USA, September 26, 2001: Sikhs, who wear turbans and beards that cause them to be mistaken for followers of Osama bin Laden, say harassment began after the Sept. 11 attacks and hasn’t stopped. But rather than hiding, many Sikhs in North Jersey are deliberately stepping into public view. They are attending memorial services, passing out flyers, and giving lessons on Sikhism to neighbors, coworkers, and anyone who will listen. “They don’t know about your religion. They don’t know about you. So, wherever you go, please tell them,” Gurmit S. Chilana, a prominent local physician, told hundreds of Sikhs at a weekend religious service in Glen Rock. Chilana has printed a flier to put up in stores and other public places. Depicting two Sikh men in turbans and a boy in a stocking-like cap called a “patwa,” it proclaims: “Mistaken Identity. Sikhs are not associated with Bin Laden.”
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