A mob of at least 20 men attacked and beat a Columbia University professor while shouting anti-Muslim remarks in New York City on Saturday night and is being investigated by police as a hate crime, according to the Huffington Post.
Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a professor at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs, is a Sikh who has a long beard and wears a turban. Singh was out for a walk along 110th Street shortly after dropping off his wife and child at home when he was accosted, according to Gawker.
"I saw young men on bikes. I heard, 'Get him!' and 'Osama' and 'terrorist,' not all at the same time," Singh told the Huffington Post. "I felt somebody grab my beard and hit my chin while on a bike. I started running in the direction away from where all the bikes were mobilizing, and then was punched while running. Eventually they surrounded me, and [I] was hit to the ground with punches to the face and torso."
Singh suffered a fractured jaw among other injuries in the attack; an oral surgeon had to wire Singh's jaw shut. It could have been much worse if it weren't for passersby who intervened and stopped the attack, according to USA Today.
Singh has spoken out about violence against Sikhs in the United States in the past. A year ago the New York Times published an op-ed by Singh addressing a shooting that killed six people at a Sikh temple in Milwaukee.
"The government must begin tracking and counting anti-Sikh hate crimes, just as it must continue to vigorously combat bias and discrimination against all Americans, including Muslims," Singh wrote. "We must do away with a flawed and incomplete assumption of 'mistaken identity' regarding Sikhs; until we do, we will all be the ones who are mistaken."
Singh hopes that the people who attacked him are brought to justice but told the Huffington Post that more needs to be done to assure that similar attacks don't happen in the future.
"Ultimately, to simply punish the individuals who've acted out on hate crimes is insufficient," Singh said. "More broadly, we need to have a real national conversation around who looks American, what does it mean to be American."
