Hate crimes in US hit Sikhs hardest

New York: Hindus living in the US Capital were the least affected by the spate of hate crimes inflicted on South Asians following the September 11 attacks while Sikhs and Pakistani Muslims were among the worst affected groups, a new study in the Washington DC areas shows.

In the aftermath of the attacks, only 15 per cent Indian Hindus say they were afraid of their physical safety compared with 41 per cent Pakistani Muslims and 64 per cent of Sikh respondents.

But as many as 83 per cent Sikhs respondents say they or someone they knew personally had experienced a hate crime or incident and 35 per cent Pakistani Muslims say they considered leaving the United States because of hostile atmosphere created in the aftermath of the terrorists attacks.

Eighty-six per cent of Pakistani Muslim respondents also said they became more interested in domestic and international politics and generally they felt more of a desire to participate politically.

The study was done by the Discrimination and National Security Initiative (DNSI), an affiliate of the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

The report released on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington was based on interviews conducted over last two years.

June Han, who authored the report, said, "We now live in an era in which individuals who are or are perceived to be Arab or Muslim, including South Asians, are viewed with suspicion because of their religious background and/or the colour of their skin. DNSI was founded after 9/11 to examine the mistreatment of minority communities during times of military action or national crisis.

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The project specifically aims to chronicle such mistreatment in an information repository and to present the human consequences of this mistreatment in original reports.

The report released yesterday is the first extensive study sponsored and issued by DNSI.

Dawinder Dave Sidhu, a Founding Director of DNSI, notes that the project was created in response to a climate in which Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim were being killed, harassed, and subject to other noxious behavior.

The report also discusses respondents and reactions to various situations after 9/11. At times, it says, they were left wondering why they did not get jobs or promotions, or why someone sitting next to them on a plane would ask to be reseated.

In many cases, they concluded that these types of occurrences resulted from 9/11-related discrimination.