Sikh Bigotry Research Paper

The Sikhs are devotees to Sikhism, Sikhism is the youngest of the world’s religion with 25 million followers. Sikhism is only five hundred years old. The founder of Sikhism is Guru Nank, he was born in 1469. Guru Nank spoke a message of “Ek Ong Kar”: we are all one, created by the One Creator of all Creation. Guru Nank was the first of the ten Gurus in Sikhism. Throughout my research I have discovered what each Guru represents to the Sikh community and where Sikhism originated from. The appearance of Sikh devotees is a very important part of the Punjabi Sikh culture. Sikhs are very misunderstood in America and when people see images of Sikhs they are often mistaken for Muslims or terrorists, which often times leads to hate crimes. I’ll be focusing on the history of the Sikhism, Sikhs appearance, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. In the end I would like my audience to have an understanding of the Sikh religion, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism.

It is obvious and no coincidence that violence and hate crimes have increased towards Sikhs following the events of 9/11, which is evident in the following excerpt of an article in Newsday. In the summer of 2004, Rajinder Singh Khalsa, a Sikh, was severely beaten by five men as they yelled anti-Muslim slurs. Today, he still has to go to the hospital several times a week and his injuries left him unable to work. His son, he said, was forced to leave college to work and care for him.(Friedman) Khalsa quickly insisted that legislation was needed to protect minorities who could be vulnerable after a terrorist attack or other types of racial or religious attacks. Khalsa and a friend were also attacked outside a Queens restaurant by five white men after they refused to remove their turbans, which is common bait for people who are looking to attack or harass "terrorists." The city responded to Khalsa's unfortunate experience by introducing a Backlash Mitigation bill, which is sponsored by Councilman David Weprin. This bill would allow the Office of Emergency Management to work with local city agencies including the police department to devise plans to protect potential victims of hate crimes. In

The profile of a “middle eastern, Muslim young adult male” being dangerous has created an unsafe living standard in America. Following 9/11, a Sikh postal worker was shot in the neck not because he was guilty of terrorism, but because he was the victim of a hate crime (Lee).

People from the Sikh religion are easily identifiable because they wear turbans for religious purposes. Often people outside the Sikh religion group Sikhs wearing turbans in the same category with the terrorists that caused 9/11. This misinformation has given rise to mistaken-identity related hate crimes against the Sikh people. For instance, the first anti-Muslim hate crime that occurred after 9/11 was actually against a Sikh man named Balbir Singh Sodhi. He managed a gas station in Mesa, Arizona and was gunned down by a man who wanted to kill “towel heads” for all the pain and suffering they caused the American people. This was only the first case of mistaken identity that would traumatize the Sikh community for years to

Sikhs, who follow Indian religions, were targeted because they wear turbans, stereotypically associated with Muslims. Balbir Singh Sodhi was fatally shot on September 15, 2001 in Mesa, Arizona. Like others, Sodhi, a Sikh, was mistaken for a Muslim. According to the FBI report, hate crime incidents targeting people and institutions that identified with the Islamic faith increased from 28 in 2000 to 481 in 2001. Mosques were attacked as well as other religious buildings, including a Hindu temple, which was hit with a firebomb.

In the history of The United States, there has always been a history of discrimination that has come from many different areas by many different people that have led to violent discrimination acts to members of our society (Miller, 2003). These violent acts have been based on members of society bias views of others race, sex, disabilities, sexual preferences, and religion (Greenhouse, 1993). The members of these groups that have been discriminated upon are minority members of our society that have had to fight for their rightful place as a member of the American Society, and still, fight prejudice today.

The first case of violence that resulted in the death of a Sikh man which occurred in Arizona. Balbir Sodhi was a gas station owner, he was targeted because he looked like a Middle Eastern man, and he was shoot five times in the back. Balbir Sodhi was a generous man who would helped others in need. His memorial service brought the community together. Many Jewish, Christians and Muslim people paid their respects at his funeral, about four thousand people turned up in the funeral. September 11 was not only just a tragedy, but it also built unity for many Americans, but that unity was also the reason there was a rise in hate crimes around the

In the society today, there is an increase in the number of violence cases, especially among the minority group. Many people including some government agencies consider them irrelevant. The law protects all the people, regardless of their abilities or disabilities. The Bill of Rights explains that people have the freedom of relating with whoever the individual wants, freedom to reside in any place one feel like, freedom of worship and other types of freedoms. However, people limit the freedom of these group members, as they do not consider them equal to them. The issue of violence against the minority group has caught the attention of

The perpetrator showed high levels of negative stereotypes towards the victim evident in his racial insults. The man was not educated on the turban and the differences between a Pakistani male and Sikh male. The high levels of negative connotations and predisposed stereotypes may have influenced his view on Sikh men in turbans and his way of processing the information. The negative stereotypes could also heighten the symbolic threat. The victim was seen as someone out of the norms of the perpetrator’s ingroup, causing higher levels of racism towards him (Stephan et al., 2005). In addition to the high symbolic threats, the perpetrator also experienced a high level of realistic threat. He shouted slurs about employment and felt threatened by the victim taking his job. The Caucasian offender may have recently been laid off work and been unable to find employment in that particular trade, and consequently blamed the Sikh

According to CAIR.com, the council of American-Islamic Relations, “Almost 4 in 10 Americans have an unfavorable view of Islam.” Malala Yousafzai said that: “there should be no discrimination against languages people speak, skin color, or religion”. Discrimination comes in many forms such as age, gender, ethnicity, religion, and more. It had always been part of human nature; nevertheless, after the tragedy incident of 9/11 Muslims are widely seen as victims of discrimination especially those in foreign countries. Discrimination came in the form of both oppression and violence. Moreover, these bullies lead to a number of serious effects on a person's life such as depression and anxiety. Even though, some think that all Muslims cause violence,

Hate groups such as the Creativity Movement, Kingdom Identity Ministries, and the Ku Klux Klan have a long history of racism, hatred, and radicalism. At first glance, a deep hatred towards a particular race or religious group seems to be the main, or only, reason that a person would join one of these groups, however, there are many factors aside from race that contribute to the decision to join a hate group. These additional factors include financial situations, the need to simplify a complicated reality, and a desire for acceptance or feeling of importance.

There is so much hate in this world. To add onto that hate, there are many hate groups. The hate group that I am writing about is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Another name for this group is Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL). ISIS and ISIL are the same group. This group is made up of Islamic extremists who believe the world should be under Sharia Law. Sharia Law means, “One political and religious leader over all.” ISIS has many other beliefs, the qualifications to belong to this group can be brutal, and the present day hate is awful.

As pointed out, the main reason behind these attacks could be ignorance of the five-and-a-half century old religion. It is clear that there is not enough awareness of Sikhism. Popular study shows that only 11% of all Americans have a Sikh close friend or acquaintance. The study goes on to explain that three times this number have never interacted with a Sikh in any way. So, this misunderstanding can be blamed on the lack of familiarity with Sikhs.

: The article called Religion, Meaning and Prejudice was written by Bruce Hunsberger and Lynne M. Jackson and published in 2005. The purpose of this article is to analyze the links between religion and prejudice that have been interpreted to suggest that religion can both reduce and exacerbate prejudice and to provide an analysis of religion as a meaning system that illustrates how religion can affect intergroup attitudes. The target population the article is geared towards other psychologists. The article begins with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on September 11, 2001 and how people were affected while trying to understand what happened that day. The role of religion- based prejudice illustrates the

Islam-Oppression, Muslim-Terrorist, Sharia-Barbaric. From the horrors of the 9/11 attacks to the brutality of ISIS, these connections, these perceptions, and these views have been reinforced and amplified. These beliefs have come to manifest themselves in actions. In July of 2009, Marwa El-Sherbini was stabbed to death in a courtroom in Dresden, Germany by Alex Wiens after testifying against him in regards to verbal abuses over her wearing of the Islamic headscarf, the hijab. In August of 2012, Wade Michael opened fire on a Sikh temple killing six, while believing they were Muslim. In November of 2014, four mosques in Quebec were vandalized in one week. This has been the atmosphere in which Muslims have come to live. Attacked and berated, the Muslim community has had to deal with the rise of a new wave of discrimination; one that signals out Muslims as uncivilized, oppressive, barbaric warmongers. It has had to deal with the rise of Islamophobia.