New York—The total number of racial hate crimes in the United States have declined slightly as compared to 2017, but the recent statistics released by FBI states that the number of such cases against Sikhs in this country has increased by 300%. But the country’s leaders say that this increase in numbers is too small.
A total of 20 cases of racial hatred against Sikhs were registered in the United States during the year 2017, but the number has increased to 60 in 2018. The crime of racial hatred against the Sikhs is the third highest in the total crimes.
43% of all racial hate cases are registered against Jews; whereas 14.6 per cent is against Muslims and 4.3 per cent against Sikhs.
“The 2018 Hate Crime Statistics, released by the FBI earlier this week shows that hate crimes continue to be a threat to minorities throughout the nation and showed a marked increase in hate crimes committed against Sikhs,” said SALDEF Executive Director Kiran Kaur Gill. “This marked increase reinforces the commitment by the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education to broaden Sikh Awareness, continue to partner with law enforcement to ensure accurate reporting, proper identifications and swift investigations, and to continue to advocate for new legislation.”
In 2018, the number of cases relating to racial hate crimes in the United States was 7,120, compared to 7,175 in the previous year.
Hate crimes have been on the rise against the Sikhs since the Sept 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. On September 11, 2001, when the New York World Trade Center buildings were attacked by Islamist terrorists, a Sikh named Balbir Singh Sodhi was murdered simply because his murderer wanted to target Muslims.
Then during the year 2013, Oak Creek Gurdwara Sahib in Wisconsin was attacked; where six Sikh devotees were gunned down.
About five million Sikhs live in the United States. They believe that the actual number of cases of racial hatred against the Sikhs is high, but most of these cases are never reported to the police.
