We Sikhs were sitting in the first row of dinner tables when President Reagan came in. I lip read him saying to one of his aids, "Who are those people with the turbans?" In 1983 I had a lawsuit in Federal Court against Reagan's Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger which challenged Reagan's ban on Sikhs serving in the US Army. I lost the case but now Sikhs are being admitted into the US military on a case by case basis. The US Army needs to stop discriminating against Sikhs.
Michael Page's hate towards Sikhs and his time in the US Army are No coincidence! News reports show that Page's white supremacist outlooks were shared and even inspired by his fellow soldiers at Fort Bragg. The fact is that the US Army breeds these racist views and nothing will change until the US military opens its doors for all Sikhs to enlist while we wear our articles of faith like turbans, beards and uncut hair.
In 1982 I tried to join the US Army wearing my Sikh articles of faith but President Ronald Reagan had just revoked the long standing exemption for Sikhs to be able to enlist in the US Army do to political pressure from racist groups. There was no tolerance for minority groups in America back then and I was eventually rejected by the US Army because the Army said my turban and beard would interfere with discipline.
America can clearly see the result of the US government's racist policies which have produced such extreme bigotry in a US Army vet that he went out and murdered 6 Sikhs while they were praying to God in the privacy of their house of worship!
Well here we are in 2012 and Sikhs are still banned from the US Army! The U.S. military must fully embrace what they profess to teach: respect for religious diversity. The US Government urgently needs to change their policy of religious discrimination and allow Sikhs to proudly join the ranks of US soldiers serving the United States of America.