Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
On January 25, 2000, The San Francisco Chronicle
reported that Ajmer Singh Malhi, a 48-year-old Sikh man who was a
popular teacher at Skyline High School in Oakland, California, was
killed by a fellow Sikh during temple services at Gurdwara Sahib in
El Sobrante, CA on Sunday, January 23rd. Joga Singh Sandher, a
35-year-old Sikh man from San Lorenza, CA, killed Malhi because he
was upset that Malhi, in his role as temple secretary, prevented him
from addressing the congregation. Sandher had addressed the
congregation one week earlier, and temple members reported that his
statements were incoherent and random.
Malhi was known by students,
colleagues, and those in the Sikh community as a peacemaker. He had
an ability to quell disputes in the classroom as a teacher, in the
teaching profession by serving as the chief negotiator in the Oakland
Education Association union, and in his temple community as the
temple secretary. Sheila Quintana, president of the Oakland teachers union,
stated: "I can't believe someone like (Malhi), who was devoted to
peace, died so viciously...In fact, we gave him the nickname 'Holy
Man' because he was the ultimate peacemaker." Professor Gurinder
Singh Mann, chairman of Sikh Studies at the University of California
at Santa Barbara, emphasized that the incident has nothing to do with
Sikh tenets or faith: "This is a very specific event, where one
person goes out of control...The overwhelming majority of Sikhs in
the United States are hard-working and trying to make their place in
society."