OPINION: Trump knows a turban from a hat; to humiliate, however, is his birthright.

By Sujeet Rajan



NEW YORK: The braggadocio of businessman Donald Trump knows no bounds apparently. He’s the antithetical element in the presidential race, the candidate who instead of trying to spread the message of peace and harmony to bring together communities in America, knows to a perfection how to irrevocably humiliate minorities, especially Muslims, and distance himself from liberal minded folks.

Trump has not cared two hoots of promoting hatred and vengeance against radical Muslims – after putting all Muslims in the US under the Damocles’ sword of deportation. He has in random order threatened to wreack havoc in the lives of Muslims, from banning them in the US to exterminating them around the world.

The poll numbers have showed rampant support for Trump though, emboldening him even more in his rabid bravado. In Iowa, on Saturday, he proclaimed in his highly declaratory, irascible manner: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

Trump, has of course, also promised to deport 11 million or 15 million Mexicans back to Mexico, force a highly penitent Mexico thereafter to pay for thousands-mile-long border wall that is going to be as historic as the Great Wall of China. Needless to say, Mexicans don’t exactly throw roses at him in euphoria when he speaks.

On Sunday, in Iowa, Trump added the Sikh community in his growing list of despicable people living in the US, or conversely, in his case, the new community who can detest him only at the danger of providing him with perverse chance to laugh into their faces with an ‘I don’t give a damn’ attitude.

A Sikh man, wearing a red turban, and carrying a placard, ‘Stop Hate’ was thrown out of a Trump event at Muscatine High School. Trump looked at the silent Sikh protestor, who complied with security, for long seconds as he was led off.

Moments before the Sikh protestor was being led out, Trump had been talking of radical Islam and the terror that emanated from it, evoking the 9/11 attacks and the San Bernardino shootings.

After the adoring crowd broke into raucous chants of “U.S.A., U.S.A.,” with the Sikh protester ejected, Trump smirked a bit, maybe might have been reminded of some other encounters in the past with Sikhs, friends or foes alike, made a quip about the Sikh man’s turban: “He wasn’t wearing one of those hats was he?” referring to his campaign’s trademark ‘Make America Great Again’ hats, which are red in color, the same color as the turban the Sikh protestor was wearing.

Trump continued: “And he never will, and that’s okay, because we got to do something folks because it’s not working.”

It’s maybe OK to assume that in some parts of the country, in rural areas where directors love to shoot the ‘Texas Chainsaw’ kind of films, some hillbillies may not have seen a bearded Sikh man in a turban, or for that matter, a White man like Trump in fine Italian leather shoes. But to even imagine that Trump has not met or seen a Sikh man in a turban in his life, is like saying that one has lived in Times Square for 30 years and not seen a Broadway musical.

If nobody else, Trump is sure to have hobnobbed with his popular fellow colleague in industry, New York City hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal, who loves to wear red turbans, and like Trump, loves to build beautiful hotels. It’s impossible that they have not met numerous times at the parties and meets hosted by many, including Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who have close ties with the Trump and Chatwal families.

And maybe, just maybe, Trump might have seen a Sikh or two on his visits to India. Out of the 30 million plus Sikh population in the world, more than 21 million of them live in India.

Did you see a Sikh man on your travels to India, Mr. Donald Trump? Don’t you know that the turban they wear is an article of faith for them, not a hat? Try mocking a Sikh man in India the next time you are in India, Mr. Trump, and see thereafter how many fine hotels you and your children would be allowed to build in India. I think the word you might be looking at is: Nada.

It’s a well-known and documented fact that it’s the Sikh community, who have, even more than the Muslim community, bore the brunt of the hate-drenched aftermath of the 9/11 attacks 14 years ago. The first racist murder in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, came about on September 15, 2001, when Balbir Singh Sodhi, a gas station owner in Mesa, Arizona, was shot dead by a man who presumed him to be an Arab Muslim.

Over the years, many such attacks have happened. Many more Sikhs have been murdered, attacked brutally, chased and terrorized, bullied and mocked in schools and streets alike. Gurdwaras vandalized, Sikhs killed inside a gurdwara. The number of hate crime cases against the Sikhs spurt higher after every violent terrorist attack by radical Muslims, be it in the US or elsewhere around the world.

The Sikh protestor thrown out at Trump’s rally was peacefully showing his abhorrence for the hate-fueled speeches of Trump aimed against radical Muslims, for one simple fact: like a boomerang, violence by radical Muslims or violence against radical Muslims all come down to more murders and brutality of Sikhs in America.

And mind you, this comes only days after Trump said publicly at the Republican debate in South Carolina, addressing Gov. Nikki Haley, whose parents are Sikhs: “Nikki Haley is my friend.”

But, of course, Trump, doesn’t get it. Or likely, pretends to not get it. Either which way, he doesn’t care.

Trump has found his only mantra for becoming president of the United States is to create more fear, ooze perpetual panic in the American people, distrust of all skins of foreign color, at least till the polls get over in November – if he gets past the primaries hurdle.

Trump’s biggest ploy has been to get his White supporters to turn against dissenters, be it black (remember the Black Lives Matter protestor thrown out of a rally and almost lynched in the process), brown (including now Sikhs), yellow (Trump wants to bring China down on its knees) and any mixed folks in between.

Blame your parents, you not-white-looking folks. Either kowtow to me and my grand opinions or get the hell out of America, is Trump’s vision of how America is going to progress forward in the 21st century.

(Sujeet Rajan is Editor-in-Chief, The American Bazaar)