By Moni Basu, CNN(CNN) - Harkirat Singh Soin remembers a day in 1999 when, after much contemplation,...

1. The Sikh turban: at once personal and extremely public –
CNN Belief Blog
By Moni Basu, CNN
(CNN) - Harkirat Singh Soin remembers a day in 1999 when, after much contemplation, he finally
took a seat in a barber's chair.
All his 18 years, he'd worn long hair, first in a top knot, then in a dastar, or turban. It was an
expression of his Sikh faith and a distinct mark of his identity.
As his locks tumbled to the floor, Soin felt ashamed.
CNN iReporter: I am a Sikh, please don't hate me
He thought of his upbringing in a suburban Milwaukee neighborhood by Punjabi parents who
emigrated from India. He grew up on meals of homemade roti and daal makhani and sessions at
Sunday school that instilled Sikh values. He thought also of how his mother had taken time to
maintain her boys' long hair with love and care.
With every snip of the shears, he felt, he lost not just hair but parts of his being.
But he was tired of not fitting in, of being teased. Once when he was in elementary school, he was
even beaten with sticks by neighborhood troublemakers, he says.
"I am guessing that they turned on me because I was different," says Soin, now 32 and studying for
his U.S. medical license in Illinois after finishing medical school in China.
He became the first member of his family to shed the most visible signs of his faith. His father and
older brother still wear a turban and beard.
He is like thousands of other Sikh men who have abandoned turbans to avoid discrimination or from
fear of incidents like the shootings this week at the Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. Others
simply feel they are old hat and interfere with modern lifestyles.
CNN's Belief Blog: The faith angles behind the biggest stories
The turban, tied in distinctive fashion, was a way to manage long hair and serves as the most instant
way to recognize recognition of a Sikh.
Sikh men have worn turbans since 1699, when the last living guru bestowed a unique Sikh identity
based on five articles of faith. Among them were a steel bracelet signifying a reality with no
beginning or end; a sword representing resolve and justice; and unshorn hair as a gift of God and a
declaration of humility.
In India, Sikhism's birthplace, the turban was first abandoned in large numbers in anti-Sikh riots
that erupted after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards in

2. 1984, says Manjit Singh, a leader of a Sikh nationalist political party in New Delhi.
Explainer: Who are Sikhs and what do they believe?
Even more Sikhs unraveled their turbans for good after the September 11 attacks in the United
States. They felt vulnerable after some Sikhs were mistaken for Muslims and targeted by revenge-
seeking zealots.
Just four days after the Twin Towers collapsed, Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh gas station owner in
Mesa, Arizona, was shot five times and killed by aircraft mechanic Frank Roque. Roque was later
found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. On appeal, his sentence was reduced to
life in prison.
In the years following, the Sikh Coalition, a New York-based advocacy group, reported more than
700 attacks or bias-related incidents against Sikhs.
Opinion: White power music
That was certainly cause for concern in the Soin family.
They displayed an American flag and bumper stickers on the family car that said: "Proud to be
American" and "Sikh American."
"It was to show people that we are with you," Harkirat Soin says. "We are not who you think we are."
"We are not radical Muslims."
Soin's younger brother Manmeet stopped wearing a turban six years ago. Older brother Harmeet
still wears his and has not been spared the sting of ignorance.
Harmeet Soin says he has been called "Osama" on the streets. And when he travels for his banking
job, he gets called out at airport security every time, he says, even though he is a frequent flyer and
has executive status with various airlines.
10 years after Sikh murder over 9/11, community continues to blend in and stand out
He says he, too, wanted to cut his hair when he was in school. But his father sat him down and
asked: Is that the answer to your problem? Will you no longer be different then?
He realized then that the turban was as much his identity as his skin color.
"I am very proud of looking different," he says. "I am proud of my identity."
Harmeet Soin says he was disappointed when his brother first cut his hair and took off the turban.
But he understands that Harkarit is an adult who has to be comfortable with the choices he makes.
The turban is a decided mark of difference for which Sikhs may have paid a heavy price last Sunday
when gunman Wade Michael Page began shooting his way through a gurdwara, or Sikh house of
worship, in Oak Creek, a suburb of Milwaukee.
Police have yet to define a motive, but in the Sikh community, the fear is that they were targeted by

3. someone who knew little about their beliefs.
Lehigh University English professor Amardeep Singh wrote on his blog this week that the turban
amplifies the hostility felt by some.
"The turban that Sikh men wear is the embodiment of a kind of difference or otherness that can
provoke some Americans to react quite viscerally," Singh wrote. "I increasingly feel that visible
marks of religious difference are lightning rods for this hostility in ways that don't depend on
accurate recognition.
"I am not sure why the reaction can be so visceral - perhaps because wearing a turban is at once so
intimate and personal and so public? Walking around waving, say, an Iranian flag probably wouldn't
provoke quite the same reaction. A flag is abstract - a turban, as something worn on the body, is
much more concrete and it therefore poses a more palpable (more personal?) symbol for angry
young men looking for someone to target. Whether or not that target was actually the "right one"
was besides the point for the Oak Creek shooter."
Harkarit Soin says his family knew one of the victims well. Satwant Singh Kaleka, who served as
president of the gurdwara, had presided over prayers and rituals at Soin's sister's wedding.
"Why are we being targeted?" Soin says. "Despite educating people, it seems nothing has changed
since 9/11."
Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter
As the community stands in solidarity after tragedy, Harkarit Soin says he is considering wrapping a
turban again.

4. "I think this was my vanity," he says about cutting his hair. "I wanted to conform. But why should I
be ashamed of whom I am? We are a hardworking community. And we have been through a lot."
Soin is proud to be an American, he says. Proud to be Sikh - and of an identity marked by a turban.