Sikh Assaulted, Rising Violence Against Sikhs

[Shiranu]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/08/a-sikh-man-was-brutally-attacked-by-a-group-who-removed-his-turban-cut-off-his-hair/

Maan Singh Khalsa was stopped at a red light in Richmond, Calif., when, authorities say, a group of white men in a pickup truck began to attack him, completely unprovoked.

One of the men threw a beer can at Khalsa’s car while cursing and yelling at him. At the next red light, Khalsa’s head was pulled out of the window of his car, his turban was forcibly removed and his long hair was cut off, authorities say.
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The attack happened about 9 p.m. on Sept. 25, when Khalsa was driving home from work. A white Ford F-150 truck, with about five to six men, who yelled at cursed at Khalsa, pulled up next to him at an intersection in Richmond, about 20 miles outside of San Francisco.
Khalsa rolled down his window to question the man who threw the beer can at him, according to the letter. As one of them got out of the truck and walked toward Khalsa’s car, the light turned green and the 41-year-old Sikh man drove away.
Khalsa, “frightened and fearful for his safety,” called 911 and told the operator that a group of men was trying to attack him, the letter says.
At the next stoplight, three men got out of the truck and attacked Khalsa through his open window. They punched his face repeatedly and removed his turban, according to the letter. One of the men grabbed a handful of Khalsa’s hair and cut it off with a knife.
“Cut his fâ€"â€" hair,” one of the alleged attackers shouted, according to the Sikh Coalition.
Khalsa, who remained on the phone with the 911 operator during the attack, drove away after the light turned green and waited for police at a nearby gas station. The attack left Khalsa with a swollen black eye, dental damage that will cost more than $2,000 and an infected finger that could be amputated.
Two of the three men who got out of the truck â€" Chase Little, 31, of Beaumont, Tex., and Dustin Albarado, 25, of Ponchatoula, La. â€" were arrested shortly after on suspicion of felony assault, but have been released on bail, according to the East Bay Times.

Absolutely ridiculous that you can be released on bail after committing a hate crime.
Besides just the humiliation and violence of the act itself, it was also extremely symbolically offensive and hateful because of his faith.

Keeping his hair long and wrapping it in a turban is required of Khalsa as a man of Sikh faith. Sikhs believe that keeping their hair in its natural state is a symbol of respect for God, and wearing a turban signifies preserving their identity as Sikhs.
“When a Sikh ties a turban, the turban ceases to be just a piece of cloth and becomes one and the same with the Sikh’s head. It is a religious commitment without which the believer ceases to be Sikh,” according to the Sikh Coalition.
Forcibly removing a Sikh man’s turban or cutting his hair “is perceived as the most humiliating and hurtful physical injury that can be inflicted upon a Sikh,” the organization said in the letter, which was written by Khalsa’s attorneys.

Sikh Americans have been victims of hundreds of hate crimes, and racial and religious profiling over the past 15 years since the 9/11 attacks.
According to a 2013 survey by Stanford University and the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, 49 percent of Americans believe that Sikhism is a sect of Islam, even though it’s a separate religion. Some Americans also tend to associate turbans and Sikhs with Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State or the Taliban. The survey found that 20 percent of respondents are likely to become angry or apprehensive if they encounter a stranger wearing a turban.
According a 2010 survey by the Sikh Coalition, 1 in 10 Sikhs in the Bay Area reported being victims of hate crimes, 68 percent of which were physical attacks. Many of the attacks have been violent and fatal.
In 2011, for instance, two elderly Sikh men were out for a walk when they were gunned down in Elk Grove, Calif. No arrests have been made in connection with the men’s deaths.
In 2012, a white supremacist stormed into a Sikh worship center in Oak Creek, Wis., and fatally shot six Sikh Americans.
Khalsa, the father of an 8-year-old girl, has lived in Contra Costa County for almost seven years. He works full time as an IT specialist for the Social Security Administration and part time as a caregiver for the elderly. His attorneys did not immediately return calls from The Washington Post on Saturday.

This is what irrational fear of the other will get us; violence against people who have nothing to do with anything. It has happened time and time and time again in American (and human) history with boogieman groups being demonized and next thing you know anyone and everyone is a witch, a commie or a radical jihadist because, "Well... he looked like one!".
It's one thing to disagree with an ideology, but fearing and hating an ideology has never been something that has brought positive change.
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[Baruch]

That and Americans are incredibly ignorant of the diversity of S Asian cultures.  The immigrant Irish were vulnerable too, until they gave up dressing like Leprechauns ;-)

[drunkenshoe]

Oh ffs, again?

Somebody needs to take this to a national level. I bet nothing on the news, am I right?

[Baruch]

When there was a gun attack on the Sikh temple four years ago in Wisconsin ...

On this case, only the Washington Post and Al Jazira so far.  Not as exciting as the other event.  There have been multiple attacks in GB ... so maybe just an anglo-phone thing.

[pato15]

At first I thought it said "Sith assaulted", and I thought "Good, he had it coming!"

[Baruch]

At first I thought it said "Sith assaulted", and I thought "Good, he had it coming!"

Naw, in the US now, it is all about Attack Of The Killer Clowns.  But that is as much because of the upping of social tension (both sides guilty).

[Cavebear]

Can't all this just end?

[Baruch]

Can't all this just end?

That is called death ... unless you mean the rubes choosing to swirlee a different set of victims out of bordom.

[Cavebear]

"Swirlee"? 

[Baruch]

It would appear you were never given toilet training by the big boys ... good for you.  Would be difficult to get out of your fur.

[Contemporary Protestant]

Gosh, the hair thing is a really big deal, I was a boy scout leader for a group in Colorado one summer and one of the boys was a sikh. He had recently gotten his hair cut (first time in his life and he was fourteen, and his dad asked him if wanted to) and he cried really hard about how he regretted it. After seeing how much willing getting haircut upsets this sikh I know, I feel sad that someone would force another person to do that.

[Cavebear]

The Boy Scouts value uniformity.  Literally, uniforms and all.  But private groups do have a right to define themselves.  I hope they will open, but there are options to those not seeking uniformity.