Police say a Columbia professor and medical doctor, Dr. Prabhjot Singh, was attacked while walking down the street in New York. They are investigating the incident as a hate crime. Dr. Singh is a Sikh, but was mistaken for a Muslim because many Americans are devoid of knowledge and facts, and instead choose to live their lives in constant state of vast ignorance. Thus, they cannot tell the difference between Sikhs and Muslims nor do they know it is wrong to attack anyone because of their race or religion.
The people who commit hate crimes are also vastly ignorant because they are unaware of what it means to be an American. They are blind to how America was founded and the intentions of our forefathers when they formed this country.
Dr. Singh says he was in Manhattan on 110th Street when he was brutally attacked by a group of assailants who were shouting derogatory comments about Muslims such as “Get him, Osama!” and “terrorist!” Dr. Singh says he was pushed down and punched repeatedly in the face by a group of about 20 men.
According to the executive director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Jasjit Singh, the group’s studies indicate that 50% of Americans think that Sikhism is a branch of Islam. In fact, Sikhism is not related to Islam in any way, shape or form and has nothing to do with it. However, because Sikhs wear turbans, and “most Americans” associate turbans with terrorism according to the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, they are often mistaken for Muslim, Islamic people.
So, at least 50% and up to half of Americans are staggeringly dumb, but does that come as any real surprise? After all, we live in a world where this story will probably get viewed far fewer times than any article about Miley Cyrus.
Because when it comes right down to it, at least half of all Americans are happy to remain in their insulated worlds of vast ignorance. They prefer, instead, to placate themselves with cotton candy for their mind, while at the same time complaining bitterly that the media “never covers important things.” They are too stupefied to realize that the media covers what the public clicks. Period. Perhaps if the public started clicking on important things, those things would be covered more, and the ignorance would start to subside just a little. You can’t get into Mensa by reading about Miley Cyrus, and you can’t learn about important facts by solely reading entertainment stories.
So here’s a wake-up call to those 50-75-ish percent of Americans who don’t know the difference between Sikhs and Muslims: just because someone wears a turban, it does not mean they are a terrorist, whether Muslim or not. And, Sikhs and Muslims are different. Can you say “diff-er-ent?” That means… not the same.
Oh, and also, in America everyone is allowed to walk down the street without being assaulted or verbally abused no matter what their religion, affiliation, race, sexual orientation, gender or ethnicity. That’s what our forefathers wanted, and when these kinds of hate crimes happen, it disrespects everything they fought to achieve.
Ironically, Dr. Sigh, who is, incidentally, as American as apple pie, wrote a piece denouncing hate crimes for the New York Times last year in which he calls upon the FBI to begin tracking violence against Sikhs separately from Muslim hate crimes. Currently, the two groups are lumped together in the FBI database, he says, making it impossible to track and monitor anti-Sikh hate crimes. The FBI should take heed. Meanwhile, Americans living in a stupor of vast ignorance should learn the difference between Sikhs and Muslims and stop perpetrating hate crimes all together, because hating people due to who they are or what they wear is 100% anti-American.
By: Rebecca Savastio
(op-ed)
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4 Responses
True article. So many are in denial as to the reality of American apathy and ignorance. I’m from NYC and I have no problem reading truth. Maybe if you didn’t take it personal and absorbed the information for what it is. Instead you complain about the big bad author talking down to you. Typical. Education is definitely the key. People need to get away from this celebrity obsession we have in this country.
If the author hadn’t spent so much time” talking down and been so insulting”…I might have finished the article. I doubt the audience she wrote it for got as far as I did. It was hard to take her seriously.
Ms. Savastio: I am very pessimistic that people will learn much about the differences between Sikhs and Muslims and terrorists by reading more about it. I continue to be shocked by the number of people who still believe that the President is a Muslim and/or he was not born in the United States. People do not like to let go of their beliefs even when they are presented with clear evidence that they are wrong.
Perhaps the education needs to be focused on very young ones before they become attached to their beliefs.
Also, even if those who attacked Dr. Singh did come across a terrorist, they obviously do not understand that in America, we don’t have vigilante justice and their role is to call the police. Attacking a person walking on the street in NY is unjustified in any case. (It might be appropriate to hold a person until the police arrive.) I would like to know why these people even thought about attacking a person just because of who they perceive this person to be or to have done.
Of course, it is wrong to attack someone to steal a purse but I understand the thinking behind such an attack. I don’t understand how someone growing up in America thinks that vigilante justice is acceptable. Somehow, that is an idea that needs to be taught as well.
Patti, you couldn’t be more right ! It’s a cultural thing, and that can be changed only with thorough, deep and radical shift in thinking, mentality and action. However, that could prove impossible task …