 Soon, Sitaram, Namaste, I am State Assemblywoman Jennifer Raj Kumar. We stand here today in my district at Tulsi Mandir, a Hindu temple. A few weeks ago, a group of vandals attacked the Gandhi statue at this holy Mandir. A few weeks later, six people returned with a sledgehammer. And they desecrated and destroyed the Gandhi statue to bits. Today, we stand here with the team of Mayor Eric Adams and the Mayor himself to stand against hate. The Gandhi statue may be gone, but we will continue to spread Gandhi's message of peace and love throughout the city, the state, and the entire nation. We are proud Hindus and we are proud Americans. I stand here today before you with pride as the first Hindu American ever elected to a New York State office. When I was running for this office, I came here to the Tulsi Mandir and I bowed down to the Goddess Durga and asked for her blessings. And she showered me with her blessings. And that is why I stand before you as the State Assemblywoman. As the State Assemblywoman, I have represented you well. In my very first few months in office, I introduced a bill to make Diwali a school holiday in the state of New York. And we are closer than ever to realizing that goal. Mahatma Gandhi is part of the civil rights tradition of the United States. Hindu Americans have a central place in the civil rights tradition of our country. It was Mahatma Gandhi that inspired Martin Luther King and his technique of nonviolent social change. In fact, Martin Luther King wrote that India's Mahatma Gandhi is the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change. So when he was organizing the Montgomery boycott and fighting against racial discrimination, it was the Hindu principles of such a graha soul force and a hymsa nonviolence that guided him. And thus we as Hindu Americans are a proud part of the American civil rights tradition. Now I would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the Hindu faith. Hindus believe that God can take many forms. God can be Krishna. God can be Ganesha. God can be Lakshmi. God can also be Jesus. God can be Allah. And that kind of inclusivity and love is a central part of the Hindu faith. And we realize that here in Richmond Hill, Hindus don't just believe in tolerance. Hindus believe in one step more than tolerance, actively loving people from different backgrounds like they're your own family. We realize that dream here in Richmond Hill, where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Jews all live together in harmony, often on the same block. And we stand here together today to let everyone know that we will not let any hateful actors stand in the way of that peaceful vision. Now, I would like to thank everyone here today on whose shoulders I stand. I may be the first Hindu elected to New York State office, but I stand on your shoulders. I am here because of you. I am your product. So I would like to thank the luminaries of the Hindu American community who are here with us today. And I would like you all to give these incredible leaders a rolling round of applause as I read their names. Priest Lakram Maharaj, founder and pundit at Tulsi Mandir. Please wave your hand when I announce your name. Our leader Romeo Hitlal, representing the Federation of Hindu Mandirs. The Honorable Rantheer Jaswal, the Council General of India. Nikunj Trevedi, President of the Coalition of Hindus of North America. Rugbeer Singh, former President of the Bapal Makhanshah Lobana Sikh Center. Jaganath Rao of the Iskand Temple and the Hare Krishna Movement. Dr. Ravi Goyal, leader of the Ganesha Temple in Flushing. Jatinder Abhi, leader of the Arya Samaj of suburban New York. Dr. Rakesh Sridhar, leader of the Hindu American community nationwide. Hirsh Parekh, Director of Government and Community Relations at the Port Authority. Dr. Neeta Jain, district leader, Pundit Narayan Lachanan. And we have incredible interfaith leaders standing with us as well. That will all soon take the stage. But ladies and gentlemen, we are at a time of crisis. Hate crimes are up 125%. Hate crimes against Asian Americans are up 100%. And that includes anti-Hindu hate. Here in my very district, we have seen members of the Sikh community attacked for their faith. We've seen members of the Muslim community attacked for their faith. And now the Hindu temple has been desecrated. And I am here to say today, this kind of hate will not happen in my district, not in my backyard, and not on my watch. And I would like to thank the great mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, and his entire team, including the commissioner of the NYPD, Kichan Sool, for standing with us against hate, for investigating these recent anti-Hindu hate crimes as hate crimes. We stand with them today in solidarity. And Gandhi always said that love will overcome hate. And with the outpouring of support today from leaders across the city and nation, I know that Gandhi is right. So at this time, I would like to call up a member of Mayor Adams' team, and that is the commanding officer of the Hate Crimes Task Force of the NYPD, Andrew Arias. Thank you very much, Assemblymember Rajkumar. Thank you to the mayor as well, and to all of those who are here today. The NYPD is here to say that we will never tolerate hate or violence of any kind in New York City. At this time, we have an active and ongoing investigation into this pattern of crimes that was so callously committed here in August. I want to assure you that the NYPD, working together with its public and private partners, will not stop until justice is achieved. The NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force, with its cadre of seasoned investigators, is analyzing all of the evidence, developing probative leads, and utilizing technology to steer the investigation to successful closure. It is all part of our mission to protect every New Yorker and every community the NYPD serves. With that said, we need you, our fellow New Yorkers, to join the NYPD in this mission. We need the public's eyes and ears to help achieve justice and to help build the strongest prosecution possible. We have disseminated photos of the suspects to all of you in the media. We have also placed those photographs on our social media platforms. We would like to ask the public to share any information they might have. They can anonymously call our crime stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. Once again, we will use every tool, engage every lead, and work tirelessly across every bureau of the NYPD, and with you, our partners, to solve this crime and bring these individuals to justice. Thank you. Let's give the NYPD a round of applause for their work. I would now like to introduce who I call the Hanuman of our community. As Hindu Americans know, Ram needed friends and allies to defeat the demon king, and his great friend was God Hanuman and Hanuman's army of monkeys and bears. And Romeo Hitlal, who represents the Federation of Hindu Mondays today, is just that type of leader. So, I would like you all to join me in welcoming the Hanuman of our community, Romeo Hitlal. Thank you, Assemblywoman. The mayor is not here yet. He's on his way, so I want to thank him. He is an ally to the Hindu community. And I've been organizing and led for decades in this community. I've represented the Federation of Hindu Mondays across New York and across the United States. My goal is always to get Hindu to work together, to get everyone together. That was always my goal, is to make people work together. We have someone in government now that's here to work with us, and he's our mayor, Mayor Eric Adams. We have a place on the table. We have political power now, and we're so happy that he is the one who's going to be here to make sure that this crime doesn't go in vain. As leading us today is our Assemblywoman, Jennifer Rajkumar. She's the bright light of our community. She is the first Hindu American to be elected in public office. Like us, her and her family came to the U.S. with nothing. Her historic win put us on the map, on the political map, has put us on the table with the rest of the great leaders in New York State and around the United States. She has brought energy and life to our community. She has gotten us now on the seat of the political power. We are blessed to have her, and we want to tank her. She is everywhere. She's everywhere. You know, she's like a superwoman in the red. Ladies and gentlemen, we stand together against hate crime, but out of all this hate has come extraordinary love. After the Gandhi statue has destroyed, people have reached us and support us from all parts of the world, not just the United States. Our Hindu community is stronger than ever. Leaders from the Sikh, the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities have joined in solidarity. Hindus are inclusive, peaceful, and loving. The Gandhi statue may be gone, but we will carry Gandhi's message of peace, love, and hope to our city, our state, and our country. We are Hindu, and we are proud. We are proud American. Today, our community glow in the spotlight, and the sky is the limit for the Hindu community and our Hindu children. Thank you. Thank you so much for those beautiful remarks. Before I introduce the mayor of the city of New York, I would like to bring up the pundit and the founder of the Tulsi Mandir itself, the great pundit, Lakram Maharaj. We thank him for his fortitude and strength at this very difficult time and for leading our community. Let's give our pundit a round of applause. I would like to say namaste to all. Namaste literally means that I bow to the infinite God that dwells within every living entity, that dwells within you and me. First, I would like to take this opportunity in thanking everyone to come out here on this sad occasion. But as we are here, I would like to thank the mayor, very dedicated mayor to the city of New York. To be a strong mayor, it means that he has to listen to what the community needs. And by listening to what the community needs, he would serve us in the right and proper way. And so I would like to thank the mayor and everyone here this evening, especially our assembly lady to be here, Jennifer Rajkumar. Since she elected, she's been out at the Mandir constantly. And so we as Hindu, we believe in peace and love. The rickway tells us that no one is superior and no one is inferior. We are all equal. We are all striving for the goal of prosperity. And so our skin color might be different, but the blood that runs through our vein, it is the same. And since the blood that runs through our vein is the same, our religion may be different, but we are worshiping the same God in whatever name you may want to call him. And so heat does not have any rule in this community, in this country. And so I would like to say to you that Mahatma Gandhi teaches us that if you want to have change within this universe, you should be the change yourself. You should change, you should be the change that you want to see into everyone. And by being that change, you would set a proper example. And so devotees, brothers and sisters, heat does not have any role or any active play in this community. Love will overcome heat. And since love will overcome heat, I want to ensure you that with the support of everyone, especially the mayor and all the elective officer and the 106th person to continue to patrol the road day and night since the crime committed against the Mander. If all of us can stand together with one voice, surely we would be able to remove heat. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Let's give our pundit the round of applause for his fortitude. So our great American civil rights hero Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, who he called the guiding light of his nonviolent technique of social change. And as Hindu Americans, we are so proud to be a part of the civil rights tradition of our great nation. And on this occasion, we are graced with the presence of the great mayor of the city of New York, Mayor Eric Adams, who is here today. He is not a new friend to our community. He is an old friend of our community. And in fact, when he was running for mayor of the city of New York, he came here with us to the Tulsi Mandir and Lord Ganesha blessed him and removed all obstacles from his path. And now he is the mayor of the city of New York. I was so proud to be the first state elected official in Queens to endorse him for mayor. And I have to tell you that he has a way of making everyone around him believe in something greater than themselves. He is somebody that gives a thousand percent of himself every day. And it's not easy to run the city to solve the problems that we face emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic facing rampant crime, facing the distrust and disillusionment that people have in our institutions. But from morning to night, he gives a thousand percent. And that's why our community gives him a thousand percent. He has also stood with us. He came here to celebrate holy with us earlier this year here in Richmond Hill. He is a champion of Diwali. He, like many of us including myself, adheres to the plant-based diet, practices meditation. So on the streets, people actually call him the Hindu mayor. Let us give a warm Richmond Hill welcome to the mayor of the city of New York, Eric Adams. How do you beat that? You know, thank you so much, Assemblywoman, of just being a real partner as we fight to not only remove hate, but to create an environment where hate will not fester and grow. Energy never dies even when a hateful act attempt to destroy energy, it continues to perpetuate itself. Several years ago when I was in India, I saw the home of Mahatma Gandhi and looked at the steps that have been used to show his last steps. And the bullet may have took away his physical presence, but his energy continues to live. We must continue those steps. And that is what we're doing here today by coming together as a community to state that evil can never destroy of the tolerance, the calmness, the peace, the serenity, the love that we have for each other. We are Mahatma Gandhi-like right now by being here today. And so to my Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, all New Yorkers are united today. And that's who you see here with us as we come together to talk about the second attack on the statue of our leader, Mahatma Gandhi, right here in the temple in the last, during the month of August, the same month during which 75 years ago India and Pakistan achieved independence. And they suffered through the devastating violence unleashed by partitioning their two countries. So this is a significant moment. And for anyone to use this moment as a time to highlight hate, we respond by saying hate has no place in Richmond Hill, hate has no place in New York City, hate has no place in our country. And we have a dual role. Of course, the role of the police department, which we are doing, we are investigating of these acts of violence. We are ensuring that the person who's responsible will be brought to justice. We are not going to stand back and allow attacks on our houses of worship. They play a crucial role in closing the gap between government and the needs of people. And we will not allow an individual to participate in this hate without going unapprehended. But there's another role. There's a road that goes far beyond the law enforcement arm. The goal is not only responding to hate, but preventing hate. Our children are not born with hate. Our institutions must play a vital role of how do we live in unison and celebrate the diversity of our entire city. One of the most diverse places that you can live in is in New York City. As I moved around the city this weekend, attending several significant events of different religious groups and as we marched in the Indian parade on Sunday and attended other incidents or events highlighting the diversity of this city. We want to continue to do that. But what we must do is go beyond that. We must send a clear belief that the bedrock of our society is in the inspiration of the entire country on how we live in unison. It means educating our children in school. It means using the opportunities to cross-pollinate our ideas by attending our various houses of worship and how do we live together and look at the common denominator of all of our houses of worship. There is not one house of worship in this city that spews out hate. It spews out just the opposite, love, tolerance, involvement, giving back to each other. And we will not tolerate hate in the city and our hate crime task force will do its job, but as New Yorkers, everyday individuals, block by block, we are going to do our job. We want to thank the District Attorney's Office and other civil right leaders that are leading this important endeavor and doing their job. We're going to zero in our classes. We're going to encourage you to participate in our Breaking Bread Building Bond, 100 dinners across the city. We want to increase it to 1,000 dinners, 10 people at each dinner, all coming from a different background and talking to each other, sharing who we are, why we do what we do in a role that we all participate in our faith-based institution. And we want to lift up our AAPI community. They have experienced a level of hate as well as our Jewish community with a level of anti-Semitism. The common denominator of those who are participating in hate, no matter what group you are from, is to hurt people based on their way of life. We're saying no to that. We are going to embrace our communities. We're going to embrace our way of life. And we're going to embrace what Gandhi stood for and what we are standing for as we continue to walk in his footsteps. So, yes, the bullet that took his life, it is continuing the emotional path of attempting to rip apart our communities. And if we respond to that hate and allow the emotional path of that bullet to continue, then we've failed the life of Gandhi. Today, we stand together as Jews, Christian, members of Sikh communities, and all the other communities that are part of us to stay. That bullet is not going to continue to rip us apart. We will be united. And that is why I'm here today, standing with you as the mayor of the city of New York and say we will continue to be a united city and live, stay, build, grow together as we cycle through the horrific experience of COVID-19. We overcame COVID-19 because the globe came together to find a vaccine. Now we will come together as citizens to find the vaccine of love, to deal with the virus of hate and ensure that we finally bring it to an end. Thank you very much. Thank you, Assemblywoman. I think we should all give a round of applause to one of the greatest leaders in our state, in the country, Mayor Eric Adams. This is such a historic moment. It's the first time a New York City mayor has come to the Tulsi Mandir. And our community, our Hindu-American community, is finally on the map. And working together with our great mayor, with our NYPD, with everybody here from every background, I know that this love will overcome hate. Thank you, Mayor. Let's give our mayor a round of applause for coming to Richmond Hill. The Hindu mayor, I would now like to introduce a leader of the national Hindu community. And that is Nikunj Travedi, the president and founder of the coalition of the Hindus of North America, who is representing our community nationwide. Nikunj, please join me at the podium. Thank you, Assemblywoman. It is kind of sad that I'm here again. This is my second time here, denouncing this hateful attack. On behalf of the coalition of Hindus of North America, I extend our support to Sri Tulsi Mandir in condemning this horrific act of vandalism. I also commend Honorable Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar and all the dignitaries for raising this issue and asking for this incident to be investigated as a hate crime. Unfortunately, the Hindu community is seeing a surge in Hindu-phobic attacks and anti-Hindu hate crimes, which include the desecration of Gandhi statues in places from California to D.C. and New York, along with attacks on Hindu temples, political leaders, and ordinary citizens. On July 12, Rutgers University's research has released a historic study that tracked the rise of Hindu-phobia and anti-Hindu hate on social media and other messaging platforms. The report found a dramatic rise and in patterns of hate speech directed towards our community across these platforms. They also discovered that Hindu-phobic codewords and memes reached record highs and warned that this could spill into real-world violence against the community, as we are seeing now. John Farmer, the former Attorney General of New Jersey, as well as the co-author, along with Congressman and a former Congressman and Miller Research Center fellow Denver Riggleman, also shared that the Hindu community, along with law enforcement, must unite to counter this hate messaging before it reaches to real-world violence, and as has been observed with incidents involving the Sikh and the Jewish community recently. An attack on Gandhi's statue is an attack on mutual respect, understanding, and peace, the same ideals that have inspired the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King and former President Barack Obama. In 2018, President Obama, while visiting India and addressing the Indian Parliament, remarked the following, I am greatly influenced by a man from your nation whose message of love and justice shows us the way ahead. Just he, meaning Gandhi, someone Indians to seek their destiny, he influenced champions of equality in my own country, including Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King called Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and resistance as the only logical and moral approach in the struggle for justice and peace. We therefore call upon law enforcement, public officials, and the general public to stand with the Hindu-American community in upholding such values and ideals, which are the need of the hour. Let us stand together to condemn hatred and bigotry in New York and beyond, and present and bring the perpetrators to swift justice. Thank you. Namaste. I'm so proud that we have our great district attorney here with us today, Melinda Katz. She has been a longtime friend of the South Asian community. She's been there for us. When members of our community have been targeted by crime, she's there. When women need her help, she's there. She's been a champion of South Asians. So let's all give her round of applause for our district attorney, Melinda Katz. Assemblymember Raj Kumar, thank you for gathering all of us here today. To Romeo, I feel like there's five of you in the community, and that's terrific. Look around you. This is Queens County. We are 190 countries. We are 200 languages. You have representatives here from synagogues, from temples, from good wars, to all of the Muslim community that's here supporting us all across Queens County. This is what we do. You spew hate. We come together as a community to say that we will not tolerate it. You act in a criminal behavior because of where someone hails from or because of their religion. I hold them accountable. That's what we do every single day. So I want to thank everyone that got together to here to send a clear message that if you commit a hate crime, the community will stand together no matter who it's against. We stand together as one in Queens County. It's my job as the district attorney to make sure that when our lessons don't work, when our teachings don't work, when we have hate that is spewed in the community and all of that turns into destroying a statue that is so near and dear to our religious community, or when it comes to graffiti on a synagogue, or when it comes to knocking down Mary in front of churches, or when it comes to going against any of our religious statues, that hate crimes in the borough of Queens County will be prosecuted. We will find you and we will hold you accountable for that. But as the mayor says, a lot of it is the reaction of a community. If every hate crime we get the community together and we show the ignorance and all that involved in what they did, then hopefully we will win that battle. But until we do, as the Queens District Attorneys, I can just guarantee you this. We will hold the people who did this accountable. We will find you and we will make sure that you're brought to justice. Thank you so much. Thank you, District Attorney, for your support. This time I would like to bring up my colleague in the State Assembly, Dave Weprin. He was the first South Asian elected to office and I'm the second. So without further ado, Dave Weprin. Thank you, Jennifer. And in solidarity with Jennifer, who shares Richmond Hill with me, I'm wearing my red tie. You know, we would just hear a couple of weeks ago, elected officials, community leaders, when the Gandhi Statute was vandalized for the first time and then now it's been vandalized for the second time. And it's so important that we all, people of good faith, everybody of different religions and ethnic background stand together whenever there is a hate crime against any of us or any group. And a hate crime against any group is a hate crime against all of us. And we have to stand together. I've marched in the Gandhi Parade in this area for over 10 years. I've represented this area for over 10 years. And we always end up at this mandir at the end of the parade. It's so ironic that the Gandhi Statute, who of course preached peace and non-violence, is the statute that's vandalized. So it's particularly disgraceful, particularly aggravating. And I have full confidence in the police department and this mayoral administration that they will find the perpetrators of this heinous crime. And I have full confidence in our district attorney that it will be fully prosecuted as a hate crime. And the perpetrators will be brought to justice. Thank you. Thank you. We also have with me my other Assembly colleague who shares Richmond Hill, Assemblyman Khalil Anderson, one of the youngest legislators he has distinguished himself as an energetic voice in the Assembly. I'm so proud that he's here today. Assemblyman Khalil Anderson. Thank you so much to my colleague, Assemblywoman Raj Kumar. Could we please just give her a big round of applause? So this afternoon, we're here again to denounce hate. And just as my colleague, Assemblymember Wepr mentioned, when we speak and look to bring communities together and denouncing hate, we build unity. We have to tell folks who have very little respect for our brothers and sisters in the religious community that we're here to stand up for them and stand beside them. And that's critical in this moment. Our Hindu brothers and sisters, our Muslim brothers and sisters, our Jewish brothers and sisters are under attack in this city. And part of the reasons why they're under attack in this city is because folks have a limited amount of tolerance. But one of the great things about this city is that during conflict, we know how to rise up. During moments of pain, we know how to support each other and lift each other up. And I'm proud that we have in my colleague, Assemblywoman Raj Kumar, someone who's bringing all communities of faith together. And someone who understands that a figure like Mahatma Gandhi, who stands for peace, who stands for meekness, who stands for love, who stands for bringing us all together, someone we should continue to model. And that this moment can create a movement towards that love and towards that unity. And so I know that everything has been said, but it hasn't been said by everyone. And I want to take this moment again to instill in folks as we leave here today that we can be safer as a community. We can be safer as a community together if we uplift our brother and sister in their moments of need. And this is our moment to lift up our brothers and sisters in the Hindu community to ensure that they feel loved, represented and protected. And I look forward to continuing to work with our partners to ensure that we eliminate hate from our communities. Thank you so much, Assemblywoman Raj Kumar and to all my colleagues who are here. Thank you very much. We are also joined by members of the New York City Council. I would like to call up my colleague, history maker in her own right. And that is Councilwoman Linda Lee. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much, Assemblywoman Jennifer Raj Kumar for putting this together. I am Linda Lee over in Eastern Queens in District 23. And as one of, for the very first time, we have six Asian Americans on the city council, which I'm very, very proud of. And I'm one of two of the first Korean Americans. And we are here standing in solidarity, standing in unity. And the message today is very simple. You know, there's a tack on one of us, it's a tack on all of us, which guess what? It means that if you're coming after us, if you're coming after one of us, you're coming after all of us. So just be ready. But we are standing together in united, rooting out the hate. And it's actually more than 300% that the Asian American hate crimes have increased by. And that's a tremendous, tremendous, and those are just the ones that we know of that are being reported. And so we all know language barriers are a huge issue in the community. People are afraid to come out and report hate crimes because they have fears either of their immigration status or other reasons. And we have to make sure that we are there for the community to let them know we want to be a bridge. We are here to help. Before this, I was working at a Korean nonprofit for 12 years, and this is what we did. We helped the community during the pandemic, and we saw a lot of uptick in hate crimes. And so we need to work with partners in government, partners in NYPD, law enforcement, the DA's office, as well as our community organizations that are helping out those on the ground. And so I just want to thank all the colleagues here today, as well as our awesome assembly woman who's put this together and just bringing us together. And to just really help us to amplify this message of unity, peace, and love. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Standing with us today, we have Council Member Jim Gennaro. Council Member Jim Gennaro represents the South Asian community very, very well in Queens. We've worked together on a number of initiatives. Council Member Gennaro. Okay. Well, he was here. I think he had to go, but I would like to call up my colleague in the City Council. We work together on so many issues in Richmond Hill to find Representative Councilwoman Joanne Ariola. Thank you. Assemblywoman, thank you for putting together this wonderful show of unity. We've spoken about a lot of things here today, but I want to speak to those who perpetrate hate crimes. I want you to know that when you come and you desecrate a symbol of our faith, it doesn't cause us to stop praying. It makes us pray more. It doesn't cause us to have fear. It makes us stronger. It doesn't cause us to separate. It makes us bind together. So your mission is a failure, and it will be further a failure when you are caught, arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated. I have been blessed at this temple, at this mandir. And no matter what, I will stand with you, both in front of you and back of you and on either side of you fighting hatred, because hatred can only be fought with love, and that's what you're seeing here. This is love, love for each other, love for our religions, love for our differences, love for our cultural differences, and love for being Americans United. Thank you. I would like to acknowledge that the City Council Speaker Adrian Adams has sent her representative. Senator Joe Adabo has sent his rep, as well as the Councilmember Lynn Schulman. Thank you all for your support for the Hindu community. Okay, so I've been notified that State Senator James Sanders is here, and he has represented our community very well. He has been a great friend to our community for many years. So I'd like to bring him up at this time, Senator James Sanders. Thank you. Namaste. The first thing I'd like to say is, let's go a little different here. Let me send a message to the perpetrators. Others have said what's going to happen to you and justice must take place. But I'd like to send a different message to you. I'd like to tell you too, I know that you're alienated. I know that you find yourself cut off from society. I would encourage you to pick up a book and read something about Gandhi. If you read just a little bit about Gandhi, you would find someone who is speaking to you. You would find someone who understands alienation, understands oppression, understands that you have to struggle against things that are wrong. And he made his life with others, mind you, to bring about the end of injustice. Many that you may find yourself struggling with. So I'd encourage you to read a little about what you are feeling so hostile towards to attack a place once may be a stray accident. But if you come back, that means that you are targeting and please understand your target, then go a step further, my friends. If you would just understand a little bit about this community, this community has taken me under its wings and has really educated me. I am here to say that to the perpetrators, man, you're picking on a great community. These folk don't deserve this type of stuff. We need to do different and go a different way. I trust that even as we put a person or people like this in jail, this community will take him to heart. Send him some books on Gandhi. Let him sit and read and study while he's serving his time. Let him understand and come back as a better person, not as a worse person. Let him understand that to attack one is to attack all. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator. I would like to invite up a great leader of our community and he is no other than Rugbear Singh. Yes, you can give him a round of applause. Very popular. Rugbear Singh is actually the former president of the 114th Street Sikh Temple, but he does so much more. He's a pillar of our community. And when I was growing up, my uncle would always tell me the Sikhs are the protectors of the Hindus. So let's all give Rugbear Singh a round of applause. Thank you, Jennifer. Good afternoon, everyone. Especially thanks Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar who raised such a wonderful program because this terrible incident happened in the middle of our heart and this should not be happened. Our distinguished guest Mayor Eric Adam who came specially from Viji's schedule to show his solidarity with the fellow citizens. I am Rugbear Singh, former president of Gurudwara Sahib which is a couple block away from this Mandar. And we show our solidarity from the whole Sikh community. When anything happened like that, we were standing with all the communities. We should all work together especially when something happened like that. He'd have no place in the city because we all know the New York's most diverse city of America and the Queens is a more diverse county in all boroughs. So we are living like brother and sister. We're proud of our police department who protect us. A few weeks ago, you know our Sikh fellow got beaten by a stranger and we got big protection from that elected official and police department. So we request all our citizens and neighborhood people please live with peace. This Mandar or churches of Gurudwara Sahib, their place of love. In my religion, we believe God is one and everyone say their different names. So we should respect all the religion and all the beliefs. So in this word, I like to end up my speech and I welcome all the elect official and community neighborhood who joined us in the press conference. I would now like to call up my sister, the Hindu American district leader, the first Indian woman to be district leader in Queens, Dr. Neeta Jain. Very good afternoon to all. Namaste, Jai Jain, Sastri Akal, Asalaamu Alaikum to all and my special pranam to Pandiji Maharaj. Let's give a big round of applause once again to unite everyone on the same platform to assembly women Jennifer Rajkumar who became our voice, who became our face in the government and we are so proud of you. We call each other sisters and we are sisters. Today I did not wear red color because I know she's going to wear it and we always match. So let's talk about what happened here and why it happened and where this non-violence word came from. So I'm going to go back a little bit in history. More than 2,500 years ago, who was a 24th Irthankara of Sanskrit Ahimsa and he said Ahimsa Parmodharma means non-violence is a supreme religion. There is no name of any God, there is no name of any color, creed and religion. So when the supreme soul does not discriminate us, who we are to discriminate us? So Gandhi ji was very much influenced by this movement, by the principle of non-violence. He adopted that Ahimsa in his daily life. He adopted that Ahimsa means non-violence in his political movements and those political movement brought India an Independence Day, Independence which we celebrated last Sunday with Honorable Mayor Eric Adam in Manhattan. Mahatma Gandhi statue was not destroyed here. That is a statue of symbol of love, compassion, non-violence, peace and harmony. That attack was only on a statue, only on a person who we call Mahatma Gandhi. But you can never destroy our virtues, our values, our values of non-violence, our values of compassion, our values of harmony, our values of peace, mutual understanding, mutual tolerance and mutual acceptance. What we are doing right now here, we are standing with each other, we are supporting each others for this kind of hate crime. As Martin Luther King Jr followed Gandhi ji's footprints and he adopted that same Ahimsa in non-violence in his civil rights movements and he said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We must unite, we must start our movement to protect the justice, to protect the harmony and peace and to protect non-violence and create a better world for our children to live tomorrow. Thank you so much once again, namaste and thank you to my dear sister Jennifer Rajkumar. We have with here today Avi Paznick, the leader of Stand With Us and he leads the Jewish community in standing with all faiths against hate. We have been very moved by his support and by the support from the Jewish community standing against anti-Hindu hate. So Avi Paznick please come and say a few words. Good afternoon everyone. I want to thank the assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar for bringing us all together and standing against these vile acts that blemish our city. While we're all concerned about the rise of racism, Hinduphobia, anti-Semitism and other manifestations of hate in New York and around the world, we're also concerned about the increase of racism, anti-Semitism in our schools. No one is born hating, no one is born a racist. This is something that is taught. Today's students are the leaders of tomorrow. We must educate them today before their hearts and minds are poisoned. As Mahatma Gandhi said, the future depends on what we do in the present. Today here and now in the present moment is when we must take a stand, a unified stand to ensure that our students learn not only to tolerate other races, religious and ethnic identities but to respect them. At Stand With Us we will continue to strengthen our bonds with our Hindu brothers and sisters and we will always, always stand with them. United we can continue to educate and empower more students and communities to fight racism, Hinduphobia, anti-Semitism and hate. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. We have been very touched by the support from the Jewish community. I also want to shout out a good friend who I see standing with us today, Mohamed Ali, who is a leader of the Bangladesh American community, my family. The Bangladesh American community has been with us every step of the way and yes, Mohamed Ali is a fighter. Let's give him a round of applause. I would like to invite up Mohamed Khan. Mohamed Khan has been working today. He's always working and he is the president of the City Line Ozone Park Civilian Patrol. In this community we all know them as CCOP. CCOP is everywhere. If someone needs help, CCOP is there. I admire them deeply. They have patrolled the temple in the days after the vandalism to make sure that we were safe. So thank you and Mohamed Khan, the podium is yours. Thank you Assemblywoman and thank you to everyone that's here from our elected officials to our community leaders, our Pandit here, our Imams and our Sikh community and thank you to everyone that gathered here. Something very interesting that I saw in this gathering right now is the young teenagers here. And the reason I mention them is we learn from our elders. Our elders is where we learn from. We do not want hate to be the lesson that these teenagers take back, that the next generation has in their hearts. What took place in front of this Mandir is not okay. It's not okay in Queens. It's not okay in New York City. It has no place for it anywhere here, anywhere in our community or any community at all. What we need to do next is come together, learn about each other and learn to tolerate and love one another. Regardless of our religion, our race, our skin color, whatever it may be, we need to learn to stand by each other as we are doing right now and we will do in the future because I know for sure something like this may happen again. The idea for us right now and what we have to intend to do is find a plan that we are going to implement at our own homes so that we will speak to our family members and friends and teach each other about ourselves. Like I will teach you about my religion of Islam as you will teach me about yours so that this does not happen again. Yes, COPCP has been out here every single night patrolling. We have spoke with the pundit. We have messaged him. We have contacted elected officials but we shouldn't have to be doing that at all. Such crime should not be taking place at all, not in New York City and not ever. So let's make a pledge to ourselves that we will not be part of crimes like this. We will not be the oppressors nor will we let others oppress anyone else. Let's make that commitment and let's stand together and let's make our city safe and filled with love. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let's also thank the USA pundit power shot organization, 10 pundits here. Let's give them a round of applause. You make us proud. We would like to thank the NYPD Desi Society, Jeannie Prasad. Yeah, she wears many hats. Thank you for being here. Okay, we have with here today, we have with us here today, Joe Youssef, who represents the consulate of Guyana. So please come to the stage and say a few words. Let's all give her a round of applause for Joe and for Guyana. Thank you, Jennifer. Ram Ram, Asalaikum, good afternoon to each and every one of you. First and foremost, I want to say thanks to Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar for extending this invite and for putting together this meeting. I also want to thank Mayor Adams for taking time out of his busy schedule for being here today and to all of the elected officials who have made it here today to represent not only their own constituency, but this community. On behalf of His Excellency of the Corporate Republic of Guyana, President Mohammed Erfan Ali, the government of Guyana, Guyanese at home, and in the diaspora, and the Guyanic Consulate General here in New York, we categorically condemn this barbaric act in the vandalization of the Mahatma Gandhi statue here in Richmond Hill. We stand in solidarity with the community, with Mayor Adams. We send it to Congresswoman Jennifer Rajkumar, other elected officials, and religious leaders here today to let you know that we share the hurt, the grief, the pain, and more importantly, to let you know that this kind of hate has no place in our society. There is no justification or reasoning that anyone can give destroying the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi was one of the greatest political and spiritual leaders who fought for social justice, who believe in unviolence, in his fight for civil rights, and freedom across the world. His teachings and practices are followed by many worldwide. What was done here recently simply was not what he stood for or believed in. We as a community and leaders must continue to foster that our people live in harmony with love and peace for each other, for a better community and a better world and that we teach our children of today and of the future generation that this sort of behavior and practice by a handful of haters is not what Mahatma Gandhi stood for, believed in, or practiced. And it's not something that we as a community leaders condone. We must stand in solidarity as one to ensure that this sort of behavior, our act, is never again repeated nowhere in our community or in New York City or the world. Thank you so very much. Very well said, very well put together. Thank you very much for those words. Joe Youssef. We also had our council general from India here standing with us run dear Jess Wall. We also have our community board nine chair Sherry El Grado, the first Indo-Caribbean woman to chair a community board and the chairwoman of this very district, community board 10 chairwoman Betty Bratton. So I would like to invite Betty up to say a few words. Thank you for all that you do for us. Thank you assembly member. I stand here with Romeo Hitlow, a member of community board 10 for many years. In this community, as I said before, when we were here a few weeks ago, hate does not stand. No matter who we are, we stand together against it. No, there are words and phrases that all of us have learned over the years, no matter who we are or where we come from. And they remain those words and phrases that we remember because they speak truth and they have value. Someone far wiser than me more than 150 years ago said, united we stand, you know, divided we fall. Anybody in this United States of America with even the most cursory of educations should have an understanding of the value and the place in world history and in United States history of Mahatma Gandhi that anyone would deliberately engage in an act of that type of vandalism at a place that stands as a religious institution for the values of the different religions that we all practice. And they all have a common thread. And it is not hate. I hope that we never have to stand here again. I thank the police department for the effort that they are putting in to find who did this. And I'm sure that our district attorney in this borough, the most diverse place on the planet will take the appropriate actions to ensure that it does not happen again here. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman Brayton. I would also like to acknowledge that the most popular youth leader, Daniel Hill, is here today. Thank you, Daniel. So I would like to call up our other chairwoman of community board nine, first Indo-Caribbean chairwoman of a community board in our entire city, my sister, Sherry Algrado. Hi everyone. My great grandparents came from India as indentured laborers to Trinidad. And growing up, we celebrated everything. We had a church, a mosque, and we had a Hindu man there in our community. For Christmas, we decorate the Christmas tree. For Eid, we would make sawine. And we would make bara for Diwali, a tradition that I make every single year. I make bara to last like a month when I make it every Diwali. And growing up, we learned that all religious homes, houses were very sacred. If you wanted to say a bad word, you wouldn't say it when you're near any religious institution. And it's a shame to hear that someone of today's generation has no respect for any religious house. And we need to get back to the place where we used to respect these places as being sacred places. And we have to, you know, respect everyone. And we have to, you know, become law abiding citizens again. So I just want to say, you know, I'm sorry for what happened. I lived just up the block. So I walked by here and I saw the cops here as I was walking by the street from Liberty Avenue. And I knew something happened. And I said, Oh, no, not again. Something happened again. So I just want to tell everyone, my fellow brother, sister, everyone, I'm very sorry for what happened. And hopefully justice will prevail. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Chairwoman. I would like to acknowledge Captain Jerome Baki, commanding officer of NYPD 106 Precinct for his partnership. Thank you to the NYPD. Thank you for he's over there. Everyone around of applause for the captain and for the hardworking people at the 106. We love you and what you do for us. And to close us out, I would like to invite a good friend of our community, one of the pillars of our community, Harpreet Tour. And he wore red for me today. Thank you. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you very much. Thanks everybody for coming in. And of course, like I always say, first elected South Asian Punjabi Jew, Assemblyman David Vapran. You know, it's this is the second time in less than eight weeks that we are here today to show their respect to everybody. And the shame is that the people still don't get the message. And sometimes those people who don't get the message, there are ways to get them the message. And that's what the NYPD is working on. But there is one thing which also I will request to the Assemblywoman Jennifer and Assemblyman David Vapran, that we may need to revisit the bail reform because some of the cops, when they go out, arrest somebody even before they are out of the courthouse, that same person who they arrested, he's standing out there. So this is something, you know, which we definitely need to take a look at. And yes, the perpetrators will get them, but we will also show them that the love will prevail over all the hate. Once again, thank you Jennifer. Thanks for putting it together. Thanks for giving me the time. And thank you everybody, including the media, for spending so much time and this heat standing in the sun. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. This is a historic gathering with the mayor of New York. We've never seen a crowd like this, an interfaith crowd, national leaders, citywide leaders. Thank you all for coming. Love will win over hate.