Sikh community leader to open Democratic Convention with interfaith prayer

The four-day virtual convention beginning August 17 will formally nominate former vice president Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate and Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate. Kaleka of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will open an interfaith service to kick off the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a media release said Friday.

Pardeep Kaleka, a Sikh community leader whose father was killed in the 2012 Oak Creek Gurdwara shooting, will open an interfaith service on Sunday being held to kick off the 2020 Democratic National Convention. The four-day virtual convention beginning August 17 will formally nominate former vice president Joe Biden as the party's presidential candidate and Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate.

Kaleka of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, will open an interfaith service to kick off the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a media release said Friday. The convention will script history by nominating for the first time a woman of colour as a vice-presidential candidate. Harris is also the first-ever Indian American and African American to be selected to run for the second-highest elected office in the US.

"It is an honour to join other faith leaders in this important gesture of unity," Kaleka said in a statement, noting that the Sikh community in the US has long been strengthened by compassionate engagement with those of other faiths. "We must bring that compassion, along with our values of justice, equality, and love, to the voting booth this November; every Sikh should check their voter registration now to ensure that they are able to participate in our democracy this fall," he said.

Early this month, both Biden, 77 and Harris, 55, had remembered the victims of the gruesome Oak Creek Gurdwara shooting that killed six Sikhs at the hands of a white supremacist. A seventh victim, Baba Punjab Singh, who was critically injured in the assault, passed away from his injuries last year.

Kaleka's speech at the interfaith gathering will focus on the value of interfaith collaboration at a time when national unity is strained, the media release said. He will also speak to the continued shared struggles of minority groups against hateful and violent ideologies--including the tragedy that struck the Sikh community in 2012 in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Kaleka serves as executive director of Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee and is the Founder of Serve2Unite.

He is the author of "The Gifts of Our Wounds," a former police officer and educator, and a clinician specialising in utilising a trauma-informed approach to treat survivors and perpetrators of assault, abuse, and acts of violence. Kaleka is the son of Satwant Singh Kaleka, the founder of the Oak Creek gurdwara who was murdered in the horrific 2012 attack.

Originally, the Democratic and Republican conventions were set to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Charlotte, North Carolina, respectively. But due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they will now largely be held virtually. These conventions give both parties a chance to outline their policy priorities and feature a wide range of candidates, elected officials, and other guests as speakers. In 2016, Sikh community member Harmeet Dhillon delivered an opening prayer on the second day of the Republican National Convention.