Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a professor in Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, was walking along 110th Street near Lenox Avenue Saturday night when a group of at least 20 males rode up on bikes and began physically assaulting him while shouting “terrorist” and “get Osama.” Singh, a Sikh who wears a long beard and a turban, had just dropped off his wife and one-year-old son at home before going out for a walk. 
 
 After the attack, he described being punched repeatedly and then falling to the ground, the head punches continuing as he lay on the sidewalk. A friend who met him at the hospital Saturday night reports seeing a bloody and bruised Singh, face swollen from a fractured jaw. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force also met with Singh at the hospital before he was discharged after midnight on Saturday. 
 
 While refusing to give details on the victim, an NYPD spokesman confirmed to the Columbia Spectator that attackers “made anti-Muslim statements and then they began punching the victim in the face.” 
 
 According to Dr. Singh’s friend Simran Jeet Singh (no relation), Dr. Singh is an important figure in the community: 
 
 Prabhjot has dedicated his life to serving the underserved. He is currently the Director of Systems Management at the Earth Institute, and he draws upon his experiences abroad to help improve the health of local communities like Harlem. In addition to serving as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, he is also a resident physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital. His life's work has been to help the underprivileged access quality and affordable healthcare, and he believes strongly that his countless hours of service are an investment in improving the health of impoverished communities. 
 
 Just last year, Dr. Singh and Simran Jeet Singh wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that highlighted the importance of tracking and counting anti-Sikh hate crime. 
 
 [Image via SIPA] ||||| Last night, I received the kind of phone call that everyone dreads: a close friend was hurt, and on his way to the hospital. But the news got worse, as I learned that my friend, Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a young Sikh American professor at Columbia University, had been brutally attacked on a public street, the victim of a violent hate crime. My brother and I immediately jumped in a taxi and rushed to the hospital, where we finally saw Prabhjot being wheeled in, bloody and bruised, his face swollen from a fractured jaw. He couldn't speak because many of his teeth had been displaced, but he waved limply to let us know that he was okay. 
 
 We joined Prabhjot in his hospital room and were surprised to find it already filled with officers from the NYPD and its Hate Crime Task Force. As he struggled to give his statement, we came to learn that his assailants had taunted him as they beat him, calling him "Osama" and "terrorist." He described being punched in the face repeatedly until falling to the ground. And then he recalled how the punches to the head continued as he laid on the sidewalk. 
 
 I saw Prabhjot shudder as he realized how much worse it could have been. He had just returned from dinner, dropping his wife and one-year-old son at home before going for a walk. He reached from his hospital bed and grabbed his wife's hand. 
 
 He recounted the scariest moment, seeing a young male put his arm inside his coat, as if reaching for a gun. He also remembered people pulling at his long beard. He couldn't provide any descriptions about his assailants, and it seemed to me that in some way, he didn't want to remember them. 
 
 Prabhjot has dedicated his life to serving the underserved. He is currently the Director of Systems Management at the Earth Institute, and he draws upon his experiences abroad to help improve the health of local communities like Harlem. In addition to serving as an Assistant Professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, he is also a resident physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital. His life's work has been to help the underprivileged access quality and affordable healthcare, and he believes strongly that his countless hours of service are an investment in improving the health of impoverished communities. 
 
 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. This past May an elderly Sikh gentleman was brutally beaten with a steel pipe in Fresno, California, and in March a Sikh male was shot while driving just outside of Orlando, Florida. And as we all know, in August 2012 a white supremacist entered a Sikh place of worship (gurdwara) in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and opened fire on the congregation. 
 
 Sikh Americans have repeatedly been targeted in hate violence throughout the country, and we believe that much of this stems from a dangerous combination of hate and ignorance. Many perpetrators of hate violence are unable to see the humanity of their victims. 
 
 It seems that Prabhjot's assailants associated his turban and beard with Osama bin Laden and terrorism. This observation is consistent with a national study released by Stanford University researchers less than two weeks ago, which shows that more than 50 percent of Americans associate the Sikh turban with Osama bin Laden than with any other figure. 
 
 In today's America, so many of us can be perceived as different. Whether it is our religion, our racial or ethnic background, our sexual orientation, or our gender identity, all of us are potentially someone's "other," and can be discriminated, excluded, or even targeted for violence because of it. In light of this incident, and all those that have come before, it is increasingly clear that we, the "others," need to build bridges with one another, and with the community at large. We will make the hate and violence stop. We absolutely have to. 
 
 Kiran Kaur and Justin Collins contributed to this article. ||||| Kent police look for gunman who allegedly walked onto victim’s driveway and shot him in the arm; Sikh community sees rise in abuse. 
 
 Kent police are looking for a gunman who allegedly walked onto a man’s driveway and shot him, saying “Go back to your own country.” 
 
 The victim, a 39-year-old Sikh man, was working on his vehicle in his driveway in Kent’s East Hill neighborhood about 8 p.m. Friday when he was approached by an unknown man, Kent police said, after talking with the victim. 
 
 An altercation followed, with the victim saying the suspect made statements to the effect of “Go back to your own country.” The victim was shot in the arm. 
 
 The victim described the shooter as a 6-foot-tall white man with a stocky build. He was wearing a mask covering the lower half of his face, the victim said. 
 
 Kent police say they’ve reached out to the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies. 
 
 “We’re early on in our investigation,” Kent Police Chief Ken Thomas said Saturday morning. “We are treating this as a very serious incident.” 
 
 Jasmit Singh, a leader of the Sikh community in Renton, said he had been told the victim was released from the hospital. 
 
 “He is just very shaken up, both him and his family,” Singh said. “We’re all kind of at a loss in terms of what’s going on right now, this is just bringing it home. The climate of hate that has been created doesn’t distinguish between anyone.” 
 
 In a statement Saturday, the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based civil rights group, asked local and federal authorities to investigate the shooting as a hate crime. 
 
 Singh said Puget Sound-area Sikh men in particular have reported a rise in verbal abuse and uncomfortable encounters recently, “a kind of prejudice, a kind of xenophobia that is nothing that we’ve seen in the recent past.” 
 
 To Singh, the number of incidents targeting members of the religion, which has its roots in the Punjab region of South Asia, recalls the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. 
 
 “But at that time, it felt like the [presidential] administration was actively working to allay those fears,” he said. “Now, it’s a very different dimension.” 
 
 Sikh Coalition Interim Program Manager Rajdeep Singh, in calling for the hate crime investigation, said in a statement: “While we appreciate the efforts of state and local officials to respond to attacks like this, we need our national leaders to make hate crime prevention a top priority. Tone matters in our political discourse, because this a matter of life or death for millions of Americans who are worried about losing loved ones to hate.”
– In what police are investigating as a hate crime, a Columbia University professor was badly beaten on a New York City street Saturday by a mob that apparently believed he was a Muslim. Police say Prabjot Singh, a 31-year-old Sikh, was attacked just blocks from his home by a group of more than 20 young men on bikes who called him a terrorist and shouted "Get Osama!" Singh, who was saved when passersby intervened, was left with injuries including a fractured jaw, reports the Columbia Spectator. Friend Simran Jeet Singh describes the attack in the Huffington Post, noting that the professor had been taking an evening walk after dropping his wife and 1-year-old at home. "He couldn't speak because many of his teeth had been displaced, but he waved limply to let us know that he was OK," he writes of seeing Singh at the hospital. "It’s incredibly sad," Singh himself tells the New York Daily News. "It’s not the neighborhood I know. I work in this community. It’s just not American." Gawker points out that Singh himself noted in a New York Times article on anti-Sikh violence last year that the turbans and long beards of Sikh men have often marked them out as targets for discrimination both in India and overseas. (It's not the only alleged hate crime NYC has suffered in recent weeks.)