IAMC condemns push by right-wing Hindu American groups to increase surveillance, policing of Sikh American communities

Washington, D.C. (October 3, 2024) – The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) today strongly condemned Hindu American far-right groups for placing American citizens from the Sikh community at risk of assassination and other harms by labeling them indiscriminately as terrorists, implying that the community’s places of worship are involved with “organized crime,” and by pushing for increased surveillance of an already-vulnerable minority. 

IAMC expressed its full and unwavering solidarity with the Sikh American community following a concerning new report from the Sacramento Bee, a prominent California news portal, which details these attempts by Hindu American far-right groups to increase the policing and surveillance of Californian Sikhs, in tandem with increased transnational repression against the community from the Indian government. 

“As Muslims, we are all too familiar with the decades of fear and trauma that come from having your community labeled as a threat and your places of worship policed,” said IAMC Executive Director Rasheed Ahmed. “We are deeply troubled to see that groups like Hindu American Foundation and CoHNA are pushing to inflict that same fear and trauma upon our Sikh brothers and sisters. We stand in full solidarity with the Sikh community against this despicable bigotry.” 

In its new story, titled “In the shadow of a freeway shooting lurks the fear of Sikhs threatened in California”, the Sacramento Bee reported that in August, a gunman fired shots from a car at three Sikh separatist activists in Sacramento. Some believe that this was yet another assassination attempt by the Indian government, on the heels of the assassination of a Canadian Sikh leader in Canada and another foiled assassination plot against an American Sikh activist in New York. 

The Indian government, which labels members of the Sikh separatist movement as terrorists, has been intimidating and censoring the Sikh diaspora globally for years through transnational repression – a phenomenon that the US government is increasingly growing concerned about. As the newly-introduced bipartisan Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 notes, “transnational repression against United States persons or persons in the United States appear to be on the rise particularly from India,” among other authoritarian nations like Saudi Arabia and China. 

Just as alarmingly, however, the Sacramento Bee reported that a number of American Hindu far-right groups are behind a concerted effort to increase the policing of the Sikh community and calling for the surveillance of gurudwaras (Sikh places of worship). These groups, including the Hindu American Foundation and Coalition of Hindus of North America, reportedly pushed the same talking points used by the Indian government to demonize Sikhs, labeling them as “extremists,” “terrorists,” and agents aimed at spreading hatred against Hindus. 

The Sacramento Bee reported that Hindu nationalists have conducted trainings with law enforcement and met with numerous prosecutors and elected officials, including Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer in October 2023. Hindu nationalists have also smeared individuals as “terrorists,” including a school board member and a journalist, potentially placing them at risk of further retaliation from the Indian government. 

“This story proves why it is more urgent than ever before for the United States to take a firm stance against India’s transnational repression and enact the appropriate diplomatic consequences,” Rasheed Ahmed added. “Groups and individuals that place Americans at risk of assassination or other harms from a foreign government must also be investigated and held accountable for making all our communities less safe.”