RELIGIOUS FREEDOM DENIED TO SIKH
IACPA Issues Community Alert

The India Abroad Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) initiated a community alert last week in response to the arrest of a 69-year-old Sikh priest charged with carrying a concealed weapon for his possession of a ceremonial knife. Gurbachan Singh Bhatia was charged with carrying a concealed weapon for wearing a kirpan, a symbolic knife worn by practicing Sikhs to demonstrate their faith. Police authorities in Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, denied that there was anything improper in the arrest and questioned the difference between a ceremonial knife and a real one. "The difference is a very distinct for practicing Sikhs like Mr. Bhatia," asserts Debasish Mishra, IACPA's executive director. "The kirpan is a religious symbol -- our Constitutional tenets allow for us to practice our religions unmolested by governmental controls." IACPA was more concerned, however, by the police officers' apparent ignorance of Bhatia's religious practices. In a letter to Mentor's police chief and district attorney, the center wrote that "in a nation that is growing increasingly diverse, it is inexcusable for public servants, especially law enforcement officers, to be ignorant of the beliefs of the ninth largest religion in the world... Since religious freedom is one of our core values as a nation, it would be unconscionable to charge Mr. Bhatia for following his religious beliefs; therefore all charges against him should be dropped without delay." The center also called on the City of Mentor to adopt a diversity training program for its officers. "In a situation where misunderstandings can be fatal, it is vital for police officers to have cultural knowledge about the diverse communities they serve. What if they had felt that Mr. Bhatia was a threat?" Mishra cited the case of a Chinese-American engineer who was gunned down by the police in his driveway as he refused to put down a broomstick that he was waving in the air. Bhatia was arrested following a minor traffic accident. One of the motorists noticed a bulge under his shirt and pointed it out to police officers who had arrived on the scene. It appears unlikely that the charges will hold. A similar case in 1996, involving Cleveland veterinarian Harjinder Singh, was overturned in a federal appeals court after the judge found that the conviction violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. The Act states that individuals have a right to practice their religion and the government may not impede on that ability, unless they can demonstrate a compelling interest as to why those religious rights need to be restricted. In an opinion supporting the ruling, Judge J. Painter wrote, "I cannot understand the purpose for this prosecution, which, if successful, would have had the effect of banishing the members of one religious sect from the state of Ohio for its mandatory wear. And to what end? That a veterinarian would be punished for having a dulled blade of two-and-one-half inches... as required by his religion." IACPA contends that it is cases like this that demonstrate the need for Indian Americans to assert their civil rights. "Just because the Constitution may guarantee your rights, it does not mean that they will automatically be granted to you," says Mishra.

You Can Help IACPA urges Indian Americans to contact the local press and the authorities in Mentor to seek dropping of the charges. For more information, click here. Write a letter to one, or all, of the following individuals and news organizations. Click here for a sample letter. Mentor Mayor Hon. Richard A. Henning 8500 Civic Center Blvd. Mentor, Ohio 44060 Mentor City Prosecuter Ron Graham 8500 Civic Center Blvd. Mentor, Ohio 44060 Mentor Police Chief Richard Amiot Cleveland Plain Dealer letters

MAHATMA INSPIRES STUDENTS TO SERVE
Three thousand students from 20 universities will perform acts of public service to commemorate the life and philosophy of Indian independence leader and humanitarian, Mohandas K. Gandhi, in the inaugural National Gandhi Day of Service (NGDOS), being held on the anniversary of Gandhi's birth.

The event, sponsored by the India Abroad Center for Political Awareness (IACPA), and organized by alumni members of IACPA's Washington Leadership Program is one of the first national efforts taken up by Indian-American students.

According to NGDOS organizers -- Vikram Sarma, Neil Kataria and Debasish Mishra -- the event has a number of goals beyond spreading Gandhi's message of humanitarianism.

"By participating in a national day of service, we hope to prove that a small group of committed and inspired individuals can make a tremendous impact locally and globally," explains Sarma, a junior at the University of Michigan.

The organizers firmly believe that community service is an empowering activity and a necessary step toward building leadership.

"To be a leader, you need to give yourself to the upliftment of others," says Kataria, who like Sarma, was an intern in IACPA's 1998 program.

The organizers hope that by encouraging more students to get involved in public service, they will set the stage for participating students to take on more active leadership roles.

"One of the outcomes of the National Gandhi Day of Service will be to send a message to mainstream America that we are Americans, and we are willing to do our part to make this a better country," says Debasish Mishra, IACPA's executive director. He feels that the greatest challenge for Indian Americans is to overcome the "foreigner" perception.

IACPA is handling national publicity for the event and has already received queries from cable network giant, MTV.

The organizers have been planning this event for over a year, modeling the national event after the local event that has been held at the University of Michigan campus for the past two years.

Michigan's Indian American Student Asso-ciation (IASA) hosted the first Gandhi Day of Service, in October 1997. The event featured John Briley, the writer who in 1983 won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for the film "Gandhi." After an inspirational talk by him, the 200 participants divided into groups and dispersed to soup kitchens, ho-meless shelters, and other volunteer centers.

Sarma expects that the 20 participating schools will follow a similar structure.

"We've heard from our participants plans to clean playgrounds, feed homeless people, plant trees -- activities where people can see the direct impact that they can have in the lives of other people and their communities. You don't get that experience enough in college," he says.

Kataria concurs. The University of North Carolina senior believes that NGDOS has the potential to change the way Indian-American students view their college experience.

"Most Indian-American student groups just focus on partying -- there's no substance. But, every time we mention National Gandhi Day of Service, their eyes light up. There's something that sparks their imagination in just hearing the name. We think that this activity will act as a catalyst to develop other activities that bring more meaning to the college experience," Kataria says.

The organizers back inspiration with a good deal of organization and preparation. Since most schools had no experience in organizing an event of this kind, Sarma authored a comprehensive manual to teach student leaders how to conduct their own service day.

The manual, distributed to all the participating schools, provides a blueprint for the day, with advice on how to set up an organizational team structure, select and invite guest speakers and handle publicity and recruitment. The manual even provides checklists and evaluation forms.

"The manual is really one of the gems of this whole project," says Mishra. "Not only are we providing the students with a leadership opportunity, we are showing them how organizations and projects achieve success -- the learning they gain can be applied to their future leadership experiences."

For example, Mishra points out, most organizations -- especially student organizations -- fail to evaluate and follow up their activities. The manual mandates an evaluation by all participants, volunteers and organizers.

"The point is to continually improve and do better. You can't do that unless you know what's wrong. Most student groups fail in this critical step and have to go back to the bottom of the learning curve. With NGDOS, we hope to keep moving up the curve," says Mishra.

The organizers have big plans for the future. Next year, they anticipate participation from 50 schools.

Five years from now, they hope that NGDOS will have the same relevance as the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.

Says Sarma: "Gandhi lived an inspiring life -- he was perhaps decades ahead of his time. If we can share his message with other Americans, we can properly honor his life and simultaneously make this a better place for all of us to live."

CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF NETWORK TV
Under the auspices of the Asian American Coalition for Total Inclusion on the Networks (AACTION), a group of national Asian-American organizations joined an ad hoc coalition of African American, Latino and Native American civil rights and media organizations in a joint effort to address minority under-representation in television networks.

On the "Big Four" networks' fall line-up, none of 26 new shows have an Asian Pacific American in lead or supporting role. Of the returning shows, only one lead role and three supporting roles are played by Asian-Pacific Americans.

Not surprisingly, only 1.9 percent of all TV roles went to Asian Americans, out of which only 1.3 percent were series leads.

A study conducted by Children Now, a nonprofit organization, found that children of all races overwhelmingly agreed that it is important to see people of their own race on television because "it makes children of that race feel included" and "it provides role models."

The coalition plans to ask networks for roles that are not racially or ethnically specific

Moreover, the leaders have called for a national "brownout" to protest underrepresentation of minority characters on television. The coalition had called on the entire minority community to tune out from viewing ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX during prime time from 8 to 11 P.M. during the period of Sept. 12-25, 1999.

Instead, the had coalition suggested these alternatives to viewing network TV

• Rent a movie or video with a diverse cast
• Attend cultural events or theater productions in the community
• Attend an event featuring Asian American musicians
• Read a book by an Asian-American author
• Host a potluck and discussion group about the need to promote diversity in the entertainment industry.

HOUSE BARS IMMIGRANT POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
On Sept. 14, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan campaign finance reform package including an amendment that prohibits legal immigrants from contributing money to election campaigns.

The amendment, sponsored by Representatives Bereuter (R-NE) and Wicker (R-MS), aimed at preventing foreign influence in the American electoral process, is considered misguided and unconstitutional by many civil rights organizations.

"The prohibition infringes upon the fundamental constitutional rights of legal permanent residents," notes Deepa Iyer, staff attorney, at the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.

"It strips from legal residents -- who pay taxes and fight in our armed forces -- the right to engage in protected political speech by supporting candidates of their choice," she says.

A Senate campaign finance reform package, backed by Sens. McCain (R-AZ) and Feingold (D-WI), is expected to be considered soon. "We hope that the Senate will not pass similar legislation as it considers campaign finance reform in the coming weeks," says Debasish Mishra, executive director of the India Abroad Center for Political Awareness.

CIA TARGETS INDIAN PROGRAMMERS AS NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT
A representative of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), speaking at a conference on information warfare last week, named Israel and India as the countries most likely to be building secret trap doors to infiltrate U.S. government and corporate computer networks utilizing foreign-born programmers doing Y2K-related work.

Information warfare is a nation's concerted use of network hacking, denial-of-service attacks or computer viruses to gain access to or disrupt computer networks, now the heart of modern society in terms of banking, telecommunications and commerce.

According to the CIA, the two countries have plans to conduct information warfare, and planting trapdoors wherever they can would be a part of that. This concern is magnified by the fact that The foreign-born programmers have more access to confidential networks than U.S.-born programmers and have the ability to install backdoors into U.S. systems.

Terrill Maynard, the CIA's chief of analysis and warning, recommended that information technology departments closely examine the Y2K code that went in their systems and run extensive checks on network security.

IACPA expressed concern that unsubstantiated allegations of espionage could unfairly result in discrimination against Indian computer programmers, who constitute a large part of the programmer workforce.

Author Accused of Inspiring Hate Attack in Los Angeles
Author Richard Kelly Hoskins, who founded the Christian Identity movement, has been accused by civil rights leaders of inspiring hateful attacks against racial and religious minorities.

One of Hoskins's books, "War Cycles, Peace Cycles," was found in the van of white supremacist Buford O. Furrow, Jr.

Furrow was recently charged for the murder of a Filipino American postal worker and for indiscriminatelyng fire on women and children in a suburban Los Angeles Jewish community center.

The book's ideology is claimed to have influenced not only Furrow's actions, but also that of the Olympic bombing in 1996 and other Atlanta bombings committed by Christian Identity member Eric Rudolph.

There are approximately 55,000 Christian Identity members in the United States, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Christian Identity movement teaches that white Christians are God's true chosen people and Jews are impostors.

Its followers consider non-whites to be beasts, or "mudpeople," who must be exterminated.

Teenagers Confess to Racial Attack on Asian Americans
In San Francisco, 10 African-American girls attacked and mugged three young Japanese women near Japantown.

Three girls who were arrested admitted to specifically searching for Asian girls, who they thought will be more passive and will have more money.

The victims, who were sisters, were attacked without warning. Police said that the attackers were not part of a gang, but were merely a scattered group of friends looking to rob an Asian girl.

The women will be charged with committing a hate crime.

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