A sikh professor at Columbia University was attacked and injured by a mob of up to 30 people who called him Osama and terrorist during a brutal assault which the police is investigating as a hate crime. School of International and Public Affairs professor Prabhjot Singh was assaulted on Saturday night while walking in the Harlem neighbourhood near here. There was a group of 25 to 30 young men. One of them said,Get him,Osama, 31-year-old Singh,who suffered a fractured jaw,was quoted as saying by the New York Daily News. I got punched directly in the face about three times. Singh said he was on the ground being kicked when passers-by intervened,saving him. Im grateful to them, said Singh,who is married and has a young son. It could have been a lot worse. While being attacked,he saw one of the assailants put his arm inside his coat as if reaching for a gun. Singh was unable to provide any descriptions about his assailants to police. Singh told police that his assailants taunted him and beat him,calling him Osama and terrorist as they pulled at his long beard. Its incredibly sad, Singh said. Its not the neighbourhood I know. I work in this community. Its just not American. Its important that they are caught and be held responsible for what they did, he said. Singh reiterated that it was more crucial for people to understand that Sikhs are peaceful and should not be confused with radical Islamics. Ive written about this in the past. But its one thing to go from writing about something to receiving an assault. Its scary, he said. Singh has been discharged from hospital and met with officials from the New York Police Department Hate Crime Task Force,who are probing the incident as a hate crime. In an online post,Singhs friend Simran Jeet Singh,who is a doctoral candidate in religion at Columbia,said he had been brutally attacked and had been rushed to the hospital bloody and bruised,his face swollen from a fractured jaw. The young professor could not speak because many of his teeth had been displaced, Jeet Singh said in the post Hate hits home: when my friend became a target published on the HuffPost website. Prabhjot Singh is currently the Director of Systems Management at the Earth Institute,and draws upon his experiences abroad to help improve the health of local communities like Harlem, Jeet Singh said. Prabhjot Singh is also a resident physician at a leading New York hospital. Unfortunately his assailants did not see Prabhjot Singh,the professor,the community health expert or the local doctor. They saw a man wearing a beard and a turban his articles of faith and saw a target. Sadly,for many other Sikh-Americans like Prabhjot,this is a story they have heard and experienced before, Jeet Singh said.
