Gurdarshan Singh was on his way to donate blood for the victims of the terrorist attacks on America when a man in a van pulled up alongside him and began shouting.
Minutes later, a second man pulled up on the other side and gave him a vulgar gesture. The men followed him for several minutes, said Singh, a Sikh minister who lives in Rockville, Md.
Like Singh, members of the Sikh religious community in the United States have been threatened, beaten and in some cases killed in the past week - simply because of their appearance.
Sikhism is a completely distinct religion from Islam, and yet some members are being mistaken for Arabs or Muslims because they wear turbans and have beards.
``I can see the emotions are so high and the people are looking at turbans and thinking I might be connected somehow with (Osama) bin Laden and his followers,'' Singh said. ``Unfortunately the ignorance is so much, and people use their eyes, they don't use their heads.''
Although the number of backlash crimes will not be tallied for quite some time, anecdotes of attacks on Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs have frightened many Americans.
The New York-based United Sikhs in Service of America lists some 196 backlash hate crimes on its Web site as of Tuesday morning. There are an estimated 500,000 Sikhs in North America.
In Mesa, Ariz., Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh, was shot and killed outside his gas station Saturday ``for no other apparent reason than that he was dark-skinned and wore a turban,'' Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said.
His alleged attacker, Frank Silva Roque, 42, was charged Monday with first-degree murder. ``I'm an American. Arrest me. Let those terrorists run wild,'' Roque was quoted as saying in a police report.
Male Sikhs, who are neither Arab nor Muslim, wear untrimmed beards and turbans that cover their uncut hair for religious reasons. The religion was founded in the 15th century by Guru Nanak, who preached tolerance, the worship of one god and equality for all humans.
Over the weekend, a 54-year-old California woman was arrested in Oregon after attempting to pull a turban off the head of a Sikh near Eugene. She believed he was an Islamic extremist.
The arrest was the second incident of backlash in Oregon. A 33-year-old man was arrested last week after making a threatening phone call to the Islamic Cultural Center in Eugene.
In Youngstown, Ohio, Tejinder Singh, a Sikh, said someone made rude comments to him as he stood in a parking lot. Someone also set fire to a hedge outside his brother's gas station in Cortland, Ohio, he said.
Both President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft denounced the backlash Monday. Those who reach out in anger ``represent the worst of humankind and they should be ashamed of their behavior,'' Bush said as he visited the Washington Islamic Center.
``People in the Sikh community want to go and help - to give blood and clear rubble from the World Trade Center and serve meals. And we are doing that,'' said Harpreet Singh, a spokesman for the New York-based United Sikhs in Service of America. ``But some are too afraid to go.''
On the Net:
United Sikhs in Service of America: http://www.sikh.org/hatecrime
Police Complaint Center: http://www.policeabuse.org
AP-NY-09-18-01 0509EDT
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.