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Hansra
pens down book about Sikhs for those who are not
WSN Network
 Sacramento: As fear levels rose after
9/11 and many a Sikh felt they were being targetted wrongly, the
community made efforts to underline that the Sikhs and the Arabs
were two worlds apart.
Sikh men wear turbans and were often confused with the popular
images of Osama bin Laden, the turbaned head of Al Queda.
But for Mira Loma High School student Harkirat Hansra, the efforts
were clearly not enough, and he felt the acute need to explain
himself to his peers and friends and the American society at large.
"I wanted to take away the fear of the unknown," says the author of
"Liberty at Stake -- Sikhs: The Most Visible Yet Misunderstood
Minority in America."
The 17-year-old has now written a book to explain who he is and what
he believes in. His book is about Sikhs but not for them. His
audience is everyone else. Born in San Jose, his parents came to the
United States from India.
As Hansra notes at the beginning of his book, he is one of two
students at his high school who wear a turban. In the book, Hansra
has highlighted the main attributes of the Sikhs with scores of
bullet points, something that will help even a very casual bok
browsing person to pick up a tip or two about the religion.
One heading states that "Sikhs DO NOT believe in: terrorism or
hurting people, hate or racial profiling, war based on religion and
converting other people to Sikhism."
Hansra shares his dreams with any typical American young man, and
aspires for a career in the sciences, loves sports, plays soccer,
basketball, baseball and tennis, and is a fan of the San Francisco
49ers.
11 July, 2007
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