Temple fire not work of hate group

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18 (UPI) -- "I'm just glad we do not have an organized hate group here," said Sheriff Reuel A. Todd of Oswego County, N.Y., Tuesday, after discovering that a fire that destroyed a Sikh sanctuary had evidently been the work of teenage arsonists.

William John Reeves and Joshua Centrone, two 18-year olds boys without high school diplomas, are under arrest for the crime. "Their parents brought them in Friday," the sheriff told FBI. "They knew that their kids were in trouble."

According to the sheriff, Reeves and Centrone will face a grand jury in about one month's time. "Depending on whether they will be tried in a state or a federal court, they face anywhere from three-and-a-third to 15 years."

A 19-year old woman was also arrested, charged with conspiracy, and then released. Todd said she was with Reeves and Centrone at the crime scene, but did not participate in setting the fire.

Todd added the two young men had been drinking before burning down the temple. "They probably had no idea what Sikhs are."

Ralph Singh, a spokesman for the Gobind Sadan USA shrine on a farm in Palermo, N.Y., announced, "It was clear from their confessions that they plotted this senseless act in retaliation for what they mistakenly thought was Sikh association with the Sept. 11 attack on America."

The blaze that devastated the central building of the Gobind Sadan retreat led to an outpouring of sympathy for the small local community of Sikhs, whose monotheistic faith originated in India 500 years ago.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhist and Hindus came out to express their solidarity. The first to do so was the rabbi of a Jewish temple in nearby Syracuse, N.Y., whose outside walls had been desecrated with neo-Nazi graffiti in Oct. 2000.

In Oswego County, interfaith prayers were held for the 100-strong Sikh congregation.

Local residents offered money and practical assistance for the reconstruction of the shrine that used to attract clergy from many faiths seeking spiritual renewal.

"A crime story turned into a tale of love," marveled Singh, adding that this was one of two miracles that occurred in this tragedy. "The other miracle was that our 1,430-page holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, survived the fire."

The blaze two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes against New York and Washington followed attacks on turbaned and bearded Sikhs in other parts of the country. The assailants had mistaken their victims for Muslims.

Therefore, the fire at the Sikh retreat in central New York State was treated as a high-profile case, with the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office and the ATF National Church Arson Task Force participating in the investigation.

Sheriff Todd said the offer of a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits proved very helpful in solving this case.

Meanwhile in India, Baba Virsa Singh, a New Delhi-based Sikh holy man and founder of Gobind Sadan, transmitted a "statement of forgiveness" through Ralph Singh.

"We will not interfere in the process of law," he said. "Yet we know that God is all forgiving to those who seek his forgiveness. And the Sikh tradition like all others calls on us to forgive others.

"For if we show hatred to those who act against us, then how will they ever understand that God, whom they can't see, is forgiving?" he said.