The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law has recently commended an FBI Advisory Policy Board recommendation that the agency track hate crimes against Sikhs, Hindus, and Arab Americans – just as the Brandeis Center had previously urged in testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Brandeis Center, which is primarily focused on combating campus anti-Semitism has urged these steps to ensure proper protection for these communities, which have been increasingly vulnerable following the events of 9/11. According to LBD President Kenneth Marcus, “federal post-9/11 outreach, policy and enforcement should always include Sikhs to the same extent as other groups. Moreover, and equally importantly, federal statistics programs should include Sikhs (and also Arabs) as a separate category, in order to track and better understand the volume of these incidents.” A peaceful religion, Sikhism’s fundamental principles include equality and justice for all. However, in the wake of 9/11 Sikhs have consistently found themselves the target of hate crimes as they are mistaken for Muslims due to the Arab and Muslim stereotypes perpetuated in the United States. In some cases, though, it is possible that they are targeted simply based on their Sikh identity. The Brandeis Center, while mainly focused on fighting anti-Semitism, has also spoken out against growing amount of violence against other religious minority groups, ranging from Sikhs to Muslims. During testimony before the Civil Rights Commission last year, Mr. Marcus cited a 2006 Harvard University survey of Sikh Americans which revealed that 83 percent of respondents either personally experienced or knew someone who experienced a hate crime or incident on account of their religion. The shooting of six Sikh worshipers in Oak Creek, Wisconsin last August represents only one of the numerous tragedies the Sikh community has faced in the past decade. Preceding this massacre were various violent anti-Sikh crimes throughout the United States. No more than five days after the events of 9/11, a 49-year-old Sikh gas station owner Balbir Singh Sodhi was shot and killed in Mesa, Arizona, by a man mistakenly believing him to be a Muslim. Similar crimes radiated throughout the US, from California to New York, with some more violent than others. However, prior to this advisory, the FBI had no means of monitoring or tracking hate crimes against the Sikh community, along with crimes against Hindus and Arab Americans. Given these disconcerting statistics, Mr. Marcus recommended taking measures comparable to those issued by the advisory panel in order to better combat anti-Sikh violence and harassment. The Brandeis Center believes that these measures represent an important step in the stemming of hate crimes against religious minority groups. Marcus has additionally testified on the subject of “Religious Harassment in Public Schools” as an expert witness for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Throughout his testimony, Mr. Marcus cites several examples of Sikh students being harassed by classmates, including one incident which resulted in a Sikh seventh-grader being physically assaulted on school grounds, leaving him with severe head injuries. The Commission on Civil Rights has itself noted the unusually high rates of bulling faced by Sikh children, stating that “roughly half to over three-quarters” of Sikh children have been bullied at some point. The mission of the Louis D. Brandeis Center is to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all, and as such the fate of the Sikh community and its pursuit of justice is ultimately tied to that goal. As LDB President Kenneth Marcus stated in testimony before the Commission on Civil Rights, “proper civil rights policy should aim to reduce these [incidents of hate crime] levels to zero for all groups.”