Three days before the 9/11 anniversary, 53-year-old Sikh-American Inderjit Singh Mukker was brutally beaten by a 17-year-old assailant in an apparent hate crime case in Chicago. Mukker, a cab driver, was assaulted on September 8 when the assailant pulled up to his car yelling racial slurs, including, “Terrorist, go back to your country, Bin Laden!” and “why are you driving that small Prius, I’ve got a big SUV?”
According to The Sikh Coalition, Mukker, a US citizen and father of two, was on his way to a grocery store and was repeatedly cut off by a young driver. He pulled over to the side of the road to let him pass, but the driver instead pulled in front of his car and aggressively approached Mukker’s car. Moments later, the driver emerged from his car, reached into the car and began punching him in the face causing him to lose consciousness, bleed profusely and suffer a fractured cheekbone and a laceration to his cheek. He was rushed to the hospital, where he received six stitches, treatment for lacerations, bruising and swelling.
On 9/11, DuPage County State Attorney Robert B. Berlin announced that the suspect is being charged with aggravated battery and described the attack on Mukker as a “road rage incident“. The Sikh Coalition called the statement “shocking and completely unacceptable” and demanded that the US Department of Justice prosecute the attack as a hate crime. “You cannot address the problem of hate in this nation if you refuse to acknowledge its existence,” said Harsimran Kaur, The Sikh Coalition’s legal director.
Kaur said her group believes that Mukker was targeted and assaulted because of his articles of faith, namely, his beard and turban. “We request an immediate investigation and call on local and federal agencies to investigate this attack as a hate crime,” Kaur added.
The group said the attack is just the latest in a line of violent attacks on Sikhs in America. In 2014, Sandeep Singh, a Sikh father in New York City, was run over and dragged 30 feet after being called a “terrorist”. In 2012, a gunman walked into a Sikh house of worship, shot and killed six innocent Sikh victims in Oak Creek, Wisconsin.
The US Department of Justice has investigated more than 800 incidents against Sikh, Arab, Muslim and South Asian Americans since 9/11. According to a 2009 report, 41 percent of Sikhs surveyed in New York City had been called derogatory names, such as “Osama bin Laden” or “terrorist”. According to the same report, 9 percent of Sikh adults have been physically assaulted since 9/11 because of their religious identity.
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My blood is boiling. This is beyond all forgiveness. I’m fed up with all of the hate crimes here.
Damn rights it was a hate crime, if that was all said. Try it as one.
More radical religion i hate to say.
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE..,IT JUST HAS TO BE.!
The heck with religion? right or wrong, PICK ONE!we are intelligent enough to know the difference?
Irony of all this is, long ago the Sikhs were created from Hindus to fight against the Muslim invaders who raped, pillaged and murdered millions in India.
Sikhs were not seperated to fight against Muslims brother. Sikhs seperated themselves because they did not agree with the Hindu religious beliefs. Khalsa aims to fight against injustice, not Muslims.
Well said !