There is no such thing as a ‘mistaken’ hate crime, Prabhjot Singh, who was mistaken for a Muslim, tells Senate committee

Politicians must hold each other accountable for putting people in danger as many among them find it fashionable to scapegoat immigrants and Muslims, a Sikh victim of hate crime in the U.S. told a Senate committee on Tuesday.

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a physician and teacher at Columbia University, who was mistaken for a Muslim and attacked by goons in 2013, said the notion of being mistakenly attacked was misplaced. “We cannot accept this premise. There is no such thing as a mistaken hate crime. No one should ever be targeted. The only mistake is thinking otherwise.”

Democratic Senator Alan Franken pointed out that the White House has not sent a clear signal on preventing hate crimes.

No leniency

Mr. Franken repeatedly asked Eric Treene, who represented the Justice Department at the Senate Judiciary committee’s hearing on responses to increase in religious hate crimes, whether President Donald Trump’s statements on Muslims and immigrants have encouraged hate crimes.

Mr. Treene said Attorney-General Jeff Sessions was clear that hate crimes must be prosecuted without any leniency, but avoided commenting on Mr. Trump’s statements. Mr. Treene said Jews faced the largest number of hate crimes, followed by Muslims. Dr. Singh told the committee: “I was horrified to hear our President last weekend telling thousands of people at a rally that immigrants are snakes waiting to bite America.”

Placing the personal violence that he suffered — jaw broken, he spent several days in the hospital — in the context of prejudice against Muslims and immigrants, Dr. Singh recalled: “None of the headlines during that time mentioned that a recent Somali immigrant, a Muslim who wore a hijab, was also attacked by the same group of young men that evening. They threw a bottle of urine at her face, cutting her nose. I knew this because she was in the stretcher next to me in the emergency room. When I asked reporters why they didn’t mention it, they said it would complicate the story, which was about a professor and doctor who was mistakenly attacked in his own neighbourhood.”

Dr. Singh said he was attacked or abused twice earlier, in the immediate aftermath of September 11. An estimated 2,50,000 Sikhs live in the U.S. According to a Stanford University survey, 70% of Americans mistake turban-wearers as Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or Shinto, and nearly half of Americans think of Sikhism as part of Islam. Sikhs were victims of racial violence in America even a century ago, but last year’s Presidential election campaign has unleashed a new wave of violence against the community.

Cruel times

“I am an optimist by nature, but the last months have felt particularly cruel as stories of pain and hardship have rippled across the Sikh community,” Dr. Singh told the Senate Committee, listing a series of recent attacks.

On April 16, Sikh cab driver Harkirat Singh was attacked in New York City; on March 3, a Sikh American man was shot in his driveway outside Seattle by a gunman who told him to “go back to your own country”. Last year, on September 25, Maan Singh Khalsa, an IT professional in California, was attacked and his turban knocked off by a group of assailants.

Dr. Singh said he was attacked by a group of 20-30 people. “I heard ‘terrorist’ and ‘Osama’ from behind as I felt my beard forcefully pulled.”

But the support that he received from Christian, Jewish and Muslim population of America was overwhelming, he recalled. He also thanked the New York police’s professional investigation into the hate crime.