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I’m Sikh and after 9/11 I was accused of being a terrorist for wearing a turban


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https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/09/im-sikh-and-after-9-11-i-was-accused-of-being-a-terrorist-15224633/

I’m Sikh and after 9/11 I was accused of being a terrorist for wearing a turban

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Deljit SinghThursday 9 Sep 2021 10:00 am
 
Del Singh wearing his turban
On 9/11 when those 19 criminals hijacked four planes, they also unwittingly hijacked my identity (Picture Deljit Singh)

Like many others, I’ll never forget where I was when I first heard the news of 9/11

I had just returned from two days away at a company training course and put my bags down in the hallway of my home in Peterborough. My wife Jas went to make me a cup of tea and I switched on the TV. 

And there it was: one of the World Trade Centre buildings ablaze following an air crash. 

Both my wife and I sat and watched in horror and disbelief as people screamed and ran as the first tower collapsed, and then the second fell – it was heart-breaking to watch. We both went to bed that night feeling as if the day had been an awful dream and hoping that things might have some semblance of normality the following day. 

Walking out of Kings Cross station towards the taxi rank to get a cab I heard a man’s voice shout, ‘murderer’. It was frighteningly loud, as though someone was in my ear. I shook it off, thinking ‘it’s London, there are always nutters shouting random stuff.’ But as I climbed into the back of the black cab, I happened to look down and there was spit dripping down my jacket. Then it clicked: the man had been calling me a murderer and had spat on me.  

I was barely able to tell the taxi driver where I wanted to go as I wiped the phlegm sliding down my suit. I was in shock.  Me a murderer? What the hell had I done? And to whom?  

As a Sikh born in the UK in 1960, who started wearing a turban at age 10, racist abuse was commonplace throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with the likes of the National Front and BNP stoking the fires of hatred. Derogatory terms used to describe my turban ranged from, ‘you got a bad head wearing that bandage?’ to ‘raghead’ and ‘punkawalla’ jibes. Over time I’ve pretty much heard all the nasty comments people – usually Caucasian Britons – are capable of making about my turban.  

But after 9/11, the abuse escalated and unfortunately the Kings Cross assault wasn’t isolated. Following the attacks, I was regularly called a ‘terrorist’, ‘bomber’, ‘Bin Laden’ and referred to as being ‘ISIS’.  

Deljit Singh
Two weeks ago, I walked from my office in West London to the tube station and a group of four men outside a pub shouted at me: ‘Look, it’s the Taliban!’ (Picture: Deljit Singh)

A few days later – trying to put the incident in the station out of my head – I was staying overnight in Farnborough, where my company’s offices were. I popped out from my hotel to grab a bite to eat and a car drove past me at speed. The passenger threw a bottle at me, which smashed on the pavement in front of me. A young white lad half hanging out of the window screamed ‘terrorist <banned word filter activated>’. 

 
 

It was clear this mistaken identity thing wasn’t a one off. Things were getting very scary now.

The very next day in a sandwich shop, as I waited in line for my tuna melt, a little old lady sidled up to me and proceeded to hit me with her handbag while shouting, ‘you evil people’. The lady behind the counter escorted her out of the shop. One man corrected her, saying, ‘he’s not even a Muslim, he’s a Sikh’. 

Despite what she’d said, I ended up apologising for her and explaining that she probably equated my turban with Bin Laden, as she’d seen on TV no doubt.  Yes, the man was right I wasn’t a Muslim, I was a Sikh, but chances are this lady wouldn’t know what either faith was about, or the difference between us. 

Incidents like this show that one awful day also brought unforeseen chaos into the lives of Sikhs in the UK – including mine, all because I wore a turban and had a beard. The ignorance and abuse continued. 

As December approached, now three months after 9/11, I was asked by my company to fly to the US. I had my passport looked at 10 times at JFK as I waited in line at immigration. My fellow British travellers were appalled at my being singled out in this way – but I wasn’t surprised. America was still hurting and the threat of further terrorist activities were still so real that everyone at the airport was on edge.  

Sikhs still struggle with discrimination post-9/11, but rise above it
 
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My nervousness of walking the streets of New York was unfounded in that I got no grief from anyone; it was safer for me than the streets of Farnborough.  

 

However it didn’t last. On my final day in New York, I decided to visit the site of Ground Zero, to pay my respects to the victims of 9/11. I bought some flowers and walked to the place that had once been full of concrete and glass, and now was just mounds of rubble and boards covered in missing people posters. 

As I placed the flowers down, I felt eyes burning into the back of me. Turning around, I was confronted by a line of construction workers. With their arms folded they looked angrily at me, as though I didn’t have the right to be there. I walked over to them and explained how awful it was seeing the images in the UK and how heart-breaking it must have been for them and the people of America. 

Upon hearing my English accent one of the men turned to his colleague and said, ‘listen to this guy, he sounds just like an Englishman’. I said that I was an Englishman as I was born in the UK. They responded with: ‘but your guys did this’. I explained that I was a Sikh and added that, although the guys who did this were Muslim, they did not represent Muslims. I told them that all the Muslims I knew despised their actions, and saw them as criminals – which is what they were.

I then had to explain that I was a Sikh and not a Sheik, which is what they thought I had said. I asked they please not judge anyone who looked like me or who was a Muslim as a terrorist. 

 

The men’s reaction at Ground Zero scared me initially but, not one to cut and run, I was glad I had a chance to explain myself. In doing so, I hoped I might have stopped these guys from abusing someone else who, like me, had brown skin.

Deljit Singh
 As a Sikh, it is of course hurtful to be called a terrorist and to be compared to Bin Laden (Picture: Deljit Singh)

Traveling home from New York, I was profiled again, and searched this time. And, as a global traveller post 9/11, this profiling happened on pretty much every flight I took. At first, I wondered what the ‘SS’ hastily scribbled on my boarding pass meant. I found out that it stood for ‘secondary search’ and yes, I got this at every airport all over the world. 

After a while, when people like me got wise to the ‘SS’, a yellow highlighter pen was used to single me out for a secondary search.

The turban is an essential part of Sikhism. As a 10-year-old, I went from a top knot to wearing a turban and it became a part of me, defining me ever since. It’s not simply a head covering to protect and keep clean a Sikh’s uncut hair (called Kesh), it’s an identifier. 

As a warrior race founded 500 years ago, the turban also historically offered a degree of protection for the head. In a crowd of thousands, a Sikh man with his turban and beard will stand out. Sikh soldiers fighting in two world wars with allied forces wore turbans and not helmets. Sikh police officers around the world wear turbans. In the 1970s Sikhs in the UK fought to change the law, so they didn’t have to wear a crash helmet when riding motorcycles. It’s an integral part of our identity. 

On 9/11 when those 19 criminals hijacked four planes, they also unwittingly hijacked my identity. As their architect in chief, Osama Bin Laden, was often pictured wearing a turban it has been wrongfully associated with him. As a Sikh, it is of course hurtful to be called a terrorist and to be compared to Bin Laden. Not least because one of the cornerstones of the Sikh faith is, ‘Sarbat Da Bhalla’, which translates as ‘The Wellbeing for All’.  

Thankfully in recent years abuse aimed at me and other turban wearing Sikhs has generally lessened – although events like Brexit didn’t help. In fact, the weekend after the UK voted to leave the EU, I was abused in my hometown of Peterborough by a group of Brexiteers who were celebrating ‘getting their country back’. I was told to ‘go home’ and when I said I was born in the UK, I was told that ‘a dog born in a stable doesn’t make it a horse.’

And now, with the recent takeover in Afghanistan, I have had people shouting abuse at me in the street again. Two weeks ago, I walked from my office in West London to the tube station and a group of four men outside a pub shouted at me: ‘Look, it’s the Taliban!’ I felt a feeling of dread as I thought, ‘here we go again.’ 

I can’t bear for things to regress like this and so – following that incident – I posted on LinkedIn to make it clear that as a turban wearing Sikh, I have nothing in common with the Taliban. 

My post has now been seen by over 3million people and, with messages of support from all over the world, is proof that education works. If my post helps stop one person being abused then it was more than worth the time I spent writing it. The biggest and best change we can make is by educating people. 

My advice to others in the Sikh community is to always try to educate and inform others with kind words, and avoid conflict as violence only leads to more problems, and possible injury or even loss of life.  

As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the situation in Afghanistan and the real threat of yet more terror related attacks should make us all more vigilant but also more tolerant.

I hope and pray that in another 20 years from now we will have greater respect, love and understanding of one another’s differences.

As told to Minreet Kaur.

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He has a lot of videos and posts on LinkedIn,  his persistence of making as many people aware of the current situation is commendable,  wish the ignorant would grow up, they know the difference. Remember moving into Salford for uni just after 9/11 all the chavy 16-21 year old, shouted the taliban are moving in because house mate was wearing a phaag. A lot of scraps back then.

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1 hour ago, dallysingh101 said:

I notice the younger lot are like silent mice when it comes to talking about racism. 

There's likely less than in previous generations. But still incidents like this one last year

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-54147842

Sikh taxi driver in Reading attacked by four passengers

Published
21 September 2020
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Vaneet Singh
image captionVaneet Singh said it was "really frightening"

A Sikh taxi driver was attacked in his car as he drove four passengers home from a casino.

Vaneet Singh said the men slapped and shoved him as he drove along the A33 after collecting them from the Grosvenor Casino in Reading on Saturday night.

The 41-year-old said one of the men tried to remove his turban and asked him: "Are you Taliban?"

Police investigating the incident said no arrests have been made.

Mr Singh, who lives in Tilehurst with his wife and three young children, said he had started working as a taxi driver because the coronavirus pandemic had stalled his job teaching music to children in Slough.

He said: "It was horrible, really frightening, I will never work the nightshift again. I'm still very scared."

Mr Singh said the person in the middle of the back of the car pulled his turban as he was driving and slapped him on the head, while others kicked and punched the back of his driver's seat.

He said the passengers were well behaved at the start of the journey but "totally changed" as it went on.

"It's very bad experience. It's my religion so I respect my turban," he said.

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said the force was investigating a report of assault and appealed for witnesses.

 
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/chandigarh-news/punjaborigin-mp-condemns-killing-of-23-yr-old-sikh-youth-in-canada-101631202234674.html

Punjab-origin MP condemns killing of 23-yr-old Sikh youth in Canada

Prabhjot Singh Katri, 23, was found murdered at an apartment in Truro town on Sunday in a suspected case of racially-motivated hate crime
By Press Trust of India, Toronto
PUBLISHED ON SEP 09, 2021 09:13 PM IST

An Indo-Canadian lawmaker on Thursday condemned the murder of an Indian youth in Canada’s Nova Scotia province, saying hate, violence and racism have no place in the country and the fight to eradicate these menaces must continue.

Prabhjot Singh Katri, who worked for a taxi service company as well as one or two restaurants in Truro, had come to Canada from India in 2017 to study. (Twitter)

Prabhjot Singh Katri, 23, was found murdered at an apartment in Truro town on Sunday in a suspected case of racially-motivated hate crime.

Katri, who worked for a taxi service company as well as one or two restaurants in Truro, had come to Canada from India in 2017 to study.

“My heart goes out to the family and loved ones of Prabhjot Singh Katri who was killed in Truro, NS. This is an unacceptable act of hate,” tweeted Sonia Sidhu, member of parliament for Brampton South.

“Hate, online hate, violence and racism have no place in our country and we must continue our fight to eradicate it,” the 53-year-old parliamentarian added.

According to a CBC Canada report, police are treating the death as a homicide. A man was arrested in connection with the murder but was later released.

 

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How Islamophobia Has Impacted Sikh Communities

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September 11, 2021

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April 9, 2017 photo, Gurwin Ahuja, center, a 27-year-old political operative who helped organize a new awareness campaign to stop attacks against Sikhs, meets with Sikh leaders at the Guru Nanak Darba
( Bebeto Matthews / AP Photo )

Following 9-11 there was an uptick in “misdirected” anti-Muslim hate crimes. The Sikh community bore the brunt of this violence because Sikh men often wear turbans. Many Americans were unable to discern that these brown men with Turbans were far more likely to be South Asian than Middle Eastern and more likely to be Sikh than Muslim. 

Although there's no 'correct' target for hate, misdirected Islamophobic violence against Sikh Americans has continued for two decades. The Takeaway spoke with activist and author Valarie Kaur about what the post 9/11 era has meant for Sikh Americans and her new documentary Divided We Fall: Americans In The Aftermath.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/how-islamophobia-impacted-sikh-communities

 

https://valariekaur.com/911hub/

 

DIVIDED WE FALL: AMERICANS IN THE AFTERMATH

The go-to film on hate crimes in the aftermath of 9/11. Watch the 20 year anniversary re-release for free.

In the wake of 9/11, Valarie Kaur set out across the country as a college student, camera in hand, to document stories of hate violence on people of color, especially Sikh Americans. Galvanized by the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh father and family friend, Kaur captures stories that were not on the evening news. From the still-shocked streets of Ground Zero to the desert towns of the American west, her journey confronts the forces unleashed in a time of national crisis–racism and religion, fear and forgiveness. Kaur’s film chronicling her journey, Divided We Fall (2006) with director Sharat Raju, toured in 200 U.S. cities, won a dozen international awards, and became known as the go-to documentary on post-9/11 hate crimes.

DWF-Official-Movie-Poster-uai-516x783.jp
 

Now on the 20 year anniversary, we re-release the film for free, available to anyone, along with dialogue and educational guides. Watch and engage to learn the untold story of the impact of 9/11.

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Hounslow Sikh dad's awful memories of being told to ‘p*ss off home’ following 9/11 attacks

Warning: Contains mentions of racist abuse and Islamophobia

 
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Just two days after 9/11, a Sikh man from Hounslow was subject to racist and verbal abuseJust two days after 9/11, a Sikh man from Hounslow was subject to racist and verbal abuse (stock image) (Image: Unsplash

It was September 11, 2001, and Inky* was enjoying having drinks in a pub in Soho.

The Sikh man, who was in his early 40s at the time, was with friends when he saw breaking news appear on the pub TV.

Inky, who lives in Hounslow, was one of many in the pub who watched the atrocity of 9/11 unfold on the screen.

Today (Saturday, September 11) marks 20 years since four hijacked planes crashed in the US, with two of them hitting the World Trade Centre in New York.

The tragedy, known as 9/11, led to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people in the US as well at least 500,000 people in the ensuing ‘War on Terror’.

The atrocity also led to a huge surge in hate crimes committed against Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims.

 

READ MORE:Sikh civil servant 'treated like a criminal' after he was denied entry into Wembley for size of article of faith

He said: “At first they didn’t say who was responsible for it, but as soon as the term ‘Islamist terrorist’ came out, I said ‘right we’re all in for it.’

“Because those who were going to go out and hit you, don’t have the intellect to realise there is a difference between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus.

“As soon as they mentioned ‘Islamist terrorist' and all the pictures were them wearing turbans and photos of Bin Laden were posted…it took a day or so for it to sink in.”

“I felt nervous, apprehensive, you try to avoid places you know that trouble is going to brew"

Just two days after 9/11, Inky was a victim of verbal and racist abuse.

“[They said], ‘You f**king Bin Laden, p*ss off home’, that’s the level it started at. It was never one, it was four or five of them," he explained.

“I felt nervous, apprehensive, you try to avoid places you know that trouble is going to brew… If you’re sensible and sensitive, you can sense where racism exists. It doesn’t need to have a sign saying ‘we are racists here’, it’s the attitude that says it all.”

Inky, now 66, describes how many Sikh men who wore turbans were also called ‘towelheads’ following the 9/11 attacks.

He added: “Until you’ve suffered and until its been aimed at you and seen it happen, people don’t believe it exists.”

Turbans are an important part of the Sikh identity and an essential part of their religion.

Sikh men and women maintain five articles of faith, known as the five Ks. These are: kes (long, uncut hair), kara (steel bracelet), kanga (wooden comb), kirpan (small sword) and kachera (soldier-shorts).

One of the articles of faith, kes , which involves keeping uncut hair, is most commonly maintained with a turban.

Figures released in December last year showed the number of anti-Sikh hate crimes had increased in the UK by 70 per cent in the last two years, with 202 recorded in 2019-20.

And, despite the rise in hate crime toward Sikh communities in the UK, Inky highlights how “this wasn’t the first time we’ve suffered racial violence".

Inky, who was born in Kenya, moved to the UK in 1969 and grew up in Feltham. He vividly remembers the abuse he received, from being called a ‘p*ki’ to a ‘raghead.’

He said: “When we came over to England in 1969, we had the skinheads in those days. When I was at Kingston College, we marched with the anti-Nazi league against the skinheads. I’ve got bruises, cuts and scars to show for it.

“Our parents were really worried in those days, [they would say] ‘don’t go out, you’ll get beaten up’… we were caught between two cultures at the time.”

Inky recalls his younger brother, who was just aged 12, was “beaten up coming back from an evening class” and said such “treatment has been going on ever since".

In fact, Inky said he began to avoid Hounslow high street in order to escape racial abuse following 9/11.

“I’d been in these protests before, you learn from experience, you avoid going to places that you know you will get in trouble,” he said.

“All of a sudden the [racist] movement that been suppressed since the anti-Nazi league days, raised its voice again [post 9/11], because it hadn’t gone away - it’d gone underground.”

*Inky is a pseudonym as he did not want to reveal his identity.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/hounslow-sikh-dads-awful-memories-21527054

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https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tanmanjeet-dhesi-racism-parliament-b1923566.html

 

Sikh MP Tanmanjeet Dhesi describes the racist abuse he faces for wearing a turban

 

 

‘If I say something incorrect, it won’t just reflect on me, it will reflect on anybody that wears a turban’

 

Tanmanjeet Dhesi, Britain’s first MP to wear a turban, has described the racist attacks he has experienced throughout his life in the UK as a Sikh.

The Labour politician became the MP for Slough in 2017, the town in which he was born and raised to Indian parents.

Having faced racism throughout his life, starting in the school classroom when a pupil tried to rip his turban off, Dhesi described his experiences during an appearance on GB News.

He explained racism was a common and prevalent experience across the country for many from ethnic minorities, with attacks  having ramped up following the September 11 terror attacks.

Speaking to former Labour MP-turned-GB News host Gloria De Piero, he said: “When I grew up, somebody - one of my so-called classmates - thought it’d be very funny to try and pull off my turban.

“I was in tears and trying to come to terms with that as a child, and that is unfortunately the experience for many.”

He added:  “After the 9/11 attacks, the level of racism towards people, especially with turbans like me or with beards, increased substantially.”

Dhesi insisted racism spanned further than classrooms, describing the discrimination an Indian visitor who wore a turban faced by the House Commons.

“As he was queuing up outside Parliament, somebody filled with so much hatred made disparaging remarks to him, Islamophobic remarks to him, saying ‘go back to your country’,” he MP recounted.

 

“He also, unfortunately, also tried to pull off his turban.”

Dhesi admitted he had felt shame with the attack happening just outside Parliament, adding: “What image is that going to make of our country as he goes back to India?”

The MP, who was appointed Shadow Minister for the Railways, said he had been likened to the Taliban for the past couple of decades, due to the colour of his skin and his choice to wear a turban.

Members of the Sikh faith had been shot in the US following the September 11 terror attacks due to hatred, he said, hatred which is “instilled in so many people across not only North American, but Europe too.”

Dhesi said it was a privilege to be the first turban-wearing Sikh to sit in British Parliament - and indeed, European Parliament too - but with the title came an enormous sense of responsibility to represent the community which make up some one per cent of the population.

“If I say something incorrect, it won’t just reflect on me, it will reflect on anybody that wears a turban, any young children who face bullying.

“I want them to look up and say ‘if he can do it, why can’t I?.”

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1 hour ago, ChardikalaUK said:

It's always better to live amongst your own. I would never live in somewhere like Peterborough. Also, what was he thinking about going to ground zero a few months after the 9/11 attack? Use some common sense.

It's sad that our homeland is a 3rd world place and that's why we have run to all corners of the world.

That is not our way.

There is something in our psyche that does not allow this. 

We are the type of people that run towards trouble. For whatever reason our "boldness" and our "chardikala-ness " makes us behave in particular ways.

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