Sikhs Fear Turbans May Be Targets

As he has since he opened for business six years ago, Nermal Singh proudly flies the American flag at his Camarillo convenience store. But the patriotic gesture has taken on new meaning in recent weeks, especially for a man who wears a turban and sports a beard.

Singh is a member of Ventura County’s Sikh community and adheres to the tenets of a 500-year-old religion that originated in India by wearing a beard and turban, which is considered the crown of spirituality.

But in the wake of terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a spate of attacks nationwide against Arab-looking people, local Sikhs are scrambling to set themselves apart.

At a religious service Sunday in a junior high school auditorium near Oxnard that every other weekend doubles as a Sikh temple, dozens of members of the faith collected $5,100 to aid rescue and recovery efforts.

Through deed and through prayer, the group’s leaders said they wanted to do what they could to help those injured and killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But they said they also wanted an opportunity to educate the public about their faith and let people know that their beards and turbans do not make them terrorists.

“We are as American as anyone else,” said Singh, 52, a native of India who has lived in Ventura for about a decade. “This country has given us shelter, it has given us food, it’s giving our kids a good education. We love this country.”

Sikhism originated in northwestern India as a rejection of idolatry and that country’s caste system. Its adherents number 400,000 in the United States, where the religion has been practiced for more than 100 years.

Sikh leaders say that even though their members are not Muslims and have denounced the attacks, many are still bearing the brunt of anger directed toward the terrorists, particularly suspected mastermind Osama bin Laden and the Afghan leaders accused of harboring him.

Both Bin Laden and the Afghans wear beards and turbans. But while the turbans worn by Arabs and Muslims are different in appearance than those worn by Sikhs, some people make no distinction between the two.

“We are not with them, but all some people see are our beards and turbans,” Singh said. “We hate what happened. We are a peace-loving people.”

Sikhs across the country have reportedly been targets of retaliation stemming from the recent destruction.

Some have had garbage thrown at them, others have been victims of verbal abuse. In one of the most serious incidents, the Sikh owner of an Arizona convenience store was shot to death Sept. 15.

No serious incidents have been reported in Ventura County, where about 300 Sikh families live.

However, authorities report that the Sikh employee of an Oxnard convenience store was beaten during a robbery Sept. 16. Four men stole beer from a 7-Eleven store in the 2000 block of Pleasant Valley Road. As they left, one of the robbers punched and kicked the clerk, knocking him to the ground. Nothing was said during the altercation.

The thieves are still at large. The case is being investigated as a possible hate crime, but it does not appear the beating was racially motivated, said David Keith, an Oxnard Police Department spokesman.

“How do you know exactly what was going through the perpetrator’s mind?” Keith said. “Most reasonable people might come to the conclusion that it was most likely a hate crime, but the law is very specific on when you can charge someone with that crime.”

‘People Do Look at Us Differently Now’

Still, store owner Sukhi Sandhu believes the beating of his clerk might be related to the rising tide of anti-Middle Eastern sentiment. Sandhu, a Sikh with 7-Eleven stores in Oxnard and Simi Valley, rallied his fellow worshipers to make the donation and spread the word about Sikhism.

Even if the attack in his Oxnard store was unrelated, he said he worries about the potential for future acts of retaliation.

“People do look at us differently now,” Sandhu, 45, said before Sunday afternoon’s religious service.

“The whole thing is so mind-boggling, so heartbreaking,” he said. “We don’t harbor any terrorists. We condemn their actions. Our hearts and our condolences go out to the victims. And we see this as a good opportunity to help our fellow Americans.”

Pro-American sentiment was in evidence at Sunday’s temple service. Fences around Rio Del Valle School were flanked by American flags and plastered with patriotic posters.

On the auditorium stage, above a poster of the American flag emblazoned with the words “United We Stand,” a Sikh leader read from the holy book while dozens of the faithful came forward, bowing before him to offer donations. The money usually goes to support temple activities. This time it was headed to the Red Cross.

“We Sikhs are here today to remember Sept. 11 and to pray for those who were the victims of this unfortunate and most inhuman attack on the civilized world,” Ventura resident Sunner Surinder Singh told the gathering.

“As Americans we share in that pain,” he said. “We Sikhs not only condemn this terrorism, we are ready to fight against it any time, anywhere and in anyway that we can.”

At the end of the service, Sikh leaders invited Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez to accept the money they had collected and forward it to relief agencies helping with the disaster.

Mayor Urges Work for Tolerance

Lopez told the group’s members that he shared their concerns about reports of backlash against Middle Eastern residents and others.

“Some people are becoming very emotional, and they want to lash out at somebody, particularly people who are wearing turbans and have long beards,” Lopez said. “I think we all need to work for tolerance and understand that you don’t have to fit a certain mold to be an American.”