Unfortunately, religious minorities in America see this widely touted unity as artificial, partly because it comes at the expense of the civil rights of many Americans, and partly because those Americans who look different, or who practice a non-western faith, now face unprecedented hostility in their daily lives. The present moment, tragic for the loss of life in the attacks of 9/11, is rendered doubly tragic as it has also become a moment when new strains of racism and religious intolerance are emerging in the country at large. In the past several months there have been numerous hate crimes, widespread racial, ethnic, and religious harassment, along with the emergence of aggressive racial profiling on the part of the FBI and airport security personnel. The fear of random attacks by bigoted fellow Americans and anxiety around the prospect of racial profiling affects all sorts of people, including people with Muslim names, with accents, and any number of people with brown skin (including South Asians of any religious background, Hispanics, Native Americans, and even east Asians). The Sikh community has been on the receiving end of a disproportionate amount of this harassment due to the apparent resemblance of Sikh turbans (worn by Sikh men and some Sikh women) to the turbans worn by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.

Sikhs object to the mistreatment or prejudice against anyone, for any reason. In line with this philosophy, leaders of Sikh organizations like SMART have scrupulously attempted to identify the significance and distinctiveness of the Sikh turban without participating in the current widespread vilification of Islam. It is not enough for us to simply say, "Sikhs are not Muslims." Rather, Sikhs have argued that judging anyone based on his or her appearance is profoundly unethical and regressive, whether the discrimination is a result of visible religious attire, ethnicity, national origin, or gender. This kind of stereotyping goes against basic tenets of Sikhism as well as numerous other faiths.

However, the ethical Sikh response to the misunderstanding about the Sikh turban does not lessen the problems currently facing the community. Even where misperceptions of the Sikh turban do not lead to violence or racial profiling, the degree of suspicion with which the general public now regards Sikhs has been devastating to the Sikh community. Because of the hostile stares they routinely receive, many Sikhs in smaller towns around the country now find themselves dreading routine shopping trips or other daily activities. On the business front, Sikh cab drivers and the owners of many Sikh businesses have reported declines in business since the terrorist attacks. Most devastating of all, however, is the sense of shock that Americans in general, including those in urban centers as well as many law enforcement agencies and government officials, remain entirely ignorant of the Sikh faith. Significant numbers of Sikhs have been present in the U.S. for about thirty years; there are Gurudwaras (Sikh temples) in about 100 American cities; yet Americans now glare at Sikhs as if they have never before seen a person wearing a turban boarding an airplane, or in a movie theater.

America, a nation of immigrants, has become considerably more hostile to immigrants who happen to have arrived recently, or who happen to have dark skin tones. This is nowhere more true than on the issue of civil liberties. New powers have been granted to the FBI for detaining and investigating persons suspected of involvement with terrorism, including the violation of attorney-client privileges and the institution of military tribunals. For instance, more than 1000 people have been detained by the FBI as part of its investigation of the terror attacks. Some of these detainees have been held for a over month or more, and the vast majority have not been charged with or even accused of a crime. These aggressive tactics may be deemed necessary for effectively combating terrorism by the powers-that-be, but the new powers of law enforcement raise serious questions about the limits to which principle can be sacrificed in the interest of national security. Such new measures are of concern to Muslims and Sikhs especially, but SMART encourages the interfaith community as a whole to begin a dialogue on the role of religious organizations in protecting civil liberties.

Like Americans from all religious communities, the Sikh community has attempted to surmount the deep shock, which has especially been intense for Sikhs given the harassment and rash of hate-crimes that have followed in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the profound demoralization that has followed. Then again, much good has nevertheless begun to come out of evil: like many other American religious communities, Sikhs have become newly organized and mobilized in their commitment to educating other Americans about the Sikh faith. Sikh Americans are now united to an unprecedented degree, aiming to meet the challenges facing the community with strength and conviction.