CHICAGO, IL, USA—American newspaper USA Today published a report on ‘Islamic Terrorism’ showing picture of a Sikh man. While the news report is about President Donald Trump signing executive orders to keep ‘Islamic Terrorists’ out, USA Today has wrongfully used picture of an American Sikh to accompany the report.
Sikhs are easily distinguished due to their flowing beards and turbans, and have been targeted due to their identity after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, along with Muslims.
USA Today reported, “President Trump made good on one of his most controversial campaign promises Friday when he suspended the U.S. refugee program, temporarily banned all immigrants from seven Muslim countries and ordered his administration to develop “extreme vetting” measures for immigrants from those countries.”
While the news story on its website shows picture of President Trump signing the executive order, the story was posted on Twitter accompanied by picture of an American Sikh.
@ShadyNT @USATODAY bahaha really? Showing a sikh when topic is islamic terrorists?
— Jesse Sweeney (@JesseASweeney) January 27, 2017
This past week, NBC News also posted picture of a Sikh man in a video on Twitter titled “radical Islamic terrorism”. The tweet was later removed, however NBC did not tender an official apology.
Since Donald Trump took office, there have been at least seven hate crimes against the Sikhs in the United States, with one incident involving an act of arson on a Woodland, CA, restaurant owned by a Sikh Californian. Such careless and blatantly ignorant mistakes impact lives and safety of Sikh Americans. Since 9/11, Sikhs have been a large target of hate crimes, even though there was no link between the Sikhs and terrorists who attacked the World Trade Centers. Shortly after the terrorist attack in New York, a Sikh man named Balbir Singh Sodhi was murdered at his gas station in Mesa, AZ. He was asked to “go back to his country” while he was shot at in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
@USATODAY This is a Sikh man. Your ignorance misleads readers about Sikhs. Why the need to show ANYONE as representative of a terrorist?
— Gurjeet Kaur Singh (@gurjeetkaur) January 28, 2017
@USATODAY You’re putting turbaned Sikhs like me at risk of racist attacks with such idiocy. And don’t just change it to a picture of Muslim.
— Gurjeet Kaur Singh (@gurjeetkaur) January 28, 2017
Mughals were mighty rulers of there times.
Mimicry is the best form of Flattery.
Mughals were the chosen people during their rule.
Any mimicry of their dress code would have earned there wrath .
So if slaves rebel against the rulers their heads get chopped which is a favourite method of killing by Mid easterners.
Right, now that I have totally demolished the opposite argument you were making – that Sikhs were ‘forced’ to adopt Mughal dress – above you are now performing contortion to take up the completely contrary position that Sikhs were ‘mimicking’ dress code of their oppressors! Schizophrenic argument that underlines the fact that stupid people never alter their views to fit the facts but rather alter the facts to fit their views. And of course if you are ‘rebelling’ you are no longer a slave.
Hair are our identity and is this what is hurting you RSS dogs – Hindus have bodees we do not complain! Taliban let talk about the RSS who are more like Taliban cowards attacking minorities, ganging up on innocents and do not go on barking about Hindus they are most devious as history explains it – what is atheist hindu – perhaps RSS dogs who do not really believe in religion but in ideology of harassment and tormenting humans. You have learned nothing so far and not going to like Miss Kaur saying why are you trolling around Sikhs because you like interfering – typical of the Hindu atheist……..
USA is a great Nation.
Sikhs need to educate and live as good neighbours with all the Americans as a family.
Sikhs look and behave like Taliban then get upset when identified as Taliban. Think please. Not all Sikhs look as Taliban, only fundamentalist Keshdhari Sikhs look this way and even regular Sikhs have pity on them for their Middle Eastern appearance. Even most Keshdhari Sikhs tie beard at least or use glue, not like this. Sikhs very much concerned on hairs. Just hair only. If you wish to keep then keep but also these photos will be taken. Now every one has cell, when Sikh is seen many laugh and take photo with phone for sharing with friends. Hindu atheist not my concept, this concept originated long before me, long before Sikhism also. Very well established in literature which Moron Singh unfamiliar with and has stood test of time.
What are talking about? Your statement is all over the place, please step out of your echo chamber. Im assuming you are referring to amritdhari Sikhs as the “radicals” and therefore by keeping the clothing, the beard long and a dhumalla – they are equivalent to the Taliban? Are you trying to compare a decree by the 10th Guru of the Sikhs as indoctrinating the Taliban? Using hair fixers is an aesthatic choice that was dawned on royalty back in the day and later promoted by the immersion of British culture. So you take pictures of Sikhs on your cell and laugh after sharing with your friends? Please provide sources if you are going to making claims in your incoherent ramblings.
Mr Krishnan , Since when looks have been equated with behavior . shows your level of intelligence ?
‘ Not all Sikhs look as Taliban, only fundamentalist Keshdhari Sikhs look this way and even regular Sikhs have pity on them for their Middle Eastern appearance.’ So baptised Sikh who is following Guru Gobind SIngh Ji’s instruction given on 13th April 1699 is in your pitiful estimation a fundamentalist comparable to taliban? They are not just devout pious Sikhs because they dare to follow the principles they have been baptised with? What am I talking about principles for with a person like you, such things are utterly alien to wretch who has gloated over rape and murder of Sikhs and wishes to do more such criminal acts. I suppose you take other such self-stimulatory photos on your cell as well to bestially gloat over with your ‘friends’ eh? Women, children, animals… No such thing as atheist Hindu just your pathetic desperate hypocritical rationale of trying to prevent people laughing at you when you talk of your religious beliefs. It must be very galling for you that Sikhs are however prepared to stand up despite any insult or mockery for their religious beliefs. Explains why you resent us so much as we are a constant reminder of the shame you must feel at not being able to similarly stand up for your faith openly and publicly, instead feebly resorting to coming up with ‘atheist Hindu’ to explain your cowardice. Be proud of being a Hindu, try to be a good one – nothing to be ashamed about when you wear the tilak and dhoti.
Situation is very simple. Man is wearing gigantic beard and white turban on head in style of Osama bin Laden. Due to publicity of 9/11 attacks, most in USA associates this look with radical Islamic terror. Therefore this man perceived as radical Islamic terrorist. If Sikhs do not want to change look, they will suffer because of this. That’s it. Sikh child raised with hairs in West or East will be suffering problems, may be minor like joke or photo, may be serious like job or housing discrimination, may be fatal like hate crime or sectarian violence. Only the luck will tell.
Same man wearing ‘gigantic beard and turban’ fought in World War 1 trenches and World War 2 jungles for the Allies as well against the taliban’s forefathers in 18th and 19th Century. We are not giving up our identity for anybody just because they are ignorant of who we are and what we stand for. Sikhs were born to stand out so that they might stand up and the very fact that Sikhs have stuck to that silhouette despite wars, pogroms and discrimination shows you how strong a people we are – steel is forged when iron plunged into fire. I don’t expect you to understand this indomitability as you favour quantity over quality.
That is no answer.
A semblance to Osama bin laden will cause trouble to all the western Sikhs.
It was actually the strong Mughal empire which made us to copy their dress code.
‘It was actually the strong Mughal empire which made us to copy their dress code.’ RSS Harinder / Harish makes another desperate stab at presenting illogical as fact. How did Mughal Empire make us follow their dress code, exactly? You never heard of Vaisakahi 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh Ji himself gave the five kakkars to the Sikhs? The 10th guru whose four sons and mother would be murder by the Moghuls decided to honour them by copying their dress code? A dress code which readily identified Sikhs as wearing a dastaar was punishable by death under the Moghuls who saw it as an affront as it symbolised sovereignty and royalty. Moghul bounties were put on the heads of Sikhs readily identifiable in their distinctive daardis and dastaars during the 18th Century. Know the facts of history before you try to pervert them.
It is actually the middle eastern looks which is getting them into the trouble.
They also need to be liberal in there attitude and should live like a happy family in there new Nations.
‘It is actually the middle eastern looks which is getting them into the trouble’ – have you finally given up your pretence of being a Sikh at last, Harish?
M Singh ,Good job finally you exposed the reality of Harinder. Make an effort if we can improve IQ of Mr Krishnan he hasn’t learnt anything so far. Sikhs have to make correction, he knows a lot about us.
I have never heard case where Hindu atheist was labeled by newspaper as “radical Islamic terrorist.” Sikhs must think why this happening so often on them and make necessary correction.
That’s because no such thing as ‘Atheist Hindu’ . It is just invented euphemism you have come up with to try and explain / reconcile your hypocritical views. On the one hand you want to be associated with Hinduism (nothing wrong with that) but on the other you don’t want the scorn and derision from the gora about you if they find out you believe in what to them are pagan heathen ideology (animal worship, idolatory, deities, caste etc) so you come up with ‘atheist Hindu’ as a flag of convenience.
You can have political terrorist who could be atheist, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that the Tamil Tigers were secular and didn’t allow religion for its members. I’m also sure I can also remember attacks by groups over animal rights etc.
You will never find an atheist Terrorist.
‘You will never find an atheist Terrorist’. Again factually incorrect as the Red Brigade, Bader Mein Hoff gang and Maoist insurgents proves. Not to mention leaders like Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot who terrorised not just their own populations but mass murdered with impugnity.
Hitler’s. killing of Jews shows his anti sementism. So is of religious origin.
Communism of Stalin ,Red Brigade and pol pot is another violent ideology given by Jew Karl max which is opposed by religion groups.
It really is breathtaking how you and your compatriot Rajagopal are content to just post your ignorance and present them as ‘alternative facts’ (which means lies) on this website. Hitler was highly sceptical of religion and his antisemitism comes from what he himself would call his ‘Bible’ – a book by Madison Grant called ‘Passing of the Great Race’ which postioned scientific rascism in opposition to Christianity which he claimed was absurd in championing the oppressed weakened society. Grant recommended elimination of the so-called ‘unfit’ as natural. As for ‘Karl Max’ – I don;t know who this is or what influence he could have had on communist dictators and atheist terrorists. ‘Karl Marx’ however was not a Jew but actually baptised a Lutherian Protestant (like his father) and lived his life as a confirmed atheist before he wrote his manifesto Das Capital which would go onto to become bible of atheists intent upon mass murder as a means of reforming their societies.
All terrorists have a religion.
Religion is the biggest inspiration for Terrorist.
It has a casual Relation ship.
So you admitting that the RSS are a terrorist organisation at last.
RSS are Nationalists people.
They have not terrorized any one except in the Gujarat riots.
So the RSS didn’t terrorise a couple in a Chennai cinema when they beat them for not standing up to the national anthem? They didn’t terrorise anyone transporting cows when they murdered them? They didn’t terrorise the Christian Indian when they burned down their churches and launched their intimidatory Ghar Wapsi programme to stop Hindus converting to Christianity? They didn’t terrorise anyone ‘except in Gujrat riots? When they committed murder and rape you mean? Former Maharastraa Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif termed the BJP’s ideological mentor RSS as India’s top terrorist organisation in November 2015. He claims that RSS activists have been indicted in at least 13 terror cases across India. “RSS activists have been charge sheeted in at least 13 cases of terror acts in which RDX explosives has been used. IF organisations like Bajrang Dal are taken into account then the number of such cases goes up to 17””, said Mushrif.“The RSS is India’s number one terrorist organisation, there is no doubt on this” said Mushrif, referring to the 2007 Mecca Masjid bombing in Hyderabad, the 2006 and 2008 Malegaon blasts in Maharashtra and the 2007 Samjhauta Express bombings among others. “The RSS as a terror organisation has nopthing to do with political power. IT is immaterial which party is in power. It is the system that is working, it’s the Brahminical system. And when I say Brahminical, it doesn’t mean the Brahmin, it’s the mentality, the attitude to dominate and oppress” he said.
Brahmins are nice people and so is Brahminism.
RSS is an Nationalist organization who worship Lord Ram and Lord Krishna of Ramayana and Maha Bharat Fame.
I have posted Maharastra Inspector General of Police S M Mushrif’s comments probably 20 times over the past year whenever you insist the RSS is nothing but harmless country club and you never ever address or rebut his police allegations about them. Same deafening silence also comes from your compatriot Rajagopal. And let us not forget number one RSS poster boy is Nathuram Godse who murdered the very father of the nation and the fact RSS has been banned many times in modern Indian history for its extremist communal agenda.
RSS is a Nationalist organization.
Inspector Mushrif is no authority.
One killer does not describe the whole community .
Nathuram Godse was probably upset over partition and the riots that followed.
Hindus and Sikhs have been religiously cleansed from Pakistan.
M Singh you are a RSS baiter guy who does not speak about the well being of Hindu community..
Long live RSS
But you always say we have to trust and believe in the police no matter what. Now you say Maharastra Police Chief’s views on terrorism are to be ignored and dismissed simply because he is talking of RSS? And how disingenuous of you to suggest that Nathuram Godse is not the number one folk hero of the RSS – you are ready to abandon and dishonour him simply because he has become inconvenient to the false image you are trying to present. The communal violence of 1947 partition not only cruelly affected Hindus and Sikhs but also Muslims who were similarly displaced and suffered violence also. I do not choose to ignore the pain and anguish of innocents just because of their religion but at least you acknowledge the RSS is about the well being of the Hindu community although I think at least the Dalit would disagree with you. Sikhs are about the well being of all humanity and all Indians irrespective of their religion even confused atheists like your alter ego Rajugopal.
Opinion of random police official here or there always will be present on individual level, this is common sense in free country like Indian democracy. Question is what is consensus across all police, security, military, intelligence, and various other government agencies at national level, and what actions they take as result. Sometime temp ban happens to soothe sentiments but always it is lifted with complicit support from government. Most these agencies are themselves RSS influenced, this is obvious, RSS is major part of Indian identity. RSS not some small terrorist unit on frontline, RSS is ideology above even major Indian political party from which government officials are selected to man committee and so on.
‘Opinion of random police official here or there always will be present on individual level, this is common sense in free country like Indian democracy.’ But that does not apply to the Sikhs however. Any and every comment against Sikhs is taken as being factual and accurate and what use is consensus when you admit that those agencies are infiltrated by RSS supporters as well, then of course they are just going to follow the RSS line which is in the ascendancy at present (in contrast to past where its number one proponent Godse murdered the father of the country and RSS was banned for decades). RSS maybe major part of Indian identity now but it is not and will never be major part of Sikh identity as we don’t agree with its fundamental ideology of wanting to dominate and enforce a Hinduvta hegemony on non-Hindu Indians. The same was true of the Nazi Party which once boasted the majority population of Germany as being either party members or supporters. Doesn’t make it right. We see the same pattern repeated in countries that think one party state is in the best interest of the nation even though they will hold ‘elections’. I want democratic secular country which protects the religious rights of all its peoples without fear or favour and I think most Indians – even those who have fallen into RSS membership looking for some kind of identity and fellowship – want that too.
Ignorance is not a bliss, We have one leader who is spreading hate and that is enough . It is the responsibility of the news organisations to keep him in check and be careful in publishing news. There is no dress code for terrorists and they have no religion.
We are all SPACE – TIME Travellers to distant planets ,galaxies and parallel Universes.
Just enjoy this journey to distant lands.
Face ups and downs of life with equanimity and grace.
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Dangerous ideologies in world are
1) Fanaticism
2) Racism
3) Fascism
4) imperialism
5) Hyper Nationalism.
you forgot the real #1, for hundreds of years, islamism
and the 2000+ year old hierarchy, classist, #1, #2, #3, #5 amalgamation of a cult on steriods
Yes Pakistan was born and we Sikhs were driven out of our home land in 1947 due to islamism.
Very insidious of you to try and insinuate that ‘Sikhs’ were driven out of our homeland when Pakistan was born. The Sikh homeland and heartland is Punjab and that means East Punjab as much as it did West Punjab (where Hindus were also forced out with Muslims having to make the same journey in the opposite direction because of communalism). East Punjab in 1947 also incorporated territories of HM and Haryana (which was cleaved off form Punjab land by 1966 referendum). Sikhs did not leave their homeland in Pakistan as ‘refugees’ who found home in East Punjab and Delhi as you are trying to suggest.
Sikhs did not want to leave any part of Punjab, they wanted separate Sikh nation but were forced. As Hindus we allowed you to enter our country thinking mistakenly you are one of us, then the terrorism started Bhindranwale running around shooting people left right as some kind of supreme judge and executioner. Shame on Sikhs for supporting this terrorist ideology.
As usual you present total falsehood as a fact. Sikhs were offered the chance to reconstitute their own sovereign nation again in 1946 and 1947 but were totally taken in by the assurances of solidarity and kinship given by Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru and the Congress Party. If Sikhs wanted separate SIkh nation again they could have had it there and then but our leader at the time Tara Singh was short sighted and trusting. As for you Hindus let us into India
this is the old RSS propaganda line / lie designed to change history. Don’t you know Maharajah Ranjit Singh’s Khalsa Raj Sikh Empire encompassed territory of present day Pakistan, all of Punjab (West and East north of the Sutlej), Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. Of course you don’t know so let me educate you again. The drawing of the border between India and Pakistan to the detriment of the Sikhs was largely due to Nehru’s duplicity with Master Tara Singh. Nehru made promises (that he never intended to keep) to the Sikhs which were designed to prevent Tara Singh taking up Mountbatten’s offer to restore a Sikh kingdom (albeit one with a smaller territory than before annexation). Mahatama Gandhi toured the Punjab and made speeches to the Sikh masses backing up Nehru’s Congress claims that the Sikhs sovereignty would be respected within a greater India. Sikhs were stupid too trusting and completely bamboozled by Nehru (a man whose integrity would have been revealed to them if they had known he was committing adultery with Mountbatten’s wife at the same time which who knows might have led to Mountbatten giving a little less territory to India as it had been generally supposed for example that Lahore would go to India which would have great for the Sikhs in terms of their military and religious history (Nankana Sahib would have been ceded as well). As reported in Young India, 19th March 1931, Mahatma Gandhi addressed the Sikhs in Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib Delhi and said “I ask you to accept my word and the resolution of the Congress that it will not betray a single individual Sikh much less the Sikh community. If it ever thought of doing so, it would only hasten its own doom… I pray you to unbossom yourself of all doubt and apprehensions. Let God be witness to the bond that binds me and the Congress to you. I venture to suggest that the non-violence creed of the Congress is the surest guarantee of good faith and our Sikh friends have no reason to fear that it would betray them. For the moment it did so the Congress would not only thereby seals its own doom but that of the country also. Moreover the Sikhs are a brave people. They know how to safeguard their rights by the exercise of arms, if it ever come to that”. That same Gurdwara was attacked by Congress led mobs in 1984. At a press conference in 1946 as reported in the Statemans newspaper July 7th 1946, Nehru said “the brave SIkhs of Punjab are entitled to special consideration, I see nothing wrong in an area set up in the north wherein the SIkhs can also experience the glow of freedom”. Then in 9th December 1946 he presented a resolution in the session of constituent assembly “Adequate safeguards would be provided for minorities in India. It was a declaration, a pledge, and an undertaking before the world’ a contract with millions of Indians and therefore in the nature of a oath which we must keep”. He then passed a resolution in the Congress committee on 5th January 1947 “The rights of the Sikhs in Punjab should not be jeopardized”. In July 1947 they passed resolution “In the divided Indian PUnjab special constitutional measures are imperative to meet the just aspirations and rights of the Sikhs”. Now talk of Sikhs breaking the Constitution when bad faith has been given to them after 1947 despite these assurances. We are the most loyal people of India because we keep our word and expect you to keep yours. In addition to the above I suggest you also read BJP leader and newly nominated Rajya Sabha member Dr Subramanian Swamy’s comments on Bhindranwale on 24th April 2016 in Hindustan Times when he termed the 1984 attack on Darbar Sahib foolishness on the part of then prime minster Indira Gandhi. Addressing the students of Lovely Professional University he said he believed Bhindranwale was a preacher who promoted Sikhism and motivated youth to stay away from drugs. ‘Since Bhindranwale at that time was only 35, his style of preaching was a bit aggressive, he said, and that’s what prompted many to think he was a hardliner, even a terrorist. I met him many times before Operation Bluestar. He would call media for casual meetings in routine at Akal Takht so he was not a terrorist.’ Mahatma Gandhi, father of the country, was murdered by RSS terrorist Nathuram Godse who is still your number 1 Hinduvta poster boy.
1) to 5) all fundamental tenets of RSS.
Which empire has RSS made.
When have they been Fascist.
When have they been fanatic.
We Sikhs are actually more fanatics.
You are not a Sikh, Harish Sharma, you are not fooling anybody. And I have given you example upon example showing that the RSS is a fascist and fanatical organisation dedicated in its talibanesque ambition to force all people under its hegemony.
RSS opposes Taliban movement strongly and we take actions to control Talibanization attempts by Muslims.
The RSS in its desire for dominance and imposing a supposedly nationalist Bharat hegemony on Indian peoples who have different traditions is behaving with the same fantaicism and religious intolerance as the Islamic Taliban. You demolish the Babri Mosque at Ayodhi they blow up the statues of Buddha in Afghanistan. When the RSS gives up this mythologised entitlement obsession that it somehow is the older brother and must be given due deference by everybody else then you can talk of the RSS as being a force for communal harmony in the country.