Humanities Homework Help

Sikhism

View the news video and read the short news story below. Then, write a question to generate discussion about how cultural interaction and/or hybridization are involved the events surrounding this news story.

Bakersfield Sikh Community expresses concerns about hate crime ahead of 9/11 anniversary

by Abdulrahman

How does hybridization play a role in the discriminations against the Sikh community?

In the short video and article “Bakersfield Sikh Community expresses concerns about hate crime ahead of 9/11 anniversary”, we can see that the people of the Sikh community are facing hate crimes just because they have a similar appearance to the terrorists that did the 9/11 tragedy, while being of completely different religions. This shows how Sikhs and Muslims having similar appearances make them get mixed up a lot.

This can be explained as in the Sikh religion is a hybrid between multiple religions that originated in the same area, and being from the same area that Muslims come from, they have similar natural appearances. Thus, it explains why these ignorant individuals who can’t tell the difference between two religions are mixing them up.

However, this does not mean that anyone should receive hate or threats just for looking a certain way or practicing a certain religion. This is a very undeveloped mindset that we need to remove from our society to be able to develop further.

by Aaron Prieto

Do these hybrid religions show impact in how the world views them compared to other religions?

In the article “Sikh community expresses concerns of hate crimes ahead of 9/11”, we the see the people of this hybrid religion, Sikhism, have issues with being stereotypes of terrorists groups because of their similar appearance after the 9/11 attacks happened. Part of the Sikh appearance is wearing a turban which is a sign of spirituality and protection. However, this is the complete opposite of what people think when they see them. This has led to lots of hate crimes against them and still continue to this day because of their appearance. This is the problem for Sikhs. As a hybrid religion they are completely independent, and they do not want to be the ones taking the bullet for some group they do not relate with at all. This has proposed a question of do hybrid religions actually have an impact in how the world views them compared to similar religions, and it’s clear that it’s not much as we see that people see Sikhism similar to Islam because of their appearance.

by Faith Valverde

How can hybridization affect discrimination?

In the article, Bakersfield Sikh Community expresses concerns about hate crime ahead of 9/11 anniversary, it is shown that those who follow the Sikh religion are often mistaken for Muslims in hate crimes. Some confusion seems to come from incorrect assumptions and also from the hybrid nature of Sikhism. Because of the hybrid nature, it seems that people seem to mix up the two distinct religions. In this way, hybridization can increase discrimination. How else could hybridization possibly increase discrimination? Could hybridization also possibly decrease discrimination or is some education on the differences and issues enough?