A 22-year-old Sikh mistaken for being Muslim gets Abused and Harassed at US store in Massachusetts

Boston, November 21, 2016: Everyone is unique, no matter what community they belong to or the language they speak. But some people fail to share the same view and think otherwise.

Some people generalise characteristics of a community and think that all belonging to the same community will believe or follow the same direction. This leads to hateful marginalisation and harassment. After Donald trump emerged victorious in the 2016 US presidential elections, the number of cases of such hateful harassment have increased and over 200 incidents have been reported, mentioned PTI.

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[bctt tweet="Harmann Singh was confronted by a man who called him a '(expletive) Muslim.' " username=""]

A 22-year-old Sikh student at the Harvard Law School has come across such incident of discrimination. He was harassed on November 11 at a store in the vicinity of the campus by someone who assumed that he was Muslim. Harmann Singh, from Buffalo, New York is a first-year law student at Harvard and was speaking to his mother on the phone during the entire incident.

"Over the weekend, I was confronted by a man who called me a '(expletive) Muslim' and followed me around a store aggressively asking where I was from, and no one in the store said a thing. I was on the phone with my mom the entire time, and we were both concerned for my safety as this man stood inches away from me," Singh wrote in The Boston Globe.

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He also wrote that "While deeply painful, what happened to me pales in comparison to the hate and violence many of my brothers and sisters have faced across the country." Singh said that the man was following him all around the store and kept asking him where he was from while harassing him. Singh tried to ignore the man and continue his conversation on the phone, mentioned PTI report.

The owner of the store said that he did see the man who spoke to Harmann and intended to ask the man to leave but he was at the back of the store when the incident occurred and both of them had left when he returned.

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The owner also said that he did not know who the man was and was hoping to never see him again.

Harmann said that the most efficient way to encounter such marginalisation is to be there for each other. He said that even a bystander who interrupts to check in with the victim being harassed can make a difference.

-prepared by Shivam Thaker of NewsGram. Twitter: @Shivam_Thaker