Latest FBI data shows spike in anti-sikh hate crimes in US

WASHINGTON:THOUGH the number of reported incidents of hate crimes went down slightly in the US from 2017 to 2018, according to an FBI announcement on Tuesday, the total number of attacks against Sikhs went up by 200%.

The number of hate crime incidents against Sikhs went up to 60 in 2018 from 20 in 2017, according to the FBI’S annual hate crimes report. Hate crimes against Sikhs were the third highest, at 4.3%, after those against Jews and Muslims, who were first and second

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largest with 56.9% and 14.6% respectively.

Hate crimes against Sikhs have been rising, partly because they are often mistaken for West Asians on account of their turbans. American Sikhs have reported widespread discrimination and targeting of members of the community, which is estimated to be around 500,000. They believe the actual number of hate crimes against Sikhs is far higher than what people think.

“At the end of the day, this data simply isn’t giving us the accurate information we need to effectively counteract hate against

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targeted communities,” said Sim Singh of Sikh Coalition, an advocacy group.

The group cited an incident from 2017 that was not included in the data as proof of the under-reporting. “In 2017, a man shot more than a dozen rounds towards a van carrying five Sikh men in Carson City, Nevada, wounding Harmandeep Singh Shergill. The attacker was convicted on four counts with a hate crime enhancement and sentenced to 34 years in prison. Nonetheless, the assault does not appear in the FBI’S 2017 data as a hate crime,” it said in a statement.