The Sikh Turban: Post-911 Challenges to This Article of Faith

still here?” “Go to your home. Go to your country.” A Sikh man with Khalsa
responded, “this is my country. This is my home, too.” 129
After this exchange, the group of five men then began assaulting Khalsa.
According to the Queens District Attorney’s office:
[They] repeatedly punched the victim Khalsa in the face, knocking him to
the ground where they kicked him until he lost consciousness. Khalsa was
later treated at a hospital for multiple contusions, abrasions, swelling and
substantial pain to his eye and face. A CAT scan revealed that Khalsa had
sustained multiple fractures to the left orbital bone, as well as complex,
obstructive fractures of the nose which required facial reconstruction
surgery to enable him to breathe. 130
After the perpetrators finished beating Khalsa, “they took off his turban and threw it
away,” 131 adding religious insult to significant physical injury. Assistant District
Attorney Elizabeth Parke noted that the assault on Khalsa “was a truly vicious, despicable
act of hate.” 132
Following a five-week trial, the five men were convicted: two were found guilty
of second-degree assault, two were found guilty of second-degree aggravated harassment
as a hate crime, and the fifth defendant was found guilty of harassment in the seconddegree.
133 The men received sentences ranging from five days in jail to two years that
included community service for three of them. 134
The Khalsa case is notable because of the egregious nature of the clear animus
and degree of brutality involved. It is also important because it is one of the exceptional
cases in which the perpetrators verbalized their hate and thus provided authorities with
colorable evidence of a hate crime. Hate crimes statutes generally are designed to punish
those who attack or threaten individuals on the basis of an immutable characteristic, such
as one’s race or national origin. The federal hate crime statute “prohibits willful injury,
intimidation, or interference or attempt to do so, by force or threat of force of any person
129 Id.
130 Press Release, Queens County District Attorney’s Office, D.A. Brown: Five
Sentenced to Incarceration in Bias-Related Attack on Sikh Man in Richmond Hill, Dec.
22, 2005 [hereinafter D.A. Press Release].
131 Kenji Yoshino, Uncovering Muslim Identity, TOWARD FREEDOM, Nov. 23, 2005,
available at http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/content/view/674/54/ [hereinafter
Yoshino article].
132 Lowe article, supra note 126.
133 D.A. Press Release, supra note 130.
134 Id.
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