FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 03/05/01

For more information contact: Sumeet Kaur,

Please distribute widely to your family, friends, and at your Gurdwara.

Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART)
P.O. Box 1761
Germantown, MD
Tel:
Fax:
Email: info
URL: www.sikhmediawatch.org

SMART WORKING TO REMOVE MISUSE OF KHANDA IN SONY PLAY STATION
GAME--REQUESTS COMMUINTY TO SHOW RESTRAIN IN THEIR LETTERS

(Washington, DC -- 1/17/2001) The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task
Force, SMART, would like to thank the community for bringing the
misuse of the Khanda on a Sony Playstation game to our attention.
SMART agrees that Stormfrom should NOT use this Sikh symbol, even if
slightly modified, as a game logo.

SMART is currently in the process of contacting the appropriate
individual(s) at Stormfront Studios, the developer of this game.

However, SMART would like to request the community to tone down the
rhetoric and refrain from sending hostile letters to Stormfront and/or
Sony. Confrontational or angry letters will only hinder an amicable
resolution to this misuse of the Khanda. We would like to give the
company a chance to change the logo, and too much of publicity will
only help promote their game and may make it difficult to get a
rational response from the company.

If you do write a letter to the company please be firm, but POLITE and
RESPECTFUL. Hostile comments harms the image of Sikhs and Sikhism.

SMART will inform the community as it gets further into discussions
and finding a solution to this insensitive misuse of the Khanda. We
ask the community for its patience and cooperation in this matter as
we work to resolve this favorably for the Sikh community.

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About SMART:
The Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART), founded in 1996,
is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, organization dedicated to the fair and
accurate portrayal of Sikh Americans and the Sikh religion in the
American media and society. It has a diverse membership across the
United States, and also works to combat bigotry and prejudice; protect
the rights and religious freedom of Sikh Americans; and provide
resources to empower the Sikh American community in understanding and
exercising its civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.

Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART)
P.O. Box 1761
Germantown, MD
Tel:
Fax:
Email: info
URL: http://www.sikhmediawatch.org