According to the Sikh Coalition:
What is the difference between a regular crime and a hate crime?
Hate crimes are criminal offenses motivated by bias. Although all crimes tear at the fabric of civil society, hate crimes are particularly dangerous because they manifest the very same bigotry that fueled the lynching of African Americans during the Jim Crow Era and the ethnic cleansing of racial and religious minorities throughout history on all continents around the world. Because of their similarity to crimes against humanity, we believe that hate crimes should be treated as a separate category in criminal codes and punished to the maximum extent of the law.
HATE against individualsIslamophobic hate crimes are those which have an anti-Islamic motivation. Such crimes against individuals in America have affected not just Muslims, but all members of society and have spanned from anti-Islamic comments to murders. Most common misunderstandings include confusion of terminology, assuming all Middle Eastern looking individuals are Muslims, assuming that all Muslims are responsible for the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, that Islam is a threat to the country and point of jihad is to take over the world. When Islam is wrongly portrayed as a threat to national security and individual rights, individual seek to take revenge. As a result, Muslims and Muslim-looking individuals are targeted. This Al Jazeera article shows that Anti-Muslim violence in America is "spiralling out of control in America".
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quick facts
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Prejudice and discrimination do not see religious or ethnic boundaries
hate against muslims
Two Muslim Scholars: In 2012, two Muslim scholars from Tennessee were required to disembark a Delta flight, simply because the pilot did not feel comfortable having them onboard. The men were dressed in Islamic clothing (here).
Many immigrants from the Middle East have been murdered, simply because they were assumed to be Muslim (here).
§ Often, the victim is asked if he/she is a Hindu or a Muslim and then attacked, as in this case in Queens. § A New York taxi driver was stabbed after he said he was Muslim (here). § 57 year old Ahmad Bashir is another case from Queens, New York. His attacker came up behind him and yelled 'I'm going to kill you, Muslim' before stabbing him. § In September 2004, eight Muslim females were attacked at UC Berkeley. Their attacker threw water bottles at them, verbally assaulted them and mocked their faith (here). |
hate against hindus
Sunando Sen: brought media attention to Islamophobia against Hindus in America The murder of Sunando Sen is yet another example of an Islamophobic hate crime. 41 year old Sen was pushed under the New York City subway and murdered. Sen was born in India and a Hindu. 31 year old Menendez was charged with the murder. Menendez believed in what she did and said that she has, "hated Hindus and Muslims since 2001 since they put down the Twin Towers" (here). Menendez has been charged with second degree murder.
hate crime tracking update
It is only in March 2013 that elected officials petitioned to have hate crimes against Hindus, Sikhs and Arab-Americans tracked. Until now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not track these hate crimes, hence presenting a inaccurate data on hate crimes (here).
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hate against sikhs
Kawaljeet Kaur and her brother showing their kirpan: In 2008, Kawaljeet Tagore experienced Islamophobia from police officers in Houston, Texas. After a house burglary that resulted in cash and gold being stolen from the house, Kawal called 911. The police officers arrived on the scene and wrongly arrested Kawal and her relatives because they wore the Sikh religious article, the kirpan. Sikhs have also been targeted in America. Many are mistaken for being Muslim or Arab. Sikh scholars argue that Sikhs are wrongly targeted but even being a Muslim is not a basis for being victimized such (here).
§ The first hate crime after 9/11 was the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi. § In December 2001, Surinder Singh Sidhi, a liquor store owner who started wearing an American flag turban after 9/11, was beaten in front of his store after he was accused of being Osama bin Laden. § In 2008, a high school student was bullied and attacked by a fellow student, landing the victim in the hospital. § In January 2009, Jasmir Singh is attacked by three men in Queens and two years later, his father is attacked on a subway and accused of being related to Osama bin Laden. § In 2011, two elderly Sikh men were gunned down while they were walking in their neighborhood (here). |
"For instance, the day after the 9/11 attacks, a turbaned Sikh male named Sher Singh was traveling from Boston to New York on an Amtrak train when it stopped in Providence, R.I. The FBI had sent federal agents, local police and bomb-sniffing dogs to arrest him. Officers rushed to the platform, pointed rifles at Singh and shouted "Get your f--- hands up." The officers removed him from the train at gunpoint and handcuffed him. According to a report by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, bystanders gathered around Sher Singh during the time of his arrest and began shouting obscenities and hate-speech, such as: "Kill him!" "Burn in Hell!" and "You killed my brother!" Strikingly, Sher Singh reported that one of the arresting officers joined in the vitriol by asking, "How's Osama bin Laden?'" (here)
Kamau Bell clarifies the difference between Sikhs and Sheikhs using comedy
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News clip talks about Sunando Sen's murder by being pushed under NY subway
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Two Muslim scholars forced off of Delta flight
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Russian television talks about Sikhs experiencing hate crimes in America
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Video showing hate crime against a man who appears to be Muslim in a Florida parking lot
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Video shows two bills being passed in California: AB 1964 to protect against discrimination in the workplace and on the inclusion of Sikhs in American textbooks
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