Sikh Temple in Hollywood vandalized

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The Vermont Gurdwara in Los Angeles, California, also known as Hollywood Sikh Temple, was vandalized last week with hate messages scrawled on its walls, including one calling for “nuking” Sikhs.

A witness, Karna Ray who was visiting from New York, confronted the vandal and filmed him on his cell phone as he started walking away from the temple’s wall without any explanation.

“I said I was going to call the police on him at which point he said he felt threatened and said, ‘I will slit your throat,'” Ray told NBC.

He then posted the video on Facebook and wrote that the vandal was threatening him with a razor.

Ray told NBC that the hateful message left on the walls of Vermont Gurdwara counters everything the Sikh community stands for.

One member of the temple, Sarab Gil, hopes to invite the vandal to a service in the future so that he could experience what the community believes in.

“I would love to invite the person in the temple, make him, show him what he is missing,” Gil said.

“This particular incident isn’t a matter of swastikas and ‘go home, ragheads,’ which we get sometimes. This seems to be a diatribe by someone who may or may not be mentally imbalanced,” said Sevadar Nirinjan Singh Khalsa.

Khalsa is working with the Los Angeles Police Department to help the investigation.