US Sikhs feel they are victims of mistaken identity
Wednesday, 30/12/2015
http://paper.hindustantimes.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
WASHINGTON: Sikhs have been mistaken for terrorists and radicals and continue to suffer after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US, community members feel following the latest attack on an elderly Sikh man in California which is being probed by police as a hate crime.
“This is the latest episode of what Sikhs have been enduring when they are very peaceloving and hard-working citizens of this great country and not members of al-Qaeda, ISIS (Islamic State) or any other radical group,” member of the Sikh Council of Central California Ike Iqbal Grewal said.
Sikhs are frequently conflated with Muslims and end up absorbing the backlash against Islam.
“There’s nothing new about Sikhs being the targets of violence and intimidation in the US. Followers of the monotheistic faith, which originated in south Asia in the 15th century, have been at the receiving end of xenophobic intolerance since they began arriving in the Pacific Northwest to fill logging jobs in the early 20th century,” said Simran Jeet Singh, a senior religion fellow at the Sikh Coalition, a non-profit advocacy group.
