What does it say about our society, our culture, and our country that CNN spent an inordinate amount of time yesterday explaining the difference between Sikhs and Muslims? Or that CNN interviewed a Sikh so that he could explain to their audience what his religion was “about.” For one thing, why don’t most people know that they’re different religions? And for another thing, did that suggest, even a little, that a shooting at an Islamic temple would make more sense?

Recently Michelle Bachmann and four other representatives came out with highly racist, sinister, and completely ridiculous allegations against top State Department official Huma Abedin (who is Muslim-American), suggesting that she is part of a Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy to infiltrate the U.S. government. I have to ask if Bachmann’s typically negligent dog-whistling finally crawled inside the sick mind of one of these rightwing “patriots” who support her brand of psuedo-Christian-politicking, and decided to take her phony conspiracy theory to the next level?

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Officials are describing the shooting at a Sikh temple near Milwaukee as a domestic terrorism incident.

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More information is coming out about what led the FBI to declare Sunday’s Sikh temple shooting an act of domestic terrorism. According to the Los Angeles Times, tattoos plus “certain biographical details” were the source of that conclusion. A representative of the Sikh congregation, Kanwardeep Singh Kaleka, told CNN that “members described the attacker as a bald, white man, dressed in a white T-shirt and black pants and with a 9/11 tattoo on one arm.” There has already been widespread speculation that the shooter may have intent on committing an anti-Islamic hate crime but confused Sikhs with Muslims because of their turbans. Kaleka pointed out that “maybe it’s because the ladies were fortunate enough to dodge it out, but so far most of the people I’ve heard have been shot and killed were all turbaned males.”

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(Photo: Jeffrey Phelps / AP)

nbcnews: Gunman opens fire at Sikh temple in Wisconsin; 7 dead

Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET:  A gunman opened fire Sunday morning at a Sikh temple outside of Milwaukee, killing six people and wounding at least three others, including a police officer, before being shot to death, police said.

Greenfield  Police Chief Bradley Wentlandt, acting as public information officer at the scene, said the shooting was reported at 10:25 a.m. at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek, south of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. The shooting took place shortly before Sunday services were to begin. Read the complete story.

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“Just minutes after it was reported that people had been shot at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, the hatemongers at Westboro Baptist Church were tweeting out: ‘God Sent Another Shooter.’ Read the whole story here.” — Westboro Baptist Church Responds To Shooting In Predictably Horrific Manner

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A statement by the Milwaukee Jewish Federation: “The Milwaukee Jewish community stands in solidarity with the Sikh community, and we offer assistance to the community, especially to the families of the victims. While we don’t know many details at this point, this may well be an intentional attack on the Sikhs which would make the massacre even more heinous. Our society is based on freedoms of religion and due process of law. We hope that law enforcement will find and hold accountable all parties involved in this senseless and shocking tragedy.” 

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The man who shot six people to death and wounded three others during a rampage at a Sikh temple in a Milwaukee suburb was an Army veteran who may have been a white supremacist, according to a law enforcement source involved in the investigation. Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation named him Monday as Wade Michael Page, 40. One law enforcement official said he owned the gun used in the shooting legally. He had apparently served on active duty, a U.S. official familiar with his record said. The source declined to give further details. The officials asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the record about the shooting investigation. — Sources name alleged gunman in Wisconsin temple shooting – CNN

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“An unnamed federal official told the Los Angeles Times tonight that the shootings in Wisconsin are being treated as domestic terrorism because of the gunman’s tattoos and biographical details. ‘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.’” — Little Green Footballs

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