We visited a Sikh temple that sits at the intersection of multiple election issues

It’s Sunday morning at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek, and hundreds of worshippers are showing up for prayers.

They walk into the main hall where people are praying, passing by a bullet hole in the door frame. It’s a reminder of what happened here on another Sunday morning 12 years ago, when a gunman who was affiliated with white supremacist groups came and opened fire on the people who were praying.

“We were on our way to go to the gurdwara when one of our family members called and said, ‘Don’t go there, there had been a shooting,’” recalls Kulwant Dhaliwal, the chairman of the board here at the gurdwara, or Sikh temple.

Dhaliwal immigrated to the United States from India in 1968 and worked as a doctor in Wisconsin for decades until he retired.

“I couldn’t believe it. Hard to believe somebody will come and shoot people at the place of worship,” he said. “We don’t bother anybody. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

Six people were killed that day and four others were wounded, one of whom died of his injuries years later.

All Things Considered recently spent a week reporting from Wisconsin as part of an NPR series focusing on swing states ahead of the election. And this gurdwara sits at the intersection of several election-season topics.

Immigration is one. Most of the people at this temple are immigrants.

Identity is another. Sikhism originated in India, and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is half Indian.

This community also experienced the deadly white supremacist attack, years before mass shootings at a Black church in Charleston, a synagogue in Pittsburgh and many other places. Gun violence and extremism have also come up for both Harris and former President Donald