Source: East Valley Tribune

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=74116

On September 18, 2006 the East Valley Tribune reported, "Hundreds from across the Valley gathered at the Carpenters Union building in southwest Phoenix on Thursday night, the eve of the anniversary of [Balbir Singh Sodhi's] death, to memorialize him and watch the world premiere of a documentary prompted by his murder. Sodhi practiced Sikhism, a religion in which followers believe all paths lead to God. He was gunned down outside his Mesa convenience store four days after the attacks... His killer, Frank Roque, believed Sodhi was like the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center. The documentary, which was the centerpiece of Thursday’s memorial, tells the story of Sodhi and dozens of other Sikh Americans who fell victim to crimes. It also tells the story of Valarie Kaur, the film’s creator and firsttime filmmaker, who, almost on a whim, raced among scenes of hate crimes nationwide after Sept. 11 with her cousin as a cameraman to document them... 'Many people think that hate crimes and discrimination went away after the first few weeks after 9/11,' she says. But as her documentary and interviews with local Sikhs and Muslims show, that’s just not the case... A study released this week by the Discrimination and National Security Initiative, which Kaur directs from her graduate school at Harvard University, found 83 percent of Sikhs said they or someone they knew has experienced a hate crime."