Since the attacks on 9/11, Sikhs around the country have suffered intimidation or worse due to the ignorant prejudices of others. Daljeet Singh is another that can be added to that unfortunate list.
Singh, who is from India, was on a Greyhound bus in Texas where he happened to meet Mohammed Chotri. Chotri, a Pakistani-American, spoke Singh’s native language of Punjabi so the two struck up a conversation.
A female passenger, identified as Tianna Decamp, heard this conversation and decided to take matters into her own hands. She told the police that the two men were “acting weird” and speaking about a bomb in Arabic.
Two other passengers, Anthony Lillie and Kelly Morris, physically detained the two men until police arrived. The two were arrested and questioned by the FBI for nearly 30 hours before being cleared.
Singh now wants the three passengers held accountable for their actions. He filed a criminal complaint with the help of the Sikh Coalition hoping charges will brought up in the matter.
In a statement, Singh said:
“The only crime I committed was wearing a turban, having a beard and speaking in a different language to another brown man on a bus.”
These types of instances have gained more attention in the media since the rise of Donald Trump, but they have been happening for years. Sikhs are often confused for Muslims, even though the two groups have historically been opposed.
The most notable attack against Sikhs was the shooting at a gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship, in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Wade Michael Page killed six people and wounded four others.
Fresno, California is still dealing with the January murders of two Sikh men. Sikhs have been a part of the Fresno area for more than 100 years according to the chief of police.
Watch the video above to learn more about discrimination against Sikhs. This is a nation whose diversity enabled it to be great. This country must do better.
Featured image via Flickr by Jasleen Kaur and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
