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A WGVU initiative in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation using on-air programs and community events to explore issues of inclusion and equity.

"Apparent Muslim" a new at-risk group says Sikh leader

Mariano Avila
/
WGVU

The Sikh community is often a mistaken target of Islamophobia, which is why Simran Jeet Singh, a high-profile member of the Sikh community in the United States, came to West Michigan to discuss what he calls a new racial group in post-911 America. 

“Part of my religious identity as a Sikh is a turban, uncut hair, so I have a beard. And so for my entire life, growing up, people have perceived me to be Muslim, based on their stereotypes of what a Muslim looks like.”

That’s Simran Jeet Singh Assistant Professor of Religion at Trinity University in Texas. He’s a practicing Sikh who came to West Michigan invited by Grand Valley State University’s Kaufman Interfaith Institute. Singh’s argument is that political tensions have created a new category of targeted people in the United States.

“There is a new racial category in post-911 America of the apparent Muslim--anybody who looks Muslim. And this brings together Muslim, Sikh, south Asians, Arabs, people who fit the basic stereotypes of what a Muslim looks like.”

These stereotypes are dangerous. Two years ago a Sikh man in Grand Rapids was shot in the face because of stereotypes. And just last fall, a Sikh store clerk was shot and killed in Jackson. But Sikhism and Islam are completely different faiths with different scriptures and everything—Sikhism is from Northern India, not from the Middle East. To understand it better, I asked Singh for a teaching within Sikhism that he thought would improve society if well understood.

“One of the things I love about the Sikh tradition is the emphasis on pluralism. That, in our tradition, one does not have to be of a particular religion to achieve enlightenment. The real path to enlightenment is through the practice of love.”

Mariano Avila is WGVU's inclusion reporter. He has made a career of bringing voices from the margins to those who need to hear them. Over the course of his career, Mariano has written for major papers in English and Spanish, published in magazines, worked in broadcast, and produced short films, commercials, and nonprofit campaigns. He also briefly served at a foreign consulate, organized for international human rights efforts and has done considerable work connecting marginalized people to religious, educational, and nonprofit institutions through the power of story.
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