Kamalroop SinghUniversity of Birmingham

Young Sikhs and Identity: The Turban &TerrorismYoung Sikhs in a Global World, June 18-19, 2013 at Lund

University, Sweden

For some Sikh Youth the tragedy on 9/11 was a turningpoint in how the turban was viewed by the general publicand media. They were certain that the public and mediaconsidered the turban to have connotations withreligious extremism. A number of leaders even went ontovarious channels to educate people about thedistinctiveness of the Sikh dastar. For initiated KhalsaSikhs they are required to wear a turban as a religiousobligation. As a result of this perception some turbaned-Sikhs have been victims of racial violence and had theiridentity challenged by calls to assimilate into Westernsocieties. A number of Sikhs and Gurdware were thenattacked, resulting in a number of deaths. Sadly, thehate crimes culminated in the Wisconsin shootings, whichwas again a case of mistaken identity. The various Sikhchannels, websites, all had a frenzy of activity at thesevarious times, with lengthy discussions about how totackle this issue ‒ many going into deep discussion aboutthe ins and outs of Sikh theology and codes of disciplineknown as rahitnāme. 

This paper seeks to address how the youth in thissituation consolidated their identity within the widercommunities they live in.  For some Sikh youth itreinforced their identity, while for others they soughtto make the image softer and modern. In many instancesthey re-negotiated and reinterpreted what it meant towear a turban, and attempted to bridge the old with thenew.1 

September 11, 2001

The tragic events of September 11, 2001, shook the whole

world, and redefined the world we live in, and as we shall see

it would have great ramifications for the Sikhs. The terrorist

attack by Islamic extremists caused a substantial loss of

life. It was directed at the famous Twin Towers, which were a

part of the World Trade Centre ‒ a key valve of the economic

heart of the USA. The sudden attack brought the country to a

standstill and the videos of the Twin Towers falling in a

blazing inferno, reverberated throughout the world media.

Shortly afterwards numerous videos of the alleged

mastermind behind the plot, Osama bin Laden, surfaced. He

could clearly be seen with a white turban and beard.2 A number

of Sikh leaders, obviously anticipating a backlash, appeared

on news channels and attempted to educate the masses about

Sikhism.3 It was obvious from this response that the Sikh

institutions in India with the power and authority did not

have an action plan in place. At the time I wondered if this

was this beginning of something much worse. Later on that day

I went out and was greeted with angry looks, swear words, and

shouts of Taliban. I did not realise it was due to my white

turban, until I had a fleeting look of myself in a shop

window.

The Sikh Turban and What it Represents

Sikhs call the turban a dastār, pagh, or paghṛī, and may

wear turbans for a combination of reasons, mostly though it is

simply to adhere to the religious code or rahit. There are

ceremonies involving the turban for example the pagri rasam were

a young boy has his turban tied by his father for the first

time, marriage, and also takes place on the death of his

father, and even on his own death. Additionally, because

religious Sikhs do not cut their hair, it grows very long,

with male Sikhs tying their hair into a knot in the centre of

the head. The surrounding knot and head hair is then covered

by a turban. There are a number of different styles of turban,

but generally a Sikh winds folded cloth around the sides of

his or her head several times, until the hair is completely

covered.4 Due to the egalitarian nature of the Sikh Dharam

most female converts in the United States often wear turbans,

while a small proportion of Indian Sikh women do, most usually

wear a thin chiffon scarf called a chhunī, to cover their hair.

It is important to mention that Sikh boys usually wear a patkā,

a smaller cloth wound around the head and hair knot, but start

to wear full turbans in their teenage years, an obvious

visible symbol.

Generally it is considered that there is a great deal of

responsibility accompanied by wearing the turban, ‘Since Sikhs

who wear the turban represent the Guru, their actions to

reflect on the Guru and the Sikh Nation.’5 Waldron notes that a

Sikh has a religious obligation to present himself in public

as a combination of saint and warrior (Waldron 2002: 7). The

wearing of the turban is included in the Sikh Code of Conduct,

or Rehat Maryada (1955), which is a codification of rules of Sikh

conduct based on those taught by the Gurus. Even though the

turban is not one of the 5 K’s it is mentioned in the

historical codes of conduct or observances (Rahitnāmā) by

Prahlad Rai and Bhai Nand Lal.6 There are a number of theories

why the turban is an integral part of a Sikh identity, and

this does not add to my discussion, but is necessary to set

the background. The first is that that the kesh should be kept

clean and tidy and that the turban protects them, and secondly

that it gives a common and visible identity for all Sikhs as

well as reminder to a Sikh to act in the correct way.7 There is

also the historical significance of sacrifice, that it was

still worn even though it meant certain death to have kesh and

a turban. In addition to providing protection to the head,

McLeod identifies a number of reasons why the turban is

required for Sikh men today, which includes hygiene, comfort,

climate, and that it is firmly fixed on the head.8 Therefore,

the turban can be seen to be a form of ‘ritual protection,’

which is the succinct definition as given by Vramo.9

Ramifications of 9/11 Attacks

Returning back to the aftermath of 9/11, at ground zero

in front of the collapsed towers, Dr Navinderdeep Singh, a

turbaned Sikh set up the first medical help centre. He treated

mostly injured fire-fighters who had been pulled out from the

rubble, but he also received abuse in the following days. He

recalled that ‘Every person was staring at me,’ and ‘People

were saying ‘There goes one of them now.”10 Tragically, this

was insignificant compared to what was about to transpire, as

Sikhs in the USA were to bear the brunt of racially motivated

murders by falling prey to ‘mistaken identity.’ Balbir Singh

Sodhi was fatally shot by Frank Roque who was described by the

media as a misguided ‘American patriot.’ Sodhi died instantly,

and then Roque went on to shoot other ethnic minorities before

going to a local bar and declaring, ‘They’re investigating the

murder of a turban-head down the street.’11 This incident was

followed by Sher Singh’s humiliating arrest in Rhode Island,

and it became obvious that the media were unaware that Sikh

males also wear turbans.12 Apart from verbal harassment,

assaults, and murder, many Sikhs have been wrongly profiled.

This has resulted in being un-boarded from airplanes (the

author of this paper himself being denied entry on a Ryanair

flight), sacked from and refused employment, and being bullied

in schools.13 Falcone conducted participant observation and

interviews in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 with the Sikh

community of greater Washington. She examined the efforts of

anxious Sikh communities to clearly represent their identity

to a hostile public, which was achieved through the actions

undertaken by joint projects by Gurdware and advocacy groups,

vigils, charity work (sewa), public meetings, and

advertisements. (Falcone 2006: 89-119). Sadly, for some Sikhs

this was all too much and according to some reports a number

of them decided to cut their hair, and remove their turbans.

They have reported that the ‘Western intolerance of religious

symbols and a series of street attacks are prompting young men

to shed their hair and turbans.’ Many stating that they have

done so ‘to escape the humiliation of turban searches at

Western airports or to avoid being mistaken for Muslims.’ 14

They referred to Balbir Singh Sodhi, and his American killer

who was bent on revenge, who had mistakenly thought that his

turban indicated that he was an Arab. Sikh elders were even

more concerned by an official suppression of the overt

expressions of religious identity in the West, especially in

Europe.” 15

While countries like Canada are much more lenient, France

banned turbans as well as any other religious symbol in public

schools, resulting in the creation of a Sikh school, which did

not exist prior to the ban.16 It was in 2004, that the then

President Jacques Chirac brought in an amendment to the French

code of education that banned wearing clothing or symbols in

state schools which ‘conspicuously exhibit a religious

affiliation.’ Despite international protests from Sikhs, the

French Council of State upheld the ban. As previously stated

the Sikhs in America have suffered a disproportionate brunt of

the post-9/11 hostile response.17 Sikh youth have been targeted

and are very vulnerable to being bullied by other students,

for example, Mandeep Singh, a ninth grade student from

Philadelphia, was frequently harassed in school. He was called

‘bin Laden’ and told to go back to ‘Turbanland,’ amongst other

things.18 In one incident a Sikh boy’s turban was set on fire

while he sat in his classroom. The research of Rita Verma

(2006) was an ethnographic study of the Sikh immigrant

communities after 9/11. The backlash created more barriers for

the youth in their schools as they became victims of racial

abuse, threats, and physical assault. Their abuse was often

treated with apathy by their teachers and heads. Due to

feeling alienated students stopped going to school, changed

their appearance, displayed ‘patriotic’ signs to belong, and

sadly some of them became depressed and suicidal as a result.

The backlash brought back memories for many who had

experienced violence in India during 1984 to the mid-1990s.

The findings of her study reveal challenges

in identity formation and preservation. In the ‘Unheard Voices of

9/11,’ a three-hour hearing of the decade-long impact after 9/11

on Arab, Muslim and Sikh American communities. Navneet Singh,

16, of California said,

‘I have felt isolated from elementary school onwards. In

the fourth grade, I got punched in my face by a high

school (student). I have been asked if I am related to

any terrorist. I feel like I have to walk around with my

guard up all the time.’19

Misidentification and Racial Profiling

Even though there is an obvious case that the external

representation of Sikh identity is being targeted for racial

profiling; additionally it could be argued, that the majority

of keshdhārī Sikh men are also being targeted simply because

they are brown. Jaswant Singh notes that ‘isn’t there a shared

history of discrimination and profiling based on ‘dark’

features’ along with a common religious belief system,

regardless of the varied decisions made by Punjabi Sikh men on

keeping their hair?’ Grewal agrees with this assertion of

Jaswant Singh, and examines the racialisation and gendering of

a collective subject described as ‘Middle Eastern or Muslim’

in the US media in the aftermath of 9/11. He examines how this

stereotype came to be prominent within the government and in

the politics of security and freedom (Grewal 2003: 535-561).

Jaswant Singh is also shares the opinion that many Sikhs who

shun their Sikh identities, and then try to label themselves

as liberal ‘Modern Sikhs,’ would also imply that those who

still do are somehow ‘primitive’ (Jaswant Singh, 2004).

Virinder Kalra (2005) advances this idea, and discusses the

relationship of the turban to tradition and modernity. His

article proposes that because the turban remains the paramount

signifier of male Sikh identity, the project of being modern

remains impossible for Sikhs. However, the divide between

tradition and modernity could be another motivation factor for

Sikh men to shun their identity. A young Sikh man interviewed

in 2011 said ‘a turban feels outdated and not in sync with the

Western fashions adopted by Indian men.’20

The Media and its Contribution to Racial Stereotyping

Round the clock sensationalist media coverage around the

world was to be to the detriment of the Sikhs, by showing bin

Laden and other turbaned Taliban males, it led to many people

equating the turban with terrorism.21 This has also been

coupled with complete irresponsibility, for example in the

trailer to the movie, ‘Dysfunktional Family,’ which has been

aired in theatres, websites and on television channels an

actor, Eddie Griffin, points to a turbaned Sikh man and says,

‘bin Laden, I knew you was around here!’ The ramification of

9/11 was debated about intensely on various web forums and

Sikh web sites. The international Sikh channels and websites,

all had a frenzy of activity, with lengthy discussions about

how to tackle this issue ‒ many going into deep discussion

about the ins and outs of Sikh theology and codes of

discipline known as rahitnāme. Most concluded that the public

needed to be informed about why Sikhs wear the turban, and

also clarify that there is no link with the Taliban. More

interest was generated by the award winning documentary

Mistaken Identity-A 9/11 Story on Sikhs in America by Amanda Gesine, which

was her personal discovery of what happened to Sikhs in the

aftermath, in which she was shocked at the racial profiling,

verbal abuse, etc. In the same year was the film by Kevin

Lee, the Dastaar: Defending Sikh Identity (2004) which was a brief

examination of the challenges facing the Sikh community in the

aftermath in New York City, where many erroneously associate

the Sikh turban (or dastar) with Islamic extremism. The multi-

award winning film is just twelve minutes long, but it

contains quite a lot of detail. Lee liaised with the Sikh

Coalition, and its advocacy group, run primarily by Sikh youth

volunteers and learnt about the harsh cases being followed by

them. Dastaar covers a number of stories in a dispassionate way,

for example the story of Kevin Harrington, an Irishman who

adopted Sikhism. He had been working as a subway conductor for

twenty years and steered people away from the disaster area on

9/11, but was later dismissed from his job because of his

turban. The Sikh Coalition took the Metropolitan

Transportation Authority to court over this and won the case.22

Racial Attacks in the Years Following 9/11

One of the most brutal attacks on a turbaned Sikh

occurred almost three years after 9/11. On July 11, 2004, in

Queens, New York, several men began taunting Rajinder Singh

Khalsa. After the perpetrators finished beating Khalsa, ‘they

took off his turban and threw it away.’23 Years on from the

9/11 attacks, the violence continued, giving credence to the

suggestion that hate crime laws were insufficient. Iqbal

Singh, a turbaned Sikh, was stabbed in the neck with a steak

knife, whilst standing outside his garage with his

granddaughter, on July 29, 2006. He had been waiting to go to

the temple near his home in Santa Clara, California. The local

prosecutor, Jay Boyarsky, put forward the argument in Court

that the perpetrator ‘wanted to seek revenge for Sept. 11 and

attack a member of the Taliban.’24 The debate intensified with

the release of a new movie called ‘I Am Singh,’ which looked

at the hardships of Sikhs in America who were mistaken for

terrorists post 9/11.

Sadly the hate crimes based on mistaken identity would

continue, when six Sikhs were shot dead and four were wounded

in a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in August 2012. Wade

Michael Page, a white supremacist and army veteran, committed

suicide by shooting himself in the head after he was shot in

the stomach by a responding police officer. The incident drew

response from President Barack Obama and Indian Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh, and the First Lady Michelle

Obama visited the temple. It again seemed like a case of

mistaken identity, this tragedy only made the task of

educating the American public about Sikhism more urgent. The

lack of knowledge came across in a number of television

interviews about the tragedy. Don Lemmon asked on CNN, ‘Do

Sikhs have any traditional enemies?...mm... like mongooses are

the traditional enemies of snakes?’ Fox News asked the

distraught Manjeet Mangat present during the shootings if

there have been ‘anti-Semitic acts in the past against the

Sikh community.’ Again the Sikh community and particularly the

youth rallied together forming advocacy groups, vigils,

charity work (sewa), public meetings, and advertisements.

Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh, the head of the Sikhs, called

the shooting a ‘security lapse’ by the U.S. government, and

suggested that Sikhs adopt all legal security measures. In

India there were widespread protests, but many Sikh Americans

did not approve of the protests in India against the United

States, and strongly condemned flag-burning by the

protesters.25 Sikh community groups gave assistance to the

victims and their families, and urged Sikh Americans to

organize open vigils.

Call for Distinctiveness from Muslims

This situation has also lead to a vocal minority of Sikhs

asserting their distinctiveness from Muslims. In Jaspal’s

research on British Sikh identity, there was a common thread

in identity formation, which can be summarised as follows,

‘What I hate about being a Sikh in Britain is being taken for

a Muslim, which is what White people do constantly and

constantly and I’m sick of it’ (Jaspal 2013: 234). Another

stated ‘We need to absolutely remove ourselves from Muslims.’

This group of young Sikhs have become increasingly vocal and

patriotic even joining far right groups like the English

Defence League. A Sikh by name of Guramrit Singh Kalirai

became a spokesperson for the EDL, and was often seen in

videos giving anti-Islamic speeches at rallies. For some time

he was a sidekick of the famous Tommy Robinson the leader of

the EDL.26 Guramrit Singh is famously quoted as saying:

“I’m going to tell you precisely right now what threat ofIslam is. Mohammad and Islam is not a religion…Mohammadwas a paedophilic pirate…Islam, in not just this countrybut around the world, has been using their disgustingthreat, their threat has been going on for 1400 years…ifyou do not bow before Mohammad and his so-called Allah,you are to be beheaded…Hitler had fuck all on Mohammad.

The Qur’an and the Hadiths is written in Arabic. Muslimsare not allowed to be taught Arabic in the mosque.Muslims are told, “do not question what your Imam says,”although they don’t even know what the Imam’s saying,because the Imam’s just a Allah, fuck it. Stick yourAllah up your arse, you cunt. Fuck em, fuck em, fuck em.”27

These are the type of extreme comments of this Sikh

spokesperson of the EDL, in another video he goes on to say,

‘We are here to fight fundamental Islam and militant Muslims…I

do this for England…we are the English Defence League and we

will never surrender. The Muslims have been playing the same

trick for 1300 years.’28 This lead to a presenter on the BBC

Asian Network trying to encourage Sikh youth to reject this

attitude, by saying ‘we are not Muslim and point the finger at

them.’ The response to this on message boards by Sikh Youth

was ‘Well I’m afraid we are not behind 9-11 so why should we

pay for it?’29 Due to the scale of Guramit Singh’s distorted

propaganda, there was a Pickled Politics articles about the

aforementioned videos which gave a detailed historical and

theological overview of Sikhism’s stance towards Islam.30 For

example, the foundation stone of the Golden Temple itself

was laid by a Muslim saint, Mia Mir, upon the invitation of

the Fifth Guru, on land granted to the Sikhs by a Muslim

emperor. That when the Sikh Guru began the process of

militarising the Sikhs by raising a standing army, he also had

a mosque built for the Muslim population of the town he had

founded, called Sri Hargobindpur. Or the fact that the Adi Sri

Guru Granth Sahib includes hundreds of sacred verses

originally written by Sheikh Farid, a Sufi Muslim Saint, along

with Islamic names for God such as Allah. The unity of

humanity was eloquently summarised by the 10th Sikh Guru

Gobind Singh in the Akāl Ustati, who compiled the final version

of the Adi Sri Guru Granth Sahib and was also responsible for

fully militarising the Sikh population by creating the Khalsa.

The Tenth Guru states, ‘Someone calls himself a Hindu, another

a Turk, someone a Shia, another a Sunni. Recognise the whole

of humanity as one race.’ 31

It seemed that a small minority of Sikh thought it was

prudent to join in with Islamophobia, assuming that this would

somehow consolidate their own position. This group also went

to great lengths to set up groups on facebook that argued that

Sikhs had also been persecuted by Muslims, and were victims,

that Islam is an oppressive religion and so on. They also went

to great lengths to search through Sikh literature to find any

references antagonist to the ‘Turaks.’32 McLeod (2004) translates

a famous passage as ‘He who accepts a Turak [Muslim?] as his

master or who touches iron with his foot, Says Gobind Singh,

‘Hear me, [Nand] Lal...’ is cursed.33 According to McLeod the

same rahit also contains ‘He is a Khalsa who slays Khans’ and

‘He is a Khalsa who smites the Turaks.’ (McLeod 2004: 294).

Interestingly the modern print of this work does not have the

reference to Khan in it at all.34 We can see there is actually

no direct reference to Muslims, but what seems to be to the

Moghul officials of India, the Turaks. Therefore, the

aforementioned passages seem to have been misquoted and used

by some to fuel Islamophobia. On many message boards on the

internet, and particularly facebook, there were numerous

conversations after the brutal murder of the soldier Lee

Rigby. Many Sikhs went onto various threads telling the public

they had the support of the Sikhs, and that the Sikhs had a

history fighting the Muslims and in particular the Afghans. A

large group called ‘Sikhs Protecting the UK’ appeared

promoting the sacrifices of Sikh in the World Wars, as well as

more radical groups called ‘Sikhs Against Sharia’, ‘Sikh

Patrol – Protecting and Preventing forced conversions to

Islam, ‘Sikhs against Islamic atrocities,’ etc. Many new

images appeared to get the point across, an example is below:

Proactive Projects by the Sikh Youth

We will now examine some of the more proactive reactions

of the Sikh Youth to this issue by exploring the content of

the media and internet. One of the most concentrate responses

was by Jagjit Singh Sohal, who goes by the name Jay Singh-

Sohal. He organised a number of exhibitions about the Sikh

turban as well as publishing a book on it, titled Turbanology.

He became prominent after the turban ban in USA soccer. He

states:

‘For thirty million Sikhs, fashion has followed faithdown through the centuries and now many styles of turbanscan be seen.

The Turbanology exhibition artfully catalogues thedifferent types of Dastaar that Sikhs wear. We alsoexplore why the right to wear a turban is central to theSikh faith. Today there are many growingmisunderstandings and misrepresentations of this aspectof Sikh identity.

Turbanology dispels the myths and unravels the realculture and heritage making up the Sikh Dastaar.’35

We can clearly see that Sikh identity is a key motivation

behind his project. This project mainly focused around the

Midlands area of the UK, but had displays around seven other

cities, and was a great success. Other groups focused on

indirect methods, for example the Punjab Cultural Association

made a presentation, giving the history of the Sikh Turban.36

This presentation was made for the ‘Dastar Day’ launched by

Sikh Channel on the 25 September 2011. This was to coincide

with D-Day, the Normandy landing, to highlight the 83,000

Sikhs that gave their lives wearing Turbans in both world

wars. This was particularly related to airport searches, but

also the ban on turbans in French schools and identity cards.

There was a considerable gathering of Sikhs outside the Houses

of Parliament in the UK, a large majority from the youth.

There were adverts in national newspapers and a Turban Day in

Norway. The presentation by the Punjab Cultural Association

informs us of the reasons behind the Turban, practices

involved, different styles, and its use by the warrior Sikhs.

Other groups promoted Sikh relics, like restoring an old Akali

Nihang turban at the British Museum, which was displayed in

London and Birmingham.37 Again this was an intelligent way of

highlighting the relationship of the Sikh identity to the

turban without antagonising the Muslim community. This display

was also a great success and featured in the media. By and

large, Sikhs have quietly soldiered on in the hope that the

harassment would eventually go away. Others have created

music e.g. ‘Humble the Poet’, have been on entertainment game

shows, and tried to show a liberal if not a ‘wackier’ side to

being a Singh.

As stated earlier many Sikh youth have created or joined

new advocacy groups and began to lobby larger organisations.

After extensive lobbying Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina asked the

SGPC to take help from other Sikh bodies to launch a campaign,

in which ‘Special counselling sessions [about Sikh identity

and religion] should be held involving people from foreign

communities to strengthen peaceful co-existence.’ This was in

relation to the Wisconsin incident. He was of the opinion that

it was a hate crime, and condemned the murder of innocent

devotees that were praying. He then stated that ‘After the

9/11, the Sikhs faced hate crime in US and other countries.

They are often mistaken as Arabs or Muslims though they are

separate culturally and religiously.’ He wanted a campaign to

be immediately launched and the Khalsa College Society would

actively participate and help to spread the awareness

regarding Sikh identity.38

A number of new groups like the Sikh Coalition of

Washington, previously mentioned, were ‘born in the aftermath

of bigotry, violence and discrimination against the city’s

Sikh population following the terrorist attacks of September

11, 2001.’ They are mostly run by Sikh youth and started to

collect online data about attacks on Sikhs in the US, and have

recorded more than 700 such incidents since 9/11, as the

authorities did not officially collect data on religious hate

crimes against them. We know from a recent Sikh Coalition

study in California that 69 percent of turban-wearing Sikh

students have suffered bullying, and that 30 percent of them

have been physically harassed.39 As we shall see such advocacy

by organisations run mainly by the youth has now led the FBI

to monitor Sikh hate crimes. The same action was called for by

the Sikh Federation in the UK in 2005.40

Some studies have shown that Sikhs of school age have an

identity crisis, while other wider studies have shown a

completely different trend. The Pluralism Project at Harvard

University collected surveys from various Sikh groups and

Gurdware, the results showed that 8% of Sikhs think their

identity has not been affected and 11% of Sikhs think their

identity has been decreased due to the migration to the United

States. On the other hand, 81% of them believe Sikh identity

has increased after migration to the United States. The

research implies that Sikhs have become more aware of their

Sikh identity after migration. Some interviewees said they

became more interested in learning more about Sikhism and

their own identity after migrating to the United States. The

following are quite shocking quotes from the interviews and

surveys about some of the discrimination:

‘I was attacked two blocks from my residence. Verbalabuse was every day after 9/11.’

‘An individual attempted to attack me physically. I wasforced to stay home for a week.’

‘The day after 9/11 attacks, I faced many problems.People were calling me “bin Laden, shoot him.” I had to

run from there and didn’t go to work for three monthsbecause of fear.’

‘People were running after us to beat us or shoot us.’

The author of the above research accepts that much more work

needs to be done before any concrete conclusion can be made,

and notes that there is quite an urgent need to study the Sikh

youth post 9/11 in the USA.41 Jasbir Puar’s book Terrorist

Assemblages has a relevant chapter within it that was re-

published as an article in ‘Sikh Formations’ called ‘The Turban

is not a Hat.’ She expertly discusses the ‘viscosity’ of racial

phenotypes and discourses about terrorism, in which places

Sikhs as potential terrorists in the American imagination.

Sadly, this dimension is real, as the tragic events at Oak

Creek demonstrate; therefore it is imperative to explore this

line of investigation further.42

From the information examined we can see that Sikh

identity is of paramount importance in the Sikh religion.

Whilst younger children seemed prone to go through an identity

crisis, the challenges post-9/11 have made many look in detail

at their religion. Due to the inability of large Sikh

organisation to create a co-ordinated response, many Sikh

youth created advocacy groups, websites, literature, and

inspired film-makers to look at their cause. Their cause was

to educate the masses that Sikhs are not Taliban, and to

prevent further cases of mistaken identity. For others it was

the opposite, they wished to shield themselves from

Islamophobia, so they wished to create an obvious divide

between themselves and Muslims, which has led many young Sikhs

to join right wing and nationalistic groups. This small

minority of Sikhs has tried to employ various scriptures to

justify their case, and seem to be quite radical in their

views. Interestingly, some of them are turbaned Sikh males,

but the vast majority seem to be Sahijdhari Sikhs. The greatest

achievement of the Sikh youth has been to create advocacy

groups that are now successfully lobbying political parties

and politicians. The Dastar Day lobbying around Europe was a

massive success and various channels came together to promote

the turban. A small number of Sikhs have used music, art, and

wackiness to ease the obvious tensions of keeping such a

distinctive appearance.

Grooming and Further Polarisation

The relationship between Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims has

hit all-time lows in the UK due to various scandals of sexual

grooming of underage girls that have been highlighted in the

press. A very vocal and active group under the leadership of

Bhai Mohan Singh was set up, they state:

The Sikh Awareness Society (SAS) was established in 1998amongst growing concerns of the ‘grooming’ of our youth.In Britain today Sikh youth are still actively targetedon the basis of their religion and history. Thishistorically linked hate-crime causes much emotionaldistress to the families involved with the majority ofthese cases ending up in abuse.

Under common Punjabi mentality, these issues are stillconsidered ‘taboo’ and are rarely addressed by theGurdwara Sahibs, and Sikh community leaders. Thereforethe victims of this hate-crime tend to suffer in silence.

As a result there have been quite extreme cases of violence

occurring, as well as efforts to rally people together. The

British Sikh Report collated by City-Sikhs could also be

analysed in conjunction with the information presented herein.

Katy Pal Sian, who is incidentally an advisor for City Sikhs,

completed her PhD from the University of Leeds in which she

explores the persistence of Sikh and Muslim conflict. She

examines the way in which Sikhs represent themselves as being

subject to attack from Muslims in the context of postcolonial

settlement in Britain. This was also a feature of her latest

work in the Sikh Formations, titled ‘Losing My Religion,’ in which

she examines the result of Sikh attempts to distinguish

themselves from Muslims, especially when this distinction

comes in the form of uncritical assimilation.  She argues that

there is a cost of such assimilation upon Sikhs and argues for

the development of alternative or counter-hegemonic narratives

principally centred around decolonisation rather than

assimilation.43 Further work needs to be done in this area to

establish what the dynamics are, but at first glance it seems

that underage Sikh girls are being targeted by Pakistani men,

which may be due to the unavailability of girls of their own

age due to religious and cultural reasons. It could also be

that Sikh girls come from more liberal backgrounds and that

Pakistani men, share the same culture and language as Sikh

girls.

Conclusion

My results are not empirical but this brief research does

offer some insights, it should be noted the previous research

has only looked at relatively small numbers of Sikhs in their

surveys. What we can conclude for sure is that the media’s

representation of radical Islam has impinged on the perception

of some Sikhs, about their own identity. It is clear that

Sikhs have wanted to distance themselves from images of

terrorism, but a small number have discarded their identity

altogether. Others have even taken the stance of the far-right

and are Islamophobic, for example, the English Defence League

leader Guramrit Singh. This has clearly created a divide

between religious groups and if relations of religious

minority groups in Britain deteriorate further, then there

could be some overwhelmingly negative results. It is

unfortunate that the powerful institutions of the Sikhs like

the SGPC have had a very limited response regarding the issues

of the Sikhs in the diaspora. Due to this urgent need to act

and educate the public about the Sikh turban, many different

projects have been created by the youth. In this essay we have

explored various initiatives organised by Sikh youth, to

educate the general public about the Sikh turban. These

initiatives have led to exhibitions, seminars, books,

television interviews, websites, music, documentaries, and a

concerted effort on social networking sites to highlight the

issue.

During the writing of this paper there has been a

monumental step forward in tracking hate crimes against Sikhs,

and the new form would also include Hindus and Arabs.

Representative Joseph Crowley and 93 other Congress members

urged the FBI to update the Hate Crime Incident Report Form.

To date, the FBI has not collected and tracked hate crimes

against these communities. This is despite serious hate crimes

including attacks on Sikh owned businesses, murder, a Sikh

boy’s turban set on fire while he sat in his classroom, an

elderly Sikh man gunned down in California, and the massacre

at a Sikh Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, as well as the

brutal attack of a Sikh elderly-man just last month in Fresno.

The addition of this new category will provide the necessary

statistics to law enforcement on the hate crimes perpetrated

against Sikhs, as appropriate measures to tackle these crimes

could not be taken in the past because accurate data was

unavailable. This system will most likely ensure that the

problem will be sternly dealt with. The Sikh youth and the new

advocacy groups have worked hard, and participated in a

collective effort, which has led to this breakthrough.

Unfortunately, it has taken the murders in Oak Creek,

Wisconsin, and other violent incidents have finally convince

the authorities that Sikhs and other minorities should be

given proper legal recognition. What is clear is that the

Sikh youth do not want the turban to be associated with

terrorism. For many Sikhs the turban is a graphic sign of

sovereignty or freedom, which has a long history of sacrifice

that goes with it. Further work needs to be carried out on the

grooming issue which is one of the most volatile areas, which

was only touched upon in the brief research presented here.

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1 The background to this paper was that the author was approached by a PC from the Greater Manchester Police, PC Gurmeal Singh regarding help for a Court Case againsthis employers regarding his turban and issue with training, sadly I was unable to help, and afterwards he requested that I write something on the subject.2 The turban and beard is seen in ultra-orthodox Islamic schools or madrasah, as a number of Hadiths are related to the significance of the turban and it being worn by Prophet Mohammed. For example in the Sahih Al-Bukhari (870 CE) there are numerous descriptions of the Prophet wearing a turban by Ibn’ Abbas. Hence it is considered Sunnah, or a confirmed tradition. There is a Qur'anic verse, ‘Your Lordshall help you with five thousand angels bearing marks" (Sūratu Āl 'Imrān, verse 125),Ibn 'Abbas, the greatest of the early exegetes, explains that ‘the signs are that they wore turbans.’  3 A Sikh leader Harbhajan Singh ‘Yogi’ appeared briefly on CNN. He was the founder of the 3HO Sikhs of the ‘Western Hemisphere’. 4 A presentation published by the Panjab Cultural Association to help educate the public about Sikh turbans on ‘Dastar Day’ illustrates the differences between the turban styles. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6IcGLnFO1cY5 Sikh Theology: Why Sikhs Wear a Turban, at http://www.sikhcoalition.org/Sikhism11.asp. 6 See the translation in Trilochan Singh (1997): 303, that declares that ‘Cursed isa Sikh who goes out in the society without a turban or wears a cap instead of aturban.’

7 Reflections on September 11: Reconsidering Social Change in the Wake of Tragedy, (2000-2001): 449;states that ‘Sikh men are very distinct in appearance because they are required bytheir religion not to cut their hair. They often have long beards and gather theirlong hair in V-shaped turbans.’8 McLeod (2000): 95, 103-04.9 Lill Margrethe Vramo, Turban Day in Norway: Creating Ritual Protection through Re-launching and Practicing turban for all. Presented at the “Young Sikhs in a Global World, Negotiating Identity, Tradition and Authority.”, University of Lund, Sweden.

10 http://www.sikhfoundation.org/people-events/a-tribute-to-sikh-victims-of-911/11 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/06/wisconsin-temple-shooting-sikh-scapegoats12 Jaideep Singh (2003): 23-26. 13 Early in 2002, Amric Singh Rathour, a New York City Police officer, was dismissed for refusing to remove his turban. There was widespread news coverage andseveral petitions sent to the NYPD, but after several legal battles they allowed him to wear his turban. Eventually the U.S. Congress introduced a landmark legislation known as the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA), which has potential to end most forms of workplace discrimination against Sikhs. 14 This resulted in a number of different guidelines for searches being written internationally, for an example please see U.S. Department of Justice, Common Sikh American Head Coverings, available at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/legalinfo/sikh_poster.pdf

15 Jeremy Page, Sikhs head for the barber and turn their backs on tradition, Times Online (UK),Nov. 24, 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article648044.ece16 Robin Cook, France Need Not Fear Schoolgirls in Headscaves, The Independent (UK), Dec. 19, 200317 http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-08-06/news/bs-ed-sikh-shootings-20120806_1_sikh-temple-punjab-guru-nanak18 Coalition Helps End Student’s Suffering From Bullying In School, Feb. 27, 2006, http://www.sikhcoalition.org/advisories/student_hair.htm. 19 http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-09-05/us-canada-news/30115405_1_combat-racism-sikh-american-muslim20http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/06/losing-the-turban-indian-sikhs-at-odds- on-essentials/21 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/06/post-911-prejudice-menaces-american-sikhs22 http://www.sikhchic.com/film_stage/kevin_lees_dastaar_a_film_about_post_9_11_america23 Kenji Yoshino,Uncovering Muslim Identity —01/2006 http://www.energygrid.com/society/2006/01ky-muslimidentity.html24 John Coté, Hate crime alleged in stabbing of Sikh Santa Clara suspect could face life term if he is convicted, San Francisco Chronicle, Aug. 2, 2006, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/08/02/BAGBUK9HTO1.DTL. 25 Magnier, Mark (August 9, 2012). "Gurudwara attack: American Sikhs angry at protests against U.S. in India". The Times of India. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Gurudwara-attack-American-Sikhs-angry-at-protests-against-US-in-India/articleshow/15417110.cms

26 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW-udj5bZco27 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CC_kScYYn9o28 Ibid.29 http://www.sikhsangat.com/index.php?/topic/67823-we-are-sikhs-we-are-not-behind-9-11/30 http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1227931 http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1227932 Many Sikh texts contain references to Turaks, meaning an invader of Timurid descent. Unfortunately in the translations by many modern scholars this is recordedas Muslim.33 A manuscript was discovered at Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar by Dr Jeevan Deol that has been dated to the 1718/1719 AD of this text. 

34 Kuir Singh is his work of 1751 describes a Turak as someone from Turkmenistan.35 http://turbanology.info/36 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6IcGLnFO1cY37 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2011/sikh_fortress_turban.aspx

38http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Amritsar/SGPC-should-propagate-Sikh- identity/SP-Article1-912374.aspx also seehttp://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-06/india/33064351_1_sikh-identity-awareness-campaign-wisconsin-gurdwara39 www.sikhcoalition.org also see http://www.sikhsentinel.com/sikhsentinel0210/sikhorgsresponse.htm40 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4234634.stm41 http://www.pluralism.org/reports/view/11242 Jasbir Puar, ‘The Turban is not a Hat: Queer Diaspora and Practices of Profiling,’ Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture and Theory, 4(1) (2008): 47–91.43 Katy Pal Sian, ‘Losing My Religion,’ Sikh Formations: Religion, Culture, Theory, 9 (1), (2013): 39-50.