Sikh Man Responds To Bias Attack

A Long Island man was arrested on Monday after a brutal attack on an honorary Sikh priest in Richmond Hill over the weekend.
Salvatore Maceli, 26, of Valley Stream, was among a group of men who allegedly beat Rajinder Singh Khalsa Ji, 54, who was punched and kicked unconscious. Maceli, who is charged with assault, faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
Singh and his cousins were on their way to his cousins restaurant on 101 Street in Richmond Hill when a group of men standing on the street began to mock their turbans. Singh alleges that the men told him to return to his own country and then five or six of them began to beat him.
Sitting in his home in Richmond Hill, visibly bruised and still wearing the hospital bracelet from his ER visit, Singh told The Queens Courier: "They [his attackers] made insulting remarks as we passed by. Why are you wearing curtains on your head? they asked me. Nobody should do this, insult someones religion."
Brian Pu-Folkes, Executive Director of the New Immigrant Community Empowerment in Jackson Heights, told The Queens Courier: "We need to get the information about who Sikhs really are out there. They are being targeted without aim or understanding."
Pu-Folkes notes that in both cases the Sikh men wore turbans and their attackers mistakenly believed they were attacking Muslim men.
Says Pu-Folkes: "Every day we hear on the news phrases like axis of evil, war on terror, bring it on, and these phrases can send out powerful social signals that we really should be wary. Some people actually believe they are doing the country good by ridding the place of immigrants whose culture they dont understand."
In a statement to the press, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said, "Crimes motivated by bias particularly those involving violence can never be tolerated. When they do regrettably occur, they will be vigorously prosecuted and severely punished."
District Attorney Browns Anti-Bias Bureau is now prosecuting the case.
Singh believes that he will see justice done: "We trust the administration and the American justice system to bring us justice."
But the experience has also left him with deeper scars. "I admit Im terrified to go out now. Im very afraid it will happen to me again."