Sikhs feel vulnerable, join with Muslims to combat backlash
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Darsh Singh, a member of the Sikh religion, poses for a photo with his wife, Lakhpreet Kaur, in Dallas. It happens regularly: Someone sees a man with a turban and beard and hurls anti-Muslim slurs his way, or worse.
CHICAGO >> Pardeep Kaleka spent several days after 9/11 at his father’s South Milwaukee gas station, fearing that his family would be targeted by people who assumed they were Muslim. No, Kaleka explained on behalf of his father, who wore a turban and beard and spoke only in broken English, the family was Sikh, a southeast Asian religion based on equality and unrelated to Islam.
But amid a new wave of anti-Islamic sentiment since the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Kaleka is vowing to take an entirely different approach.
“For us it does not matter who they’re targeting,” said Kaleka, a former Milwaukee police officer and teacher whose father was one of six people killed in 2012 when a white supremacist opened fire at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. “This time we cannot differentiate ourselves; when hate rhetoric is being spewed we cannot be on the sidelines.”
Across the U.S., Sikhs and Muslims are banding together to defend their respective religions. Someone bent on harming Muslims wouldn’t understand — or care about — the distinction between the two faiths, they say, and both also deserve to live in peace.
So they plan educational sessions and rallies. They successfully pushed the FBI to track hate crimes against Sikhs. They speak to lawmakers and support each other’s legal action, including a lawsuit filed over a New York City police surveillance program targeting New Jersey Muslims.
“We are in this fight together,” said Gurjot Kaur, a senior staff attorney at The Sikh Coalition, founded the night of Sept. 11.
Sikhism, a monotheistic faith, was founded more than 500 years ago in Southeast Asia and has roughly 27 million followers worldwide, most of them in India.
There are more than 500,000 Sikhs in the U.S. Male followers often cover their heads with turbans, which are considered sacred, and refrain from shaving their beards.
Reports of bullying, harassment and vandalism against Sikhs have risen in recent weeks.
Last week, a Sikh temple in Orange County, California, was vandalized, as was a truck in the parking lot by someone who misspelled the word “Islam” and made an obscene reference to ISIS.
A Sikh woman said she recently was forced to show her breast pump before taking her seat on an airplane in Minneapolis because another passenger thought she might be an extremist. Several Sikh football fans said they initially were not allowed into Qualcomm Stadium to watch the San Diego Chargers game against the Denver Broncos last Sunday because some of them were wearing turbans. Schoolchildren say they’ve been bullied.
For most Sikhs, much of the backlash has been frequent stares or comments and occasional online insults.
Former NCAA basketball player Darsh Singh said he has heard insults throughout his life, including when someone recently yelled “Osama!” at him as he was crossing a street in Phoenix.
Then last week, a photo making the rounds on Facebook showed the former Trinity University basketball player — the first turbaned Sikh to play in the NCAA — with the caption: “Nobody wants to guard Muhammad, he’s too explosive.” A friend came to his defense with a lengthy post —saying, “do the world a favor and educate yourself” — which got tens of thousands of likes.
“A lot of people act out of fear or ignorance,” said Singh. “I don’t know who started it, but whoever they are, I forgive them.”
Rajinder Singh Mago, community outreach director at the Sikh Religious Society of Chicago, said it’s more difficult for Sikh schoolchildren who sometimes are bullied.
“Ninety-nine percent of Americans are good … then that one person who just came out of a tavern after a few beers, you don’t know what he’s thinking at that point,” Mago said.
Madihha Ahussain, a staff attorney at the national group Muslim Advocates, said people who are misinformed about both religions not only are “blaming entire faith communities, now they’re blaming multiple groups for the acts of a couple individuals.”
As a result, some Sikhs have encountered violence.
A Chicago-area teenager was charged with a hate crime after a September road rage incident in which he called 53-year-old Sikh taxi driver Inderjit Mukker “Bin Laden” and repeatedly hit him in the face, breaking his cheekbone.
In 2013, a Green Bay, Wisconsin, man was charged with a hate crime for allegedly setting fire to a convenience store owned by a Sikh-American.
That was less than a year after white supremacist Wade Michael Page killed six people and wounded four others at the Oak Creek temple. Kaleka said his father, Satwant Singh Kaleka, was the last person killed inside the temple, after Page broke into an office where the elder Kaleka was calling 911.
Kaleka said the Muslim community reached out to Sikhs in the aftermath, and members of both faiths — along with Christians, Jews and others — are continuing to work together to combat inflammatory rhetoric. Last weekend, he spoke at a Muslim women’s coalition.
“I think this is just another test and, unfortunately, I think as bad as the comments are from some politicians, it does surface some underlying issues we haven’t addressed,” in this country, he said.
45 responses to “Sikhs feel vulnerable, join with Muslims to combat backlash”
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And do they care about speaking our against the Islamic Terrorist acts? Take off the turbines for the respect of those who died in these murderous acts. They only think of themselves, no respect for Americans!
First of all, the fact that you have no understanding about religion is not a surprise since you can’t spell or construct a single coherent sentence. It would help a lot if you learned something. Anything.
You are a really annoying person but really right on this issue.
bro, go back to where you came from. We don’t need your type here, the high makamakas
I was commenting about your shocking ignorance of religion and religious headwear. I understood that you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. Zero.
YOur ignorant to the Islamic Terrorists. Just like the Pied Piper himself Barrack Obama
Bro, I’d tell you to go back where you came from, but you have probably never left your couch.
What we don’t need is a bunch of illiterate quasi rednecks giving Hawaii people a reputation that we’re ignorant and proud of it.
and apparently you understood what I wrote, lol.
For all of you out there, Muslims have the “Right” to wear head dress when taking the Honolulu C&C photo id’s! The rest of the majority of us Hawaii Citizens are not allowed too. If the C&C photo Id’s are used to identity the person for any reason it seems the C&C have breached the security of the State ID. If the C&C doesn’t deem the photo as a way to identify a person than why do they not allow anyone to wear a cap/hat? Aren’t Hawaii ID’s used for Legal identification? Somethings wrong with the process, State and Government has to be blind to Religion being for “all” people.
Sikh men wear their turbans at all times in public. Therefore it makes perfect sense for the sake of identification to take their ID photo with their turban on.
I imagine if you took an oath to wear your Gouveia Sausage gimme-cap every time you walked out your front door, the State would allow you to wear it in your photo ID too.
I wear my 49’ers cap at all times except in the shower. AS your next Pied Piper says: What difference does it make? Head dress is a head dress. I can tell your fustrated with you name calling here. So… and I’m correct in my arguement
Right. You correct, huh? Yes, it’s a great argument — except for how it’s spelled, punctuated, worded and “thought out.”
Your 49s hat is obviously way too tight.
seems you caught the drift. lol
Sure. Everybody caught your drift. Do us a favor: stand downwind.
then your cross a line of special treatment for certain groups based on faith. the rule should be held to everyone no special rule for any group
Then you would violate the 1st amendment. The turban is a required religious article of clothing for sikhs. It is not for Muslims, nor is the burqa. Those are cultural. Prohibiting the wearing of a required religious article of clothing is a violation of the free practice of one’s religion.
SF 49’ers are my Religion. btw, the problem is not with what Religion they belong to. THE PROBLEM is with the photo for a STate id or Driver’s license. Does the headgear or a cap/hat degrade the authenticity of the photo for identification purposes? If so, then when does the Gov. allow it, if not then why is the rule only applying to non-religious wearers of headgear?
What? The US Government is blind to Religion or so I thought it was to rule that way
Pocho, your joke is getting old and stale.
With a lengthy history, the US is still beset with ignorant individuals who believe they are superior to other of different ethnic extraction then themselves. Most of these individual unfortunately do not possess the intellect or have themselves been radicalized to hate anyone who do not look like them. They are no different then the radicalized terrorist that we are endeavoring to ferret out and neutralize. Sad that many are our own citizens.
Take the turbines off, they are not above any other US citizen because of their Religion. The US is being to PC about it, Government should be blind to Religion and to have everyone to follow the same rules!
Don’t take the turbines off. They are so useful for generating electricity when there’s a good trade wind. The Sikhs are merely helping us to break the HECO energy monopoly.
What a joke! not even funny. Waste of bandwidth here
Was thinking the same thing: “imagine that, wearable turbines.”
Agree with most of what you said.
Remember when a couple of white guys murdered Vincent Chin because they mistook him, a Chinese America , for being Japanese? Chin’s killers were angry at the Japanese because of their success in the auto industry. Hate and stupidity make for a deadly combination, and I fear for our Muslim and Sikh brothers and sisters.
You’d wish they cared about US Citizen lives
“…now they’re blaming multiple groups for the acts of a couple individuals.” No it is not a few individuals that hate and want to kill all Americans. Haven’t you seen the crowds of Muslims chanting their hate-speak? Many Americans don’t trust Muslims because what they see and read in the media makes it look like all Muslims want to kill Americans for no other reason than we are infidels. Educating the general public is a good thing but there will always be extremists on both sides.
The scary thing is that someone can be peaceful and then turn radical.
Like Adam Lanza?
America sadly is no longer what it used to stand for. We are now a country that contains a lot of people who think they are Americans but really aren’t. We have people that are easily persuaded by other outside entities or even within. We have people residing in America from all corners of the world. Do you think everyone can get along? I don’t think so. Everyone’s version on how to live is different. Everyone has customs or beliefs that may or may not offend others. Attitudes need to change which probably won’t happen anytime soon. Which is why war against each other is the only answer in a lot of minds.
More proof that the Department of Education has failed so many Americans.
Not that our own comment section generally isn’t enough proof of that.
Muslims should ban together and volunteer to join the U.S. military to fight ISIS, just like how Japanese Americans did by forming the 442nd Infantry in WWII. That would indeed be a very forceful and clear message that Muslims do not condone the violence and killing by ISIS.
We already have thousands of American Muslims doing this. They apparently don’t count to Republicans. And all it takes is two seconds on Google to find literally thousands, if not millions of postings by Muslims condemning terrorist attacks by Muslims. Apparently, Republicans can’t use Google either. It seems that the primary base voting bloc of the GOP lives in its own little bubble and never bothers to do any independent research and thus why primary candidates pander in a way that is completely ridiculous to an educated person who has the intelligence to be able to use the world’s largest and simplest search engine. It is embarrassing how we have so many ignorant people at the same time having literally the world’s knowledge at our finger tips.
You are very right.
Why don’t these millions of Muslims come out and say they denounce the attack?
Why can’t you use Google to find millions of Muslims who have come out and said they denounce the attacks?
If you’re joking, this isn’t the time, as there are people who can’t be bothered or lack the intelligence to use a search engine.
Just when I think you cannot possibly scrape any lower into your barrel of ignorance, you surprise me. Mosques, Muslims and Muslim groups have been falling over themselves to condemn this violence. You really need to read more. A lot more.
Let not forget some of them when they see their fellow muslims dieing in the war turn and open fore on our bases
And yet you don’t seem worried about former service members like McVeigh. Wonder why that is?
This article made me want to re-aquiant myself with the major features of the history of the Sikhs. I knew that they are famous for their martial history in the service of Great Britain but had forgotten just how important they were in the major 20th century conflicts. An excerpt:
“Sikhs supported the British during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. By the beginning of World War I, Sikhs in the British Indian Army totaled over 100,000 (20 percent of the force). Until 1945 fourteen Victoria Crosses were awarded to Sikhs, a per-capita regimental record. In 2002 the names of all Sikh VC and George Cross recipients were inscribed on the monument of the Memorial Gates on Constitution Hill, next to Buckingham Palace.
During World War I, Sikh battalions fought in Egypt, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and France. Six battalions of the Sikh Regiment were raised during World War II, serving in the Second Battle of El Alamein, the Burma and Italian campaigns and in Iraq and receiving 27 battle honours. Around the world, Sikhs are commemorated in Commonwealth cemeteries.
In the last two world wars 83,005 turban wearing Sikh soldiers were killed and 109,045 were wounded fighting for the British Empire. During shell fire, they had no other head protection but the turban, the symbol of their faith.
— General Sir Frank Messervy
British people are highly indebted and obliged to Sikhs for a long time. I know that within this century we needed their help twice [in two world wars] and they did help us very well. As a result of their timely help, we are today able to live with honour, dignity, and independence. In the war, they fought and died for us, wearing the turbans.
— Sir Winston Churchill”
They should be careful every action has a reaction . joining forces to take a stand will cause others to do the same
So therefore we should do nothing to combat intolerance? Weren’t you the one who said that geology, astronomy and geography were “religions?”
Global Warming is the key! Too much heat in the World as it is today and the reason for WAR. Now if we spend money to supply every household and a/c unit all Wars would end! That’s the thinking of Barrack Obama for you
I’m going to start wearing a turban to cover up my bald head, but I’ll still shave.