Yet Another Failed Attempt (By One Of Our Own) To Inform The Masses

[Kalsingh]

There was a 'sikh community leader' on sky news (forgotten his name) who had a little interview with the presenter. The presenter asked the man if he feels sikhs have been victimised since 9/11 (along those lines). And he ends up saying he doesn't think thats the case. Errm, excuse me, but where have you been for the last decade mr singh.

Balbir Singh being shot after 9/11 wasn't the only hate crime. We have loads of sikhs (particularly american sikhs) who have experienced countless attacks (physical and verbal) over the years. I read one report once that something like 60 per cent of new york sikh school children face verbal and sometimes physical abuse from their peers on a daily basis. You only have to go on to the sikh coalition website and see the hate crime database to see how much this has/is occuring.

Why didn't this so called community leader mention any of this. He ended up diverting the question at hand it seemed like at one point even. Why put yourself forward for these interviews/news slots if you are not going to highlight the real problems.

Again, the issue comes up of us not having anyone in our community who can give the masses a clear view of where we are coming from (our plights and what we are about).

[RebelSingh]

There was a 'sikh community leader' on sky news (forgotten his name) who had a little interview with the presenter. The presenter asked the man if he feels sikhs have been victimised since 9/11 (along those lines). And he ends up saying he doesn't think thats the case. Errm, excuse me, but where have you been for the last decade mr singh.

Balbir Singh being shot after 9/11 wasn't the only hate crime. We have loads of sikhs (particularly american sikhs) who have experienced countless attacks (physical and verbal) over the years. I read one report once that something like 60 per cent of new york sikh school children face verbal and sometimes physical abuse from their peers on a daily basis. You only have to go on to the sikh coalition website and see the hate crime database to see how much this has/is occuring.

Why didn't this so called community leader mention any of this. He ended up diverting the question at hand it seemed like at one point even. Why put yourself forward for these interviews/news slots if you are not going to highlight the real problems.

Again, the issue comes up of us not having anyone in our community who can give the masses a clear view of where we are coming from (our plights and what we are about).

duno paaji, we ALWAYS get village idiyaat 2 represent sikhs or the pro-india bandhar sikhs, r enemies jus sit back n laugh

[Sherdil]

Isn't sky news a British channel? Was the guy British? It's a lot tougher for Sikhs in the states than it is in UK.

[Jonny101]

Totally agree with the OP. People need to say it the way it is. If an interviewer on national TV asked have Sikhs been victimized since 9/11 you should say YES and let the world know what Sikhs have been going through since 9/11. Instead we have fools trying to act politically correct and on the other side of the spectrum we have some of our nutcases here on this forum trying to blame this on the the Jews. Seriously how dumb can you get? We need to let the world know that there is a HUGE problem happening since 9/11 and Sikhs are at the receiving end of this problem. If we don't, expect more murders of Sikhs.

[chatanga]

Isn't sky news a British channel? Was the guy British? It's a lot tougher for Sikhs in the states than it is in UK.

You're right, Sikhs anywhere where they have a low community profile have had a tough time. USA had posed a lot of problems for Sikhs and our identity.

Totally agree with the OP. People need to say it the way it is. If an interviewer on national TV asked have Sikhs been victimized since 9/11 you should say YES and let the world know what Sikhs have been going through since 9/11.

Spot on. But I have a feeling that the guy speaking felt that by saying " americans dont like us..." he may have been making things worse, with a its better to keep your head down and get on with it attitude.

I feel that with Pres Obama commenting on it, that the Sikh groups in USA should actively seek his help in raising our community profile. We are a miniscule community in USA in all spheres, so we need to do something positive to make the average USA citizen know who we are.

[Kalsingh]

Isn't sky news a British channel? Was the guy British? It's a lot tougher for Sikhs in the states than it is in UK.

Sky News is British and the Singh was from England but if I remeber correctly, the presenter actually asked what about Sikhs in America, and he still said it aint that bad! What does he know, he's not even from America.

It was such a joke. The presenter actually started off the interview (facing the camera to the viewers) by saying how Sikhs feel they have been victimised since 9/11 and we all thought the Singh was going to talk about all the hate crimes and that. But he comes along and says there is not much of a problem. It was a joke, even the presenter looked kind of surprised, he was expecting the dialogue to be about this very topic.

[TheFancyBanana]

why do we always potatoes and uneducated people foward. was watching the CNN coverage and the sikh they called couldn't speak english properly. he said a few punjabi words (kay etc.) in the interview and said sikhs call their temples gurdwaras then called the gurdwara a church. a white non-sikh explained better than the sikh man did. we actually need to say who we are to people. it was so embarrassing watching the interviews.

[singher23]

why do we always potatoes and uneducated people foward. was watching the CNN coverage and the sikh they called couldn't speak english properly. he said a few punjabi words (kay etc.) in the interview and said sikhs call their temples gurdwaras then called the gurdwara a church. a white non-sikh explained better than the sikh man did. we actually need to say who we are to people. it was so embarrassing watching the interviews.

Yeah I saw that too I think. It was a guy with a pink turban and trimmed beard. The first thing he did was get Guru Nanak Dev Ji's birthday wrong. That guy didn't know squat.

Later in the evening they had someone from the Sikh Coalition on, and that guy did a really good job.