Voices Against Hate – Episode 5: Japneet Singh on Hate Crimes in NYC

In this powerful episode of the SB Life Institute Podcast, Safraz Bacchus sits down with community leader Japneet Singh for an urgent and heartfelt conversation on the rise of hate crimes in New York City and their impact on minority communities.

Together, they explore the lived realities of Sikh and Muslim communities, the trauma of religious profiling, mistaken identity, underreporting of hate crimes, and the need for stronger education, awareness, and policy reform. From personal experiences to failures in institutional response, this episode shines a light on why communities must move from silence to solidarity.

This conversation is more than a discussion—it’s a call to action for unity, reporting, education, interfaith dialogue, and proactive advocacy against hate in all its forms.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We are living in a time where hate has become louder, where words are fueling divisions, and where fear and violence are entering our streets, schools, homes, and places of worship. Every day, people are being targeted because of their faith, race, culture, or simply because they are different. But we refuse to allow hate to define our future. This series is about more than hate crimes. It is about humanity, healing, understanding, and courageous conversations that bring people together instead of tearing them apart. Featuring faith leaders, community advocates, public officials, survivors, and voices from different backgrounds united in confronting hate and building hope. Because love must speak louder than hate, and our shared humanity must always rise above division. Join us for this powerful new series on the SB Life Institute podcast. Conversations on hate, healing, unity, and hope coming soon. Peace and love be with you all, and welcome to the SB Life Institute podcast. I'm your boss, Safra Zbacchus, uh community leader and a certified uh certified life coach and chaplain and global peace ambassador. Uh, as we engage in this very important conversation about hate crimes and their impact on our communities, I'm truly honored to welcome to our studio a very respected voice and dedicated advocate, and he is no other than Jat Min Singh, a community leader and a recognized name for Austin, New York, and his commitment to a person that is committed to justice, unity, and the protection of the human dignity. And today's discussion aims towards creating awareness through dialogue, uh, to bring awareness to build a safer, compassionate uh communities for all, especially in a time when our communities are plagued with hate crime. Uh Brother Jab, it's a pleasure to have you uh once again on my podcast. So and I know we are uh you know drifting towards 12 and we're doing uh this this, but I I want to thank you so much for your time. And your work uh stands out in Queens. You are a name that is known to be actively involved in the work here. One of the things that we see in New York and in the US, but primarily we are living in New York, that there is a rise in in gay crime, whether it's directed towards religious uh entities, religious individuals, or minority uh minority groups, and you have been a voice out there, being a Sikh, that is, the Sikh community is integrately involved in or part of the New York, uh the fabric of the New York society. And I want to ask you, you know, uh an important question to begin this dialogue. Um as a Sikh youngster, uh, how do you see this hate craft impacting you as a person to live in New York? Well, first and foremost, uh salam along. Why isal my friend?

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Why will you gaasa? Why will you defad it? Uh, you know, I think growing up when I grew up right after 9-11, yeah, uh, I was still in grade school, right? So I think for me, I first hand, what this in mind you I wasn't in time to turn at that time. Okay. Um, but I was called Assam Al-Sam. I was called a terrorist, I was called uh anything you could think of, right? That was a very derogatory thing. But see, but you know, one thing I will say is that it was being so normalized at that time that I thought it was normal being called all those names. You know, myself, my peers, we kind of at a certain point were like, you know, we stopped even giving it any kind of uh value because we're at the hearing of so much, that this must be uh a proper description of us, right? Uh but it wasn't until really until I became an adult to know that these things aren't normal. This is not how a Sikh, a Muslim, any person of faith should live, uh especially not in New York City. Uh and then, you know, as I started my career and then I got more involved in politics, yeah, I saw that the same kind of rhetoric was being spewed in such high places uh with high officials. Yeah. So I'm like, you know what, we have to take the stand. And I became much more vocal. Uh obviously, there was a lot of hate crimes that were happening within the Sikh community, even uh as late as 2022. Uh we had a string of dozens of hate crimes that happened in the last few years. Uh, and then that led me into meeting people like yourself and so many others in the community, and I saw that the hate was not only uh causing havoc on our community, but all communities in New York City and beyond. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

You know, uh while we are trying to somehow bring awareness of how hate crimes uh is affecting our communities, a very fabric of our community. I just want to take a minute to give to basically for those who do not know about what hate crime is, it's a term. Yeah, people have a tendency to just throw it out. Yeah, you know, uh use those words, but we do not know the implication of that and what it actually means. Um and for those of uh our listeners who are not familiar, this force to understand the seriousness of this is a hate crime is a criminal act motivated by two things prejudice and bias. And bias may be based because of your religion. So, in other words, that the Sikh community is being targeted because of them being a Sikh. The Muslim community, the Jewish community, communities, someone might experience hate crime because of their race, because of the color of their skin, because of the ethnicity, the nationality, because of their gender. Being a female. Female for some is equivalent to weakness, right? And orientation and identity. So we are focusing on the hate that is directed to uh your community as a religious community, right? And we we know uh that the Sikh often you know display that visibility in terms of their turban, in terms of the beard they have a particular uh look. And some attack attackers wrongfully associate Sikh with uh extremism or other faiths that they may not know the distinction. How do you navigate that, right? Uh how do you navigate as a youngster? He's saying as a youngster, people will normalize certain things. They will call you a target XYZ, and you look at it, you laugh, people laugh and they move away. But uh as a youngster, how did you respond to that? And how do you navigate now in our time uh with with you know uh mistaken of identity because that has been an issue? People target you because you have the turban, they think that you are from a different community, maybe or just because of the way you look.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

I think we have to start by understanding we can't throw 10 million community under the bus. You're um at this one about Tabisi was fast. It is I am not that person that you talk totally. I am not of that faith. But in the Sikh faith, we believe that everyone together has the right at human dignity. Everyone has the right to rise together, uh everyone has the right to live in peace and harmony. So even post-9-11, for example, the first person to get murdered due to a hate crime was a sick man, right? Uh it will be the same so be. Uh, even after October 7th, the first man to again get murdered by a hate crime in New York, this was in Queens, uh, was a sick man.

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:39

Right? We had to fight uh like hell uh to even add the hate crime charge into uh the arrangement because NYPD was not called the hate crime, and then the the police uh DA came to the courtroom herself and she added the charge of hate crime. So, you know, I think one thing we need to do as faith leaders, as people that are indulging this work is expand what hate crime means. Because you and I both know when you wear uh your kurta or I am outside in a turban, we are easy victims for certain perps, right? Because they sometimes associate our community with weakness, that they're not going to defend themselves, they're not going to retaliate, they're not going to speak up for themselves, they're not even gonna report it to the cops because there's a language better. So I think we need to do more on the legislative end, and elected officials, but with all due respect, also need to know their their part. Because at the end of the day, to say that a hate crime only happens if there's actual language associated, or your terrorist fall, I'm gonna rip that turbine law. That that's not that's easy to say, but sometimes there's elderly, so many elderly that just got uh you know assaulted and robbed just because they know it's an easy victim. And we have to change that conversation, and we do that by maybe it's important the awareness and the concept.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

You know, I often say you do not know uh the trauma, the psychological trauma, but someone has feared that it go through the road, right? And so that's one. The other thing I'll say in terms of from even with the NYP, I don't want to take a moment to share this. Like, this is just three weeks ago, a member of my community, right, reach out to him. He says, I need your intervention now, where are you? I said, what it is. He says the same person who is sharing a space with someone, he says the same person who's been harassing me all the time, and I'm like, now have done X, Y, and Z say what it is. And when I heard that, I said, now it's the time for me to go and take action. What did she do? What did this person do to my colleague? Uh under the influence of alcohol, went into her fridge, took out fork, sprinkled water all over the kitchen utensils that belongs to the person, and violated so many laws, calling names, uh derogatory names to my colleague who is a Muslim. Uh wife was so traumatized to not even come out of the room actually because they're sharing a seat space. They're remnants of the torque all over the utensils, and I got very upset. So I took him, went straight to the case. Right. Talked with someone there, had a conversation, and uh took the information and literally, you know, they could not do anything. So I told my colleague that he had some things to do. So then you go back home if those things are not, because he never touched those things. Right. So if it's still there, call 9-1. And this is a point I'm making. So he went out. When he came back around 10, he called 9-1, remnants are still there. Right. Person in the room locked up, locked in to the room, probably sleeping. 9-1-1 took a while to come, the police officers, and officers are asking my colleague, what do you want me to do? So that's the problem. So, you know, so in my assessment, I'm not a police officer, but I don't know this for a fact, right? This violation of some religious rights. Absolutely. You're making someone out putting their hands in something they didn't touch because of religious reasons, right? You bang the door of the person, the person did not open, and you left. You did not communicate, you did not do anything. Right? So I think that awareness, set the sensitivity of the matter, right, right, starting from the NYPD as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

I think NYPD and as well as other city agencies, because something similar happened to us too, where the head priest uh of our temple, one of the Gudaras in Richmond, well, uh, we called him Hadigranti, right? Yes. He was attacked during Amratwala, which is like the holest time day for us. It's the beginning of the day, uh, before sunrises, basically, right? Someone was outside of the temple. When he opened the door, the the person following inside, and you can tell, you know, we obviously our temples, our holy structures, that's our religion guru. Yeah, we everything is that, right? Yeah. So obviously there's a certain hygienic code that goes with that. You want to make sure you're hygienic when you're inside the house of worship. According. So the grant just told the person, hey, listen, like, well, like you're not gonna take a shower, you're sleeping outside, like you know. And what this person does, youngster starts attacking the vrunti. And what happened is you know, this is a 65-year-old man, by the way. He gets attacked really brutally, like to a point where he had black and blues across his body. Oh no, he calls the cops, 106 priests. The cops come and, you know, like baptize six in in Sikhism, they wear something called a trapan, which is a little dagger, right? They see that on him, they arrest the grant, not the purpose. Oh my god. And guess now we have our not only lack of cultural awareness. Um and and that's sad that in 2026, this happened in 2023, but in 2023, even 2023, we still don't have that in the most diverse city in the world. I think that's the problem, right? So, you know, think about not only is he injured now, not only does he have concussions, now you have our holiest person that we consider, again, Giranti is basically the teaching the student of the Guru that's teaching us what's in the Holy Scripture. Yeah. He's not arrested in the world. It's like a sage. Yeah. Yeah. He's he's arresting chains and and handcuffs in in the priest that where he does not belong. And guess what? He couldn't, the police state put his uh police complaint on fire until we got involved. And we had to go to a club, we had to get in uh lawyers, and we got the case dismissed. But think about it, he could have gotten real jail time if we didn't get uh involved. He didn't have to intervene, yeah, basically.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Absolutely. And you know, just to say that the 106 priest, and you know, we reached out to individuals here and they were very helpful that they said, oh, they will speak with the person. But I'm saying that I'm seeing it based on my what I've known from the past and what I'm seeing now. Uh prejudice, calling of names, uh desperating of someone's sacred states, no, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

But to be fair, to interject with the precincts are great when we call. But that's the problem. It shouldn't only be when community leaders get involved. I think every person deserves, and again, we have a great relationship with both 102nd and 106. They've been great help to the community, but I think there needs to be definitely a lot more cultural and religious uh education.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

And I think what one of the reasons you know we can see it is that members of the Sikh community are often misunderstood or misidentified is because of lack of knowledge about Sikh articles of faith.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

I can deny myself when uh I'm just we're talking about this had to be October 2025. A congressman, U.S. Congress member asked me, my brother, how do we do it, how do we greet you? Like, is there a reading for you in your language? Yeah. And I'm like, no, I have to explain that I'm a sick, we are a separate faith, the fifth order is religion, all that. And he had no idea. And he was a U.S. Congress member in New York. So think about that. That the to your point, the fact that in 2025, a former U.S. Congress member didn't know who the Sikh community was, in that's a very big problem. And again, part of it is gonna be a two-fold thing, right? The community has to step up, they have to be in these spaces. But secondly, the elected officials and people that are in public offices need to want to learn about this because you can't not know who makes up your city and who makes up your country.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

And then the other thing is that I believe the more we learn about something, the more we become familiarized and appreciate, right? And uh communities need to open, open their places of worship and read ultimate, not to be in a robot. Because we are contributing, religious leaders are contributing towards the hate crime indirectly. Because if we do not allow people to come into a space without crossing, crossing your religious principles, right? To have that dialogue. I was saying to uh a rabbi yesterday, I was having a conversation just as far and uh I was saying to her, like we need to open up our space of worship where uh a Jewish person or Sikh person to come to Mamas and say, I'm Jewish, this isn't my faith. Absolutely. Not with the intent of changing the person's faith, but to bring that awareness. And someone who is a Muslim may want to say to me, you know, Shaykh, what are you saying? You know, like, oh, what are you saying? But I say to you, I say to that person who is actually, you know, gonna say that to me. God Almighty, he says, yeah, you and that's why we've created you from a male and female, made you into nations and tribes with different religious background, different ethnicity, so that we may know each other. Absolutely. Come to common terms, the answer. And this is to rebut those who are who may say that I'm saying something wrong within the parameters of my faith. Right. But I'm saying we need to open the space of our mosque to have a Sikh person come and say turban.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

And to be fair, your mosque and you have been doing that, so you know, so I believe that for years.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

They see your turban, they should know what your turban signifies. Absolutely. Absolutely right. They see a capital, they should know that what that signifies. They see someone with a kofield, we see the religious hat belonging to the Muslim, the situation, oh I know that that's that is a representation.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

And to and and that's how, if you go back to our native countries, that's how it is. Everyone lives. Like I always say that religion sometimes, the way you interpret it and the way you practice it could be two different uh uh uh conversations, right? Because at the end of the day, if you if you just listen and actually turn and follow the way it says, they actually all religions have septum synodats, mosques, mundars, churches, gurduras, it's all preaching love and harmony and unity amongst people. There's a common message, common message everybody. But people interpret it the way they want to interpret it.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

So so so we're making that point, right? You it both of us are making that point. The need for education and public awareness. Yes, I mean. And that has to start in the public school system, right? Public school system, we and and just to give the public school system, I believe that it should be.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

I I think if you can start, and like I mentioned, when I was in grade school when 9-11 happened, um if the DOE DOE and other public facilities did a better job on navigating hate, I think we never had to. Like I have a we have a whole generation that like I said, where hate was normalized, right? We we were trained to be called Asana or terrorists because normalized. So now, for example, last year we were advocating for a religious uh uh religious deal for the city for the city to adopt. It took so long to even get it here. And and I asked why, right? This is how we, if we can get our young people to understand the differences that we have and also similarities that we have at an early age, that that avoids us for even talking about hate when we're those. Because at the end of the day, you're so closely aware and they're so religiously trained that you know that okay, this is the difference between a turban, a goofy, uh, a keep up, all that good stuff. But again, there's clearly the powers that be. It's really up to them to really say, hey, listen, we want to end the seat once and for all.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Yeah, and uh uh before I move on to the next part, right? Sikhism promotes peace, right? Like many other religion, equality and service, and that is what the community offers. So you see a Sikh person, you should not look that person as your enemy, right? But rather you look at that person as someone that is contributing towards the very fabric of the society. There are Sikhs who are lawyers, there are Sikhs who are uh you know contractors that are building the houses, there are those who are like even in occupied you know, Their offices, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

Uh, if you go to a 7-Eleven, you know, and something that's probably a sick home business, but you know, like the three core pillars of Sikhism. It's very simple, but things that we live by day by day, right? Uh is one shot, right? Meaning that together we should share what we have, whether it's food, whether it's our uh wealth, whatever it may be, right? Piero, earn an honest living, work hard, right? And nanjako, which is meditate to the name of God, right? Think about all the faiths. What do they have in common? It is exactly this, right? In different terminology, these three concepts are universal. Yes. For us, it's not about, hey, become a sick and then you'll you'll gain salvation. It's like, no, be the best human being you can be, connect with God, and just be a good person. Yeah. And you will connect with the divine. That's that's what Sikh saw. That's what Sikhism believes in.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

And I I always say to Big, you you want you you're so curious about a religion, you're so curious about Sikh to come into the water. You're opening open door policy. Open door policy. I love that's what I love about Sikhism. Right. And you know, uh I'll I'll I'll ask you this. You know, how can minority communities work together based on your insight to address these hate crimes? How can uh the minority communities, because I see sometimes as I say, we're not allowed, right? I see that the minority communities, we have to work hold hands together. So I look at it, and I often use this example, as a chain. You look at a chain with links, your link, the Sikh community is a link, I'm a link, the Jewish community is a link, the African-American community, the minority community is if any one of that link is weak and it's open, the whole thing becomes very you know, very weak. So we need to relate together that connection. How do you think that we can work together? Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

So for me, right, I draw a lot of inspiration from our gurus, right? Yeah. Our sips guru built the actual mosque for the Muslim community that couldn't have a fence to play at all. And this is and this is all real, right? This is you can find this on Google. It's an actual documentary, right? Uh, our our night guru sacrifies himself to defend the marginalized Hindu community, right? So I think throughout time, at least in the Sikh faith, we've shown, we've seen our gurus put their life on the line to protect others. And just like recently, that was a few weeks ago, we hosted Edenland. I don't celebrate the, but look how how filled that room was with different folks with different faiths. And that's, I think we can only cure hate by starting dialogue. And that's what we're doing right here. Yeah. Simple things that I love this. I love yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

So true dialogue, it's it's important because integrate dialogues and dialogues, generally diverse, but disagree amongst creates straight.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

Dialogue, yes, but purposeful dialogue.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Because if you're gonna sit down, we've seen many people that come into these rooms, they'll give their spiel, and then they go right back into their hateful mode as soon as they leave the room. It needs to be intentional. There's some people we're meeting that have that intent intent, but there's a lot of people we're meeting that are are saying they have the intent, but doesn't actually come to fruition. That's the problem. So we need to just continue finding liking on the people that actually want to pull us together, not away from each other.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah. So that's that's a key point for viewers and for those who are listening. In addition to this, I think one of the things that can help as well in this process is to uh share experiences that you know where we can share your experience and how uh that you may have it where when it comes to the crime of your communities and how that how you feel, also the Jewish community, the Muslim community target of South Phone. So share experiences about Muslims, Jews, African American communities, I think that also can help. I think there's people share my experience, they would depend on extreme truth.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Like like in December when we did the rally against Viki Paladino. Yeah. Again, because I know even though she was targeting the Muslim community, guess what happens? Islamophobia is on the rise. It's not just affecting Muslims, it's also affecting Sikhs, it's also affecting other brown communities, marginalized communities. So my thing is that if one of us are under attack, we're all under attack.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

And as long as European party and the importantly collective advocacy on. Yeah, so we must, in a collective way, uh advocate and stand against discrimination, to stand against bias one, and to stand against fate. We should say no thing always or die. No matter who it is, absolutely right. And we should do that, not in our own secluded area. Because it's easy to do. It's easy to do. And and uh unfortunately, one of the things that we're seeing, and I'll say I'm saying this with respect, right? That that unfortunately, one of the things I'm seeing, sometimes people they're scared to lose what they have because and they stifle their conscience. Yeah, they don't want to call out the hate when it's a hate because they're thinking that, you know, what am I gonna lose rather than you know going to bed in peace, right?

SPEAKER_00 27:23

Yeah, and so yeah, I I think, you know, in the last three years, months up, we've seen a lot more of that, right? I think people have justified hate in ways that even they can't really explain, right? We're talking about a massacre of a whole generation, right? Whether it's abroad, whether it's here, and we're still seeing that. And people somehow are still justifying that, right? Yeah, and I think as long as people like us and others, we've met so many great people on this journey, continue to come together, have open and honest discussions, and in one clear statement and breath and uh simple words said, Hey, we unapologetically stand up against hate, genocide, anything that you want to label it as, we will be all we will always come out on the right side of the issue. And that's what it comes down to. It's gonna be how much are we going to stand up for our convictions and not fold to those that the the the lavish uh things that the other side offers?

SPEAKER_01 28:31

So it's amazing that you say that, right? Um last week I was on the white day, the United Nations celebration of a genocide card won some 31 years ago, 1994. I was legendary stone. Right. And I I listened to a young man. He was about 30-something years, but he said he gave a testimony basically what happened when he was at the age of five. And in a synopsis, he said that he was at age approximately the age of five, he was so closely knitted with his with his uh with his grand grandmother. And he he said that one day as he was playing, uh people attacked. His his religious attack, and they ran into a church. Wow. And he was in the front line with his grandmother found the miniverse. Hundreds of people ran from the village into the church. Right. And uh they throw the grenade into the church, and he said that certain people died about people. He lost his grandmother lost all the individuals who said that he tasted this kid. He said that he tasted blood. And I'll I'll share this with you. All because someone belongs to another tribe, and they were using social media, right? They were using the radio in those days to spew hate, and it came from the thought, the highest authority. Oh, it does, yeah. Right? And they were showing that these people are inferior, then it's okay for you to take their lives, it's all it's okay for you to spill blood, despite what it is, because when someone thinks that they're superior, right? All of another group, that you think that you have the power, that you're burned with that power because you're you're you're better than that person. They're able to justify. And you're able to justify in that way that they they're actually justifying in their mind to put themselves in that comfort zone that they have the right to do what they do. Exactly. Exactly. And here is it 35 years after this kid, approximately 30 years after this kid is in the United Nations speaking. And he says he developed this passion for running. And I don't know if it was running from whatever it is, but he developed this passion for running, and that's how we end up a scholarship in the United States. Wow. Right? And the the guy, when he was speaking, he had a tears. I served by God's tear, tears full from my eyes. Because I'm looking at a kid that stood against, you know, now using what he has to stand against faith. And he said, the people then were saying never again. 31 years ago, they were saying never again, where in less than 90 days, a million people lost their life. A hundred days, sorry. He says a million persons, men, women, and children lost their life in a hundred days. And they said never again in Rwanda that will happen. I heard the president saying in one of the addresses, President Rwanda, he says, never again. But today, while he said that, saying that, there are people in those worlds that is actually as a dynasty speaking, thinking that they're superior over others and that they were born with that superiority. And that superiority gives them the right to take the lize. And there are many others like that.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

And you know, I I you're that account is so relatable, especially for what we're going through now. Yeah. Because you have now this conflict. Yo, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, man. No, no, no. Um, but you know, we have this conflict in the Middle East going on, and you know, it's so crazy to me how we can sit thousands of miles away as people in this country that can justify our tax payer money, killing kids and and women and elderly, and to me, that's also a form of hate. Because if that was another group of people, another religious group of people, guess what? Never again would have been a thing. Yeah. But because it's a community that those elites see as replaceable, or we don't need them, or or they they support terrorists and and and they're gonna they they hate America. That's the narrative, right? They want to justify their actions somehow. And that's how they do it. That's how they put other communities against those that actually don't have anything. Yeah. They don't know if they're they're gonna wake up tomorrow. And I always say this the only difference between them and us is time. Imagine we we were born in the on that side of the world, right? These kids are like less than a year old, right? Imagine we don't imagine we were born into the household. It could have been any one of us, right? And I think that you know, we need to obviously count our blessings, but also know we need to use our blessing to ensure that we stand up for these people that don't have those rights.

SPEAKER_01 33:43

Yeah. It's a very important part. You know, I just want to move on by sharing this, uh why we say uh, you know, education is important uh that for us to teach about Sikhism, because our discussion seekers in the school, really, and all the religious groups. Uh, we must have awareness campaigns for all this, right? One of the things that mentioned before, that we are a group of people that is not proactive, we are reactive. Exactly when something happens, then we jump to say to go and read candlelights and this and that, and when everything simmers down, we don't build it. We don't do anything. So we need to have that awareness.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Man change up because to that point, our city agencies are all reactors. So it's funny because I talked to the NYP Nini about some situations that was going on. There is an elderly that's getting harassed, and we took, you know, I took him to the precinct, we did the whole line yards, and they're like, we can't make an arrest right now because he hasn't been attacked. I'm like, so you're waiting for this guy to get attacked or die for you to do something. And they're like, yes, straight up, no stutter, the whole system of Mam Sab is predicated based on reaction. Whether it's the city agencies, whether it's our elected officials. Right now, like I said, the one thing we can do right now, as we speak, city council can do it, the state legislature can do it, expand the definition of what is constituted as a hate crime.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

You know, I think I just wanted to say this um to you that a lot of hate crimes are happening in the Sikh community and also in a Muslim and many other communities. But there is a sense of fear to even go recover. They don't want to recover. They don't, they don't, they don't so it's not affected. So I was previewed today as we talk it to look at a statistic 2025, 2025, and the past three years in terms of the the numbers with various communities, religious tolerances. And when you look at that, I don't think what I saw, we'll not discuss that here. It is an introduction is accurate, I reason it I both ordered because one is dead. We were scrutinized when I'm telling you that this woman took pour because of his religion and threw it the water into the dwelling space and desecrated the whole with this, and you're not gonna arrange? Instead, question us that what your feeling is not probably the right feeling. Yeah, just in saying and I think that it's not. So we have to see to the Sikh community here about and to your community and all the community that we experience something, we have to push for it to bring awareness.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

And also, I would also like to say, some I'm pretty sure I know what stats we're looking at, because I looked at them pretty much every uh every every every week. People need to understand that the sick community has its own category when it comes to hate crimes. But we're not being attacked, and this is I can say this with confidence because I've seen it, I've helped so many people at this point, we're not being attacked because we're sick. We're being attacked because they think we're Muslim. We're gonna be very clear about that. So when you combine the numbers of anti-sikh hate crimes and Islamophobic hate crimes, that number becomes significantly lower. And the perceptive becomes lower. But but I think sometimes there's a uh uh misconception that it's a different category. Yes, it is. However, we need to be very clear when Islamophobia is on the rise, it affects the sick community directly. And we need to make sure we're lost that because if it affects you, it's gonna affect us as well.

SPEAKER_01 37:49

So it's important. So while we're talking that youth engagement programs, we also need to focus on our youths to bring that awareness. And when we need representation in the media, we have to train our people to be in Gafield. I mean, I mean, and to have an independent warrant.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Independent who's independent. And also, one thing I will say is that being in, let's say you're a faith leader or do work in this space, uh, in the that is one thing I will be very great, I'm very grateful for in the last 24 years. We do have relationships with some mainstream media personalities that if I call them or text them, hey, listen, there's a hate con that that happened. Yeah, please come out and cover, they will come out. So that's why, like you said, like if we now, for example, have global talent within our communities, we should encourage them to have platforms like this.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:41

So if they're not gonna report it, say God forbid, we at least can get the message out. Because your platform now is not just for the Muslim community, it's it's open, it's full.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

And and again, I just want to take a minute uh to mention that we talk about media, and media is equivalent to communication, right? And we need to have this communication. We need to highlight media also is a reflection of highlight it. So when we need to highlight it in our social media platform, we need to highlight it in all of the social media platform and speak about it on tolerable.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

That I agree. And if you notice the way algorithms are set up with these billion-dollar companies, is if it's something negative, if someone gets attacked, it's gonna go super viral.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

But what if that same person, well, this a Sikh person or a Muslim person, does something great, it's not gonna be as viral, right? So I think that a part of educating others is also, hey, listen, yes, you've probably seen this in the media every time that someone's gotten assaulted. However, now this person is winning Nobel Priest Prize, just an extreme example, or is becoming the mayor, or is becoming the city council member, or came in first in the spelling beat in the local solo, yeah, or a star athlete in the local high school. I think those things also matter because that shows that we're just as New York, just as American as everybody else.

SPEAKER_01 40:05

So that I'm so sorry, but you know, we will have more more platform hours to speak. Um uh, but I want to thank you so much for us to have this discussion. And in closing, uh, we can probably summarize from to say that we should stand together and have a conversation with a brother uh uh from the sea to I'm a Muslim, I'm the sitting together. You're sheikh? Yeah, I'm a sheikh, okay. I'm an imam and a sheikh, alright? And we're we're we're sitting together, and this conversation that we have, the intent of it is to bring awareness. So uh the awareness is important, the education is important, and also uh, you know, we must be proactive in combat. And that proactiveness means reporting, and proactiveness means uh writing about it and not to be silent. Thank you. Um that proactiveness means to to act before anything happens and take uh practical steps to educate for the younger generation.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Any final words, my friend? I think just to echo what we've said, I think the number one thing I personally on the ground have seen is our folks do not report. And when you don't report, people don't take a syrup, right? And I think, like, for example, even when that police situation happened, he didn't tell me until two months after, right? So it's like that's a long time. We got it, you know, we got the case dismissed, all that, but maybe we could have prevented him getting arrested to begin with. Right? So I think that it's very thank you so much for sharing. Yeah, thank you so much for sharing. Um so I think it's very important that like when things happen in real time, if you have a language barrier, you can reach out to your local temple or mosque or leader that you know. And I I think it's very important that now that we have personnel within NYPD that is SIP, that is Muslim, that is Hindu, whatever religion you belong to, we have representatives there. So what's the point of them being representative to not then help the community? Yeah, I'm not saying be biased, but at least give voice to those that can't articulate their message. So thank you for for this amazing. This is what you call proact uh you know being proactive and you're taking the first step. So I appreciate that. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 42:30

And I'll I'll uh I just wanted to say as well that it's for those who may want to be biased in their thinking, you I'll say to them to speak to the footpoint in their market. Look to yourself and shoot and close at the beginnings and say if the if it means we're part of that was a backshit. Absolutely. If someone targeted you, because would you want, right? Yeah, yeah. And treat others the way you want others to treat you. Absolutely. Treat you. Right. And this is the very core of our being. I want to thank uh thank all of you for actually uh joining in to today's um episode. Uh kindly do not forget to subscribe. S D the Life Institute, the Safaras Baptist Life Institute.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Um we have to make him the number two, number one, number one podcast in uh Spotify. We have to make sure he gets there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

So we're on Spotify, we are on Apple Podcast and also YouTube. Spread the word by sharing and subscribing. Peace and love, and looking forward to uh to to the world episodes. Peace and love.