Sikh cab driver attacked as Muslim

Figures published this week showed that hate crimes has risen in Britain this year by over 12%, coinciding with a drop in reported race-related incidents of about 1.4%.

In the USA Islamaphobia has resulted in increased anti-Muslim sentiments and attacks - the most recent victim is Sikh Cab Driver Harbhajan Singh.

Harbhajan Singh though wearing a turban was mistaken for a Muslim when he was attacked on Monday after picking two men and a woman up at a local restaurant.

The men shouted expletives and called him Osama Bin Laden during the attack and he only escaped when the woman intervened and put herself between him and the two attackers.

The cab driver who is working in Sacramento, California, received several stitches on his head and other parts of his body and sustained bruising along his rib cage and bone chips in his nose. He believes the men intended to kill him because he wears a turban.

The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) called on local authorities and the FBI to initiate a hate crime investigation into the vicious attack.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been approached by The Council on American-Islamic Relations to investigate if the attack was racially motivated.

A spokesman for the Central Pacific Region, Jewish ADL (Anti-Defamatory League) issued the following statement: “This brutal incident is deplorable. People of all faiths should be able to feel secure when expressing their religious beliefs. 

“This hard working man was merely doing his job when he was apparently singled out because of his appearance.  We are confident that law enforcement will do all it can to track down the culprits and, if appropriate, bring hate crime charges at the conclusion of the investigation”.