those who were killed and wounded," he said in statement released by the White House.

"As we mourn this loss which took place at a house of worship, we are reminded how much our country has been enriched by Sikhs, who are a part of our broader American family."

Local politician Mark Honadel called the attack "craziness".

The state representative told CNN: "Unfortunately, when this type of stuff hits your area, you say to yourself, 'why?' But in today's society, I don't think there's any place that's free from idiots."

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Tattoos on the body of the slain Sikh temple gunman and certain biographical details led the FBI to treat the attack at a Milwaukee-area temple as an act of domestic terrorism, officials said Sunday.

The shootings in Oak Creek, Wis., left seven dead, including the gunman, and three critically wounded. One of the injured was a police officer who was expected to survive.

A federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media refused to say whether the gunman was thought to belong to a hate group or some other violent group because the investigation was still unfolding.

Contrary to multiple panicked reports from the scene, officials say they believe there was only one shooter.

Oak Creek police handed control of the investigation to the FBI on Sunday afternoon.

Federal officials cautioned against thinking that a concrete link to a domestic terrorism group or hate group had been established.

“The investigation will have to continue to see and determine the motive,” said a federal law enforcement official who had been briefed on the early planning for the case. “We don’t know much about the motive at this point.”

Oak Creek police declined to identify the gunman or outline a possible motive.

The designation of “domestic terrorism” under the FBI’s rubric — which was not applied to the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting — implies a political agenda. The FBI defines terrorism as “the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

TMJ 4, citing police sources, reported that two semiautomatic handguns had been recovered and that police were searching a red truck in front of the temple.

Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards said that two officers responded to the initial 911 call and that one of them was “ambushed” while checking on a victim and was shot several times. The gunman then shot at the other officer, who returned fire and killed the shooter, Edwards said.

“Because of the heroic actions of our officers, they stopped this from being worse than it could have been,” Edwards said at an afternoon news briefing.

The survivors have been taken from the temple and moved to a nearby bowling alley as officials begin what they described as a lengthy investigative process, he said.

The victims’ bodies were expected to remain in the temple until investigators finished examining the scene for evidence, which could take until late into the night.

Officials said it took a long time to clear the scene with SWAT teams because of conflicting reports about multiple shooters. Police later said they think there was only one gunman, who has been described as white, with a large build and in his 30s.

“The city of Oak Creek is outraged by the senseless act of violence that happened in our city today,” Mayor Steve Scaffidi said at a news briefing.

In a statement, President Obama said he was “deeply saddened” by the news. “As we mourn this loss, which took place at a house of worship, we are reminded how much our country has been enriched by Sikhs, who are a part of our broader American family,” he said.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney called the shooting “a senseless act of violence and a tragedy that should never befall any house of worship.”

The Sikh faith originated in India in the 15th century. Male followers wear turbans and women wear head scarves. In the U.S., Sikhs occasionally have been mistaken for Muslims. They have also been victims of hate crimes.

It’s the area’s second mass shooting involving a religious community in the past seven years. In 2005, a gunman killed seven and then committed suicide at a church meeting in Brookfield, Wis.

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NEW YORK — The killing of six worshippers at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee brought fresh worries Sunday to the half million U.S. followers of a faith whose congregants have worried about their safety since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, when some began targeting adherents of a peaceful religion that stresses the equality of people.

While police have not identified the gunman, who was killed by police, or described a possible motive for the Wisconsin shootings, several leaders of Sikh organizations nationwide say the killings have brought to the surface fears that have lingered since 9/11 when some ignorant about their beliefs began mistaking them for potential terrorists.

"This is something we have been fearing since 9/11, that this kind of incident will take place," said Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Washington-based Sikh Council on Religion and Education. "It was a matter of time because there's so much ignorance and people confuse us (as) being members of Taliban or belonging to (Osama) bin Laden."

Valarie Kaur, 31, a New Haven, Conn., filmmaker who has chronicled Sikh attacks for 11 years, said the shooting "is reverberating through every Sikh American home," where the worst is feared.

"We are experiencing it as a hate crime," she said. "Every Sikh American today is hurting, grieving and afraid."

The cloth turbans worn for centuries by members of the Sikh faith so they could better serve their communities through a commitment to the oneness of God in all faiths and equality for all people has ironically made them targets of those ignorant of their history, she said.

"That turban has tragically marked us as automatically suspect, perpetually foreign and potentially terrorists," Kaur said.

Amarjit Singh, vice president of the Wheaton, Ill.-based Illinois Sikh Community Center, which serves 5,000 Sikhs, agreed about the Sept. 11 fears and said the congregation prayed for the slain victims as word of the shooting spread.

"We have a lot of families who have family members that attend that temple," Singh said. "It seemed so random."

Two elderly men wearing turbans were shot to death in March while taking a walk in Elk Grove, Calif., and police are investigating it as a hate crime. Days after the 2001 terror attacks, a Sikh man was killed in suburban Phoenix. The man who was later convicted of his death had told his wife that "all Arabs should be shot."

And at airports, controversy has erupted when airport workers try to search or remove Sikh turbans, considered sacred in the Sikh faith.

Though there were no known threats, the New York Police Department announced it was increasing coverage in an abundance of caution in and around Sikh temples.

Harkirat Sandhu, 45, of Hanover Park, Ill., a member of Sikh Religious Society of Chicago for more than 10 years, said he worried more Sikhs could be targeted.

"The Sikh community is a peaceful community," he said. "We don't believe in this type of hate and crime. We condemn this situation."

"Americans of all faiths should stand in unified support with their Sikh brothers and sisters," said Sapreet Kaur, executive director of the New York-based Sikh Coalition, the largest Sikh American civil rights organization in the U.S.

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THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

NAH I DONT FEAR ANYONE BUT ALLAH U GOT A PROBLEM ?

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Guest PROFIT MARGINS

THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

NAH I DONT FEAR ANYONE BUT ALLAH U GOT A PROBLEM ?

nerd.jpg?w=319&h=256

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THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

THESE WHITE PIGS PROB THOUGHT IT WAS A MOSQUE THERE LUCKY IT AINT COZ I SWEAR DA TALIBAN WOULD 9/11 ON DER RASSCLAART ARSE WHITE PPL ARE DA DEVIL

Why you fear whites?

NAH I DONT FEAR ANYONE BUT ALLAH U GOT A PROBLEM ?

nerd.jpg?w=319&h=256

pmsl

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