Sikh is a 500 year old community and they have been living in U.S. for the past 114 years. Yet the Sikhs were mistaken to be Arabs in the post 9/11 scenario and beaten up. Doesn't this sound bizarre? I mean Sikhs and Arabs are as different as chalk and cheese.
'I Am Singh' is about Sikhs, who, despite living in the U.S. for generations, were mistaken for Arabs and Afghans due to their turbans and became victims of racist violence in the aftermath of 9/11. The film takes a look at the discrimination against Sikhs post 9/11.
I grew up in Canada and I was 10 years old when 9/11 happened. And I think that really changed the landscape for Arabs around the world, obviously, but especially Arab actors, I think we started getting viewed a little different. Like, my whole experience just as a kid before 9/11 and after 9/11 was drastically different.
The Arabs are victims. You have Shia Arabs, under Arabization under Saddam Hussein, who were forcibly moved up there... You have Kurds who were displaced by these Arabs that were moved up there by Saddam Hussein. Kurds have been displaced from Kirkuk for hundreds of years.
Well, because the Arabs who were involved in 9/11 cooperated with the Zionists, actually. It was a cooperation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs. It's a racist sort of thing, really racist - you know, picking out these 19 or 20 terrorists - they were terrorists - and saying all the Arabs are like them.
Americans need to embrace Sikhs more and Sikhs need to take the initiative to educate people about their religion.
We're living with the Arabs; we have to understand them... Through knowing the Arabs, you know yourself better.
The turban is an inextricable part of the Sikh identity. Sikhs say you may take off their head but not the turban.
Jaspal Bhatti saab was the one who uplifted the image of Sikhs on the national and international stage. There used to be a lot of satire on Sikhs earlier. A guy wearing a turban was portrayed as a joke, but since Bhatti saab entered cinema he changed the entire perspective and idiom of Sardar jokes.
I gathered all of the Jewish mukhtars, who have contact with Arabs in different villages and asked them to whisper in the ears of some Arabs that a great Jewish reinforcement has arrived in Galile and that it is going to burn all of the villages of the Huleh. They should suggest to these Arabs, as their friends, to escape while there is still time... The tactic reached its goal completely. The building of the police station at Halsa fell into our hands without a shot. The wide areas were cleaned.
Sikhs were considered the champions of fairness, uplifting people, protecting and defending human rights. Defending equality. So when someone sees a Sikh, the turban identifies a person who's going to stand up for rights, even if you disagree with them. The turban is supposed to be a beacon. That someone who is going to help you out.
I always believe that if we Hindus are like milk, Punjabis, Sikhs are the butter, the best part of that milk. Brought up with that kind of respect for Punjabis, I always desired to play a true Sikh character on screen someday.
So the idea that you could put Kurds, Shiite Arabs, and Sunni Arabs in a nice, liberal, federal system in Iraq in a short amount of time, six months or a year, boggles the mind.
The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.
American public opinion sees Arabs as terrorists and has the desert-man image about them. I wish the Americans would see Arabs and Muslims the way I see them... but Arabs are losing the public relations battle in the United States.
'My Name is Khan' saw the post 9/11 scenario from a Muslim perspective. In fact all films dealing with the post 9/11 conflict - whether 'New York,' 'Kurbaan' or 'Khuda Kay Liye' only showed how Muslims were victimized.
Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs... Surely it would be a crime against humanity to reduce the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored to the Jews partly or wholly as their national home