Sikh Man Mistaken For A Muslim Hit By Car And Brutally Beaten

Sikh Man Mistaken For A Muslim Hit By Car And Brutally Beaten

An innocent Sikh man was attacked this weekend in what Fresno police are investigating as a hate crime – the latest such attack on a Sikh resident according to Fresno Bee reports:

Around 6:30 a.m., Amrik Singh Bal, 68, was waiting alone for a ride to work in the cold, 30-degree fog on Shields Avenue between Brawley and Blythe avenues.

Bal wore a blue turban and has a white beard, said Ike Iqbal S. Grewal, member of the Sikh Council of Central California.

Two white males stopped their car in front of Bal and started yelling obscenities at him, said Fresno police Sgt. Greg Noll. Fearing for his safety, Bal attempted to cross the street. It was then that the suspects backed up their car, hitting Bal with their back bumper, Noll said.

Then the two got out of the car and attacked Bal – striking him in the face and upper body.

During the assault, one of the suspects yelled “Why are you here?”

Bal fell to the ground and hit his head.

Grewal said the suspects only fled when they heard another vehicle approaching in the fog.

“Sikhs have been mistaken for terrorists and radicals and continue to suffer after 9/11,” Grewal said. “This is the latest episode of what Sikhs have been enduring when they are very peace-loving and hard-working citizens of this great country and not members of al-Qaida or ISIS or any other radical group.”

This is not the first time Fresno police have investigated an attack on a Sikh man as a hate crime. In May 2013, 82-year-old Piara Singh was attacked outside the Nanaksar Sikh Temple in south Fresno by a man who later allegedly made inflammatory comments about Muslims.

Jesus and Allah are both shaking their heads at the world right now!