Passenger next to sleeping Sikh man posts video on YouTube, terms it ‘flying with Bin Laden’

Darshan Singh didn’t speak to his co-passenger on the Jet Blue flight.

By Dileep Thekkethil

A flight journey of an elderly Sikh man ended in humiliation as a co-passenger shot a candid video of him sleeping and put it up on YouTube with a caption ‘flying with Bin Laden’.

The video, which was uploaded on YouTube on December 9 by a YouTuber named “sila kila”, has been getting angry comments with people once again raising the issue of “Sikhophobia” and “Islamophobia”, which is on the rise in the US.

The video was allegedly shot by a passenger who was aboard a Jet Blue flight from New York to California. The person who shot the video was seated next to Darshan Singh, who was apparently sleeping. The video was posted with a title ‘Would you feel safe?’ and below that he wrote a caption ‘flying with Bin Laden’.

Singh was quoted saying that he didn’t exchange words with the man who was sitting next to him, and was surprised to see the video of him online.

As of now the video has received 83,000 views on YouTube and over 1,000 users have disliked the video. The number of likes the video got has not surpassed three digits.

A user named Caroleeena commented, “Not if I had to sit next to you. You are clearly stupid and racist. There’s no telling what an ignoramus (someone who is both ignorant and an asshole) like you might do. Give me a Sikh over an ignoranus any day. (What an embarrassment for our country.)”

Another YouTuber wrote, “Everyone watching this video REPORT it for ‘hateful and abusive content’ the guy is triggering everyone to watch it so he can make money off of the advertisements!?”

The daughter of Darshan Singh, who saw the shocking video of her sleeping father being called ‘Bin Laden’ reported it to YouTube as hateful video and took the incident to a non-profit advocacy group called United Sikhs.

“Incidents like this are shocking. No one, Sikh, Muslim, or otherwise should be afraid to travel. These types of incidents only weaken the fabric of our nation. It is everyone’s responsibility to be aware of acts of ignorance around them and to report them when they see them. Only then can we unify ourselves against hate, ignorance, and discrimination.” said Jaspreet Kaur, staff attorney, United Sikhs, in  statement.

Hate crimes against Sikhs have been rampant in the US since the 9/11 attacks and the horrific shooting in San Bernardino, California, earlier this month, on December 2,  has increased the hostility.

Sikhism is the world’s 5th largest religion, but Sikhs are often mistaken for Muslims in the US.

In a similar incident, a photo of a former Trinity University basketball player, who was the first turbaned player in the NCAA, was posted with a racist caption “Nobody wants to guard Muhammad, he’s too explosive.”

Later, a friend of the basketball player commented, “Do the world a favor and educate yourself” which received thousands of likes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-EJOWRMOtU