Sikh man brutally attacked in US after being called 'Bin Laden'

Sikh Coalition says attacker punched Mukker while shouting 'terrorist' and 'go back to your country'

A Sikh man was brutally beaten on Tuesday night and called a 'terrorist' and 'Bin Laden' in Chicago by an American man, according to the Sikh Coalition.

Inderjit Singh Mukker was on his way to the grocery store in his car when he noticed another vehicle tailgating him. Expecting the car to drive past, the 53-year-old stopped his car. However, the driver from the car got out and began repeatedly punching Mukker while shouting 'terrorist', 'Bin Laden' and 'go back to your country'.

Read: 82-year-old Sikh man beaten up for looking like a Muslim still awaits justice

Mukker, who sports a beard and turban, was taken to the hospital after he lost consciousness. He suffered severe injuries to his face, including a fractured cheekbone, bruising , blood loss and six stitches for the lacerations on his face.

Upon his release from the hospital on Wednesday, Mukker gave a statement to the Sikh Coalition, a nonprofit advocacy group providing him legal representation. “No American should be afraid to practice their faith in our country. I’m thankful for the swift response of authorities to apprehend the individual, but without this being fully investigated as a hate crime, we risk ignoring the horrific pattern of intolerance, abuse and violence that Sikhs and other minority communities in this country continue to face.”

Simran Jeet Singh, a senior religion fellow at the coalition working on Mukker’s case, stated, “Sikh Americans have been increasingly victimised in hate crimes in the years since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. For Sikh Americans, the unique markers of religious identity — the turban, the beard — these markers are associated with the markers of terrorism. People see a Sikh and construe them as the enemy.”

According to NBC, the alleged assailant is in police custody and the crime is being investigated as a hate crime.

Hate crimes against Sikhs have increased after the September 11 attacks with the Sikh Coalition recording hundreds of cases of violence and discrimination. On September 15 2001, just four days after 9/11, a Sikh man, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was shot dead outside his gas station in Arizona. His attacker admitted to having mistaken Sodhi for an Arab and said it was in retaliation for the attacks. The man was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Read: Americans still confusing Sikhs for Muslims: study

In 2009, the coalition stated that 9 per cent of Sikhs in New York have been physically assaulted by people who were unaware of the difference between Sikhism and Islam. This summer, the Sikh temple in Wisconsin where six people were shot dead by a white supremacist in 2012 decided to lock its doors. People arriving for daily services had to ring a buzzer to be allowed inside.

“It used to be in the Sikh religion, all doors stayed open,” Balhair S Dulai, vice president of the temple, told the Washington Post. “But what happened here, and what happened in South Carolina — these things could happen anywhere. No one is immune.”

This article originally appeared on The Washington Post