A Sikh leader from South Jersey, invited by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) to lead this morning’s prayer on the House floor, was subjected to racist comments from an Illinois congresswoman after delivering his prayer and now has members of Congress from both parties coming to his defense.
Giani Surinder Singh, the leader of the Gurdwara South Jersey Sikh Center in Vineland, delivered a three-minute prayer before the House began its legislative process today, a typically non-controversial part of the House schedule. Van Drew said after the prayer concluded that Singh “leads not just with words, but with example: with peace, with humility, with service towards all. These are not just Sikh values; they are American values.”
But Singh quickly came under fire on social media from Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois), a firebrand Republican with a history of making controversial statements. Initially misidentifying Singh as a Muslim before correcting her now-deleted post to say Sikh, Miller said a Sikh leader should not have been invited to deliver the House’s prayer in a “Christian nation.”
“It’s deeply troubling that a Sikh was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives this morning,” Miller said in the second version of her tweet. “This should never have been allowed to happen. America was founded as a Christian nation, and I believe our government should reflect that truth, not drift further from it.”
Van Drew told the New Jersey Globe that he stood behind Singh and that he was “glad that [Miller] took that post down.”
“As a Catholic, I take my faith seriously and I also believe part of being American is respecting other people’s faiths too,” he said in a statement. “I was proud to invite a Sikh chaplain to open the House with prayer this morning. The Sikh community is peaceful, generous, and deeply rooted in family and service, values we should all appreciate, no matter our religion. What makes America special is that we can honor different these traditions while staying true to our own. I’ll always stand for that kind of mutual respect.”
Neighboring Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) – who invited a different Sikh leader to deliver the House prayer in 2023, the first Sikh to do so in congressional history – also said that he was “deeply disappointed” in Miller’s comments.
“As someone who sponsored the first Sikh guest chaplain in House of Representatives history, I believe in upholding religious freedom,” Norcross said. “In addition to Rep. Miller’s comments, today a man was sentenced to prison for threatening Sikh nonprofit workers in South Jersey. We must stand up against hate in all its forms.”
This story was updated at 4:58 p.m. with expanded comment from Van Drew.
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