From Thinkprogress: Often, the hate crimes against Sikhs originate out of misdirected Islamophobia: Sikh men can most easily be identified by their long beards and turbans, which they wear according to religious doctrine. Assailants will mistake these men for Muslims. According to a report by Reuters, Sikh groups have seen huge spikes in hate crimes since September 11th, 2001, right at the same time when anti-Muslim sentiment in the country began to grow rapidly.

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This time it was a place of worship attacked by some nut wielding a legally purchased semi-automatic pistol. Yesterday, a white supremacist named Wade Michael Page apparently walked into a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek Wisconsin and opened fire with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. The alleged gunman killed six before he was himself killed by a police officer returning fire.

As Thinkprogress has pointed out, Sikhs have sometimes been targeted by Islamophobes under the mistaken assumption that they are Muslims. This ugliness is likely to continue as right wing becomes more and more overt in openly attacking Muslims simply for being Muslims. Minnesota Representative Michelle Bachman has initiated what can only be described as a modern McCarthyite attack on Muslims like Hilary Clinton Aide Huma Abedin, and has been joined by Reps Trent Franks, Louie Gohmert, Tom Rooney and Lynn Westmoreland. Mosques have been vandalized and firebombed, their very right to exist under attack, not just by thugs with gasoline cans and spray paint, but by local groups seeking to stop new mosques from even being built. From the Louisiana congresswoman who thought Muslim applicants wouldn’t be included in proposed funding bill for religious schools, to the people in Tennessee outraged by the fact that a single Muslim student prays in an empty room during lunch:

Currently one Muslim student at Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro is allowed to pray in an empty room during lunch, said James Evans, spokesman for Rutherford County Schools.

Evans pointed out that Christian students hold a lunch Bible study at the same school and that a Christian club there called First Priority has several hundred members.

(Pete) Doughtie (owner of a local free newspaper) said Muslim students should assimilate to Christian culture. Rather than allowing Muslim students to pray, he’d rather see all students take part in a Christian prayer each day at school.

…these people are apparently unable to grasp that the religious freedom granted in our First Amendment applies to everyone – even nonChristian religions they dislike.

Oh, by the way, a Mosque burned down this morning in Joplin Missouri. It had been targeted by arsonists twice, once by someone burning a sign, more recently by a man spotted on security camera leaving incendiary material on the mosque’s roof in an attempted arson that fortunately did little damage.

The most recent fire destroyed the building. It has been deemed suspicious.