6 Aug, 2013
US gurdwara attack victim’s son bonds with repentant racist – Hindustan Times
Six weeks after a white supremacist gunned down Pardeep Kaleka’s father and five others at a Sikh gurdwara in the US last year, Kaleka was skeptical when a former skinhead reached out and invited him to dinner. But Kaleka accepted, and he’s grateful he did. Since then, the grieving son and repentant racist have formed an unlikely alliance, teaming up to preach a message of peace throughout Milwaukee, the largest city in Midwestern Wisconsin state.
In fact, they’ve grown so close that they got matching tattoos on their palms: the numbers 8-5-12, the date the gunman opened fire at a Milwaukee-area Sikh gurdwara before killing himself minutes later.
It wasn’t easy for Kaleka to meet Arno Michaelis, a 42-year-old who admits he contributed so heavily to the white-power movement that he might have helped influence the shooter. Kaleka knows Michaelis’ history: his lead singing in a white supremacist band, the white-power and swastika tattoos, the countless fights and more than a dozen arrests.
Read the rest: US gurdwara attack victim’s son bonds with repentant racist – Hindustan Times.
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