A constant bombardment of images of Osama bin Laden has compounded trouble for American Sikhs who faced racial hatred in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States by the al-Qaeda, a Washington-based Sikh advocacy group said on Monday.
Sikh Council on Religion and Education chief Rajwant Singh cited a survey his group had carried out in Washington on the levels of awareness among Americans about their understanding of the faith.
"We found that nine out of 10 educated Americans identified Sikhs with Muslims," Singh, currently in India to garner support for an international Sikh forum, told PTI. The respondents were office managers, workers and college students, he said.
"The reason for the low level of awareness is the constant bombardment of images from Iraq and bin Laden, which are very
confusing for the Americans. Added to it is the general ignorance about the religion," he said. He also spoke about what he called startlingly low levels of awareness about Hinduism in America.
"People there also do not know much about Hindu religion... Hindus are thought to be worshippers of cows and stones," he said.
Baffled by the survey findings, SCORE has reached out to filmmakers to raise awareness about Hinduism and Sikhism. "We have tied up with the American producers of the film 'Three Faiths, One God' to make a television film on three Indian religions -- Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism," he said.
Four days after the 9/11 attack, an Arizona Sikh, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was murdered in a hate attack by a young man who apparently mistook him for an Arab. There were several other attacks on Sikhs in the US following the 9/11 terror incidents.
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