Looking Beyond the Turban

BY SHIVANI DESAI

It is incredible how much power and mean­ing one piece of fabric can hold. For those who adhere to the Sikh religion, a turban (dastar) is a symbol of devotion and spiritu­ality. It is a connection to the roots and his­tory of the Sikh people and a way for them to portray their faith to the world. However, somewhere between this beautiful meaning and the American perception, something has splintered, leaving the “land of the free” deeply and inherently flawed.

Imagine walking near Central Park one warm autumn evening, when suddenly you see a group of leering men and hear the words “Osama,” “terrorist,” and “get him.” And by him, they mean you. Lying on the ground with a fractured jaw, bruises, and several other injuries, you feel helpless and shocked. This is not the community that you know. Lady Liberty’s homeland has become a crossfire of hate crimes and intolerance.

Now, picture this: you have been forced to appear in court because you encountered prejudiced police officers who took one look at you, wrote you a ticket, and called you depraved. To make matters worse, as you walk into the pristine courtroom – the embodiment of American justice – you hear the words, “take that rag off of your head or get out.” As you exit, the words echo and crash repeatedly. This is not what freedom of religion means to you.

Unfortunately these bleak scenarios are not just “what if” situations. They are all too real. On September 21, 2013, Columbia University Professor Prabhjot Singh was brutally attacked by a group of men. On Sep­tember 27, 2013, Jagjeet Singh was ordered to remove the “rag” from his head or leave the courtroom. These realities are sobering enough on their own, yet they are only in­dicative of a larger pattern of hate-crimes, violence, and intolerance toward those of the Sikh faith. In the last twelve years, news of ruthless violence against Sikhs has cropped up periodically in the headlines and captured the American consciousness, only for the is­sue to quickly disappear back into obscurity until the next hate crime occurs. On De­cember 12, 2001, Surinder Singh Sidhi was beaten with a metal pole, by two men who repeatedly screamed, “We’ll kill Bin Laden today.” On March 14, 2004, a Sikh temple was defaced with the message “Rags Go Home.” And on August 5, 2012, a shooting occurred at a Wisconsin Sikh temple, killing six, injur­ing more, and proving to be the worst attack on an American place of worship since the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bomb­ing in Birmingham.

Since then, Sikhs have been murdered, assaulted, and injured on numerous occa­sions, all with similar sentiments hurled at them. Surveys conducted by the Sikh Coali­tion have found that three out of four male Sikh students have faced scorn and harass­ment based on their religious identity. Nine percent of Sikhs in New York and ten per­cent in San Francisco have experienced hate crimes and violence on account of their re­ligion. According to Kirtan-Singh Khalsa, a spokesperson for an international council on Sikh affairs, “Sikhs are accustomed to ridicule because of their turbans.” Examin­ing the data, it truly seems that the physical appearance of religion, the turban, lies at the heart of the problem. Many people seem to associate the turban with labels such as “terrorist” and “foreigner.” The hateful see it and jump to assumptions and conclusions; they demonize the turban, unable to look beyond the object to the person underneath it.

The truly ironic thing is that the Sikh religion rests on a central tenet of peace. Sikhism also relies on the ideas of naam japna, recognizing a uniting force between all human beings, vand chakna, giving back to others and the community, and kirat karni, earning an honest and just living. It is a beautiful religion that gives its followers strength, direction, and purpose. So why is there so much intolerance for it? Many peo­ple just do not know or truly understand Sikhism; they see something different, and it scares them. But that is not an excuse.

The bottom line is this: if people act based off of preconceived, incorrect notions, fear, and the appearance of a few yards of fabric, then we are not living up to the ideals of our founding. Freedom of religion is guar­anteed to us under the First Amendment, but such written protection is meaningless if the people who should be upholding it are too busy committing injustices and perpetuat­ing violence. A concerning pattern is emerg­ing. Aggression towards Sikhs is occurring over and over again, rather than as a series of anomalous cases. It is becoming more than an individual hate crime; it is becom­ing a culture of hate crimes. And America, the land of the free, America, the nation that embraces all diverse peoples, cannot afford to accept or tolerate a subculture of hatred.