Members of a local Sikh spiritual center were shocked to find racist graffiti sprayed on their sign in front of the center.

The sign in front of the Guru Maneyo Granth Gurdwara Sahib Sikh Center in Orangevale had a swastika and the words “white power” sprayed onto it sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning.

A passing neighbor walking their dog was the first to discover the graffiti and reported it to one of the center’s priests and police.

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“We just started our services mid-December and yesterday was our official grand opening,” Dimple Bhullar said. “We had a quite a big program the last three days. We finished everything off yesterday evening around 5 o’clock and so it must have happened after that.”

The graffiti had been sprayed over by Monday afternoon.

She has no idea who might be behind this, as the center’s members were being treated well by the neighborhood and the community.

“We’re a very peaceful religion,” Bhullar said. “We accept all religions as equal and just want the respect from other religions that we give to them. We would appreciate the same for any of our places of worship.”

Harbans Singh Sraon described the actions as “ignorant” and committed by someone who doesn’t know or care to learn anything about who they are.

“If they knew what Sikhism is, they wouldn’t do it,” Sraon said. “That person in my opinion was ignorant. I wouldn’t use any other words. Once they know us, they will love us. But it’s a matter of getting together.”

He said this experience will give the center an opportunity to teach the community more about Sikhism because “if it can happen to one church, it can happen to another.”

“Hate has no place in humanity,” Sraon said. “Humanity, in our religion especially, is based on love and caring. But those people, what they did, they hurt so many feelings. I don’t know how I can call them human beings.”

Sikh Coalition media and communications director Graham West issued a statement, saying they will assist the center and police with the incident.

“California is home to the largest number of Sikh Americans nationwide, yet Sikhs across the state have been facing years of high-profile hate incidents, including the attacks of Parmjit Singh in 2018 in Tracy; Sahib Singh in 2018 in Manteca; and Maan Singh Khalsa in 2016 in Richmond,” West said.

“In addition, the FBI’s latest annual report on hate crimes detailed a 200 percent spike in anti-Sikh violence in the broader U.S. compared to 2017. These trends underscore the urgent need to address anti-Sikh violence and bigotry in our communities.”