Vinay Lal | August 25, 2012
In American imagination today, Sikhs have been conflated with Muslims. But this is not the first time this wonderfully robust diasporic community has had to deal with confusion about its identity, writes Vinay Lal. The history of Sikhs in America, it may appear to some, is bookended by violence directed at them. News of the shooting on August 5 at a gurudwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, reverberated throughout the United States and beyond. It is reported that the gunman, Wade Michael Page, was an army veteran, had a tattoo commemorating 9/11, and played with white supremacist bands. His motives remain unclear: some argue that 'hate crimes' need no motive as such, as they feed upon a visceral fear of the Other, though many have speculated that Page mistook Sikhs for Muslims.
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