Two Sikh protesters were unceremoniously removed from a Donald Trump rally on Sunday after they displayed a banner that read “Stop Hate.”
One of the protesters — Arish Singh, a Sikh-American man — responded to the incident on Sunday, tweeting, “I am not a Muslim. But you don’t have to be a Muslim to stand against anti-Muslim bigotry.”
https://twitter.com/arishish/status/691348775093272576
Soon after Singh and another man showed the banner, they were escorted out of the rally in Muscatine, Iowa. While Trump’s supporters chanted, “USA!”
Trump was talking about the 11 September terror attacks and the San Bernardino shooting when the protesters got up and waved ‘Stop Hate’ banner at him.
Referring to Singh’s red turban while appearing to also point to a supporter in the audience, who was wearing red baseball cap that read ‘Make America Great Again,’ Trump said, “He wasn’t wearing one of those hats was he? And he never will, and that’s OK because we got to do something folks because it’s not working.”
The Sikh Coalition’s Simran Jeet Singh told NBC News,”Mr. Trump’s denigration of a Sikh man falls within a larger pattern of negative statements against minority communities.”
“Comments and actions such as these are especially dangerous given the sheer amount of hate violence that Sikh Americans are experiencing today. Every time he does something like this, it has negative consequences for Americans of all backgrounds,” he added.
Gurwin Ahuja, executive director of the National Sikh Campaign, told NBC News. “It is unfortunate that this man was removed from this rally with applause when his turban represents values that are at the heart of the American ethic.”
Trump a Republican front-runner in American presidential election has caused huge global outrage for his remarks suggesting banning of Muslims’ entry into the US.
UK government recently debated in its parliament if Trump could be banned from entering Britain after more than half a million people signed online petition against the motormouth Republican candidate.