Sikh student mistaken for Muslim, abused and harassed at US store

November 20, 2016

Boston, Nov 20: A 22-year-old Sikh, studying at the prestigious Harvard Law School, was allegedly abused and harassed at a store near the campus by a man who mistook him for a Muslim. Harmann Singh, a first year law student at the university, said he was shopping in a store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while speaking on the phone with his mother, when a man walked in and said to the clerk behind the counter, "Oh look, there's a (expletive) Muslim."sikh

"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 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 about his experience in The Boston Globe.

"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," he wrote. According to Singh, the man started following him around the store, harassing him and asking him where he was from. Singh, who is from Buffalo, New York, said he tried to ignore the man and continue his conversation with his mother, who was worried.

She could hear the man questioning Singh and told her son to leave the shop. Singh said the man followed him to the checkout counter. "I told him, 'Hey I'm actually from New York. I live here now down the street. Is there anything I can do to help you?'" Singh said.

The man did not respond and Singh left the store as quickly as possible. He said the most effective way to help people who feel marginalised is to "be there for each other in these moments". A bystander who checks in with the person being harassed in any situation can make all the difference, he said.

The owner of the store told Boston.com that he was going back and forth between the back and front of the shop at the time of the incident that took place on November 11 and saw the man who spoke to Singh come in. He said he had planned to ask the man to leave, but went to the back of the store when the incident occurred. Both Singh and the other man were gone when he returned.

He said he was shocked and sorry when his clerk told him what happened. "I don't know where that guy came from and I hope I don't see him again," said the owner, who did not want to be named. Over 200 incidents of hateful harassment and intimidation across the US have been reported since Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Comments

Wellwisher
 - 
Sunday, 20 Nov 2016

Dear All,
This not strange, if we go through the history ftom past 70yrs to till now
White skins are always with same mentlaity. Major part of their weslth are looted one.What Britishers done with India what america is doing now. We should depend on these kind of pepole or with their nation. We have to stick with give respect and take respect policy and nothing more than that.
Hope the Indian community will stand togther to fight against such incidents for the future without looking cast.
Jai Hind!

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 8,2020

Mangaluru, July 8: Dakshina Kannada on Wednesday recorded its highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases with 183 cases reported in the district, while Udupi reported 31 new cases.

DK also recorded two more fatalities – both patients with co-morbid conditions — taking the total death toll in the district to 28. Udupi has recorded three Covid-19 deaths.

The fresh spike saw total positive cases in DK shoot up to 1,542 and active cases to 819. As many as 12 patients were discharged from hospital on Wednesday. The positivity rate in the district now stands at 0.07 %. Health authorities as on date have received 22,181 samples and 20,153 out of 21,695 samples tested have turned out negative.

MLA’s gunman tests positive

The gunman assigned to former minister U T Khader tested positive on Wednesday and three others who were with him in the escort vehicle have been quarantined, said city police commissioner Vikash Kumar Vikash. A section of police commissioner’s office was shut for sanitisation as per protocol after staff working there were treated as primary contacts. The office per se has not been sealed contrary to ‘reports’ doing rounds in social media, he said.

Deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said the district reported two deaths — one late on Tuesday and the other during the day. The victims are a 57-year-old man and 32-year-old youth. Two of the 183 cases were secondary contacts, 25 were cases of influenza like illness, four cases of SARI, one a case of inter district travel, two with interstate travel, five with international travel history, 22 random samples and five pre-surgery samples.

Udupi district recorded 31 new cases taking the total positive cases recorded as on date to 1,421. Discharge of 1,189 patients meant that Udupi has 229 active cases.

Meanwhile, Kota Shrinivas Poojari, minister for fisheries on Wednesday inaugurated the Covid-19 lab at district hospital in Udupi. Karkala MLA Sunil Kumar inaugurated ambulance monitoring system to ensure expeditious transfer of infected patients to designated treatment centres.

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News Network
January 25,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 25: Several women have completed a 24-hour protest here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and are going strong to stretch it to 48 hours.

"More than a thousand women gathered on the Masjid Road at Frazer Town to denounce the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC)," participant and Mount Carmel College student Noor Zahira told IANS.

The women protesters extended their support to the students in Jamia Millia Islamia, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who were recently roughed up allegedly by police and masked goons.

Zahira, 20, said the women's protest was planned only for 24 hours but is continuing to touch 48 hours.

Starting 3pm on Thursday, the women, several of them in burqas, niqabs and hijabs, are sitting on the road just outside the Haji Sait mosque in Frazer Town in a flash protest. Though they have informed the police, they did not wait for the permission. Around 11 pm, police arrived and shut off the protesters' loud speakers.

Zahira said already four such women's anti-CAA protests were taken out in Bengaluru. Women from all ages groups have joined the protest and are sloganeering.

As the women are protesting on the road, men are guarding them standing on the opposite road, ensuring all supplies such as food and others to them, she added.

"Muslim women were not alone in denouncing the CAA... we were joined by the transgenders, Hindu women, Christian women, Dalits and others, " she said.

Some of the protesters also indulged in creative work such as composing songs against the CAA and making placards.

Though four anti-CAA women's protests happened at the Town Hall and other landmarks in Bengaluru, they were only a few hours long.

The protesting women are also showing support to women protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi who were accused of demonstrating for Rs 500. However, the protest did not align anti-CAA demonstration with any political party, keeping it apolitical.

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News Network
May 4,2020

Mangaluru, May 4: In order to protect the frontline coronavirus fighters from the pathogen, students at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management has developed face shields that will help the front-line healthcare workers.

Mr Johnson Tellis - Chief Innovation Officer, Mr Gautham Nayak - Design Engineer and DreamWorks Makerspacerun by determined students, supported by Sahyadri Start-up ecosystem, at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management has headed the team.

The team took the initiative along with other maker communities in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and the likes, with a pledge to produce and deliver 1 Million face shields across India. In three weeks, the team has contributed to the cause and delivered more than3500 face shields and a ventilator splitter for the Dakshina Kannada and Shimoga region.

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