After an assault on an Uber driver that appears to have been based upon the driver's religion and ethnicity is being investigated in the Sheriff's office in Illinois. The driver Gurpreet Singh is a religious leader at a gurudwara who has long beard and wears a turban. The faith which the driver belongs to is Sikh faith which is an Indian monotheistic religion. Sikh men in America have been seen victims of many hate crimes in the past years. They have been repeatedly been confused with Muslims as to their appearance and have been as a result victims of such crimes. In the past, a man was murdered after the 9/11 immediately by an assailant who had mistaken the Sikh to be an Arab, alongside with six members of a Sikh temple being killed in a mass shooting in Wisconsin.
The advocacy organization of the Sikh Coalition said that the passenger pulled out and pointed the gun in the driver and spoke “I hate turban people, I hate beard people.” The organisation leaders directed their anger on Wednesday after a confrontation with the Rock Island County Sheriff Gerry Bustos that the passenger is freely waking and has not been arrested till yet since the attack. The driver had told about the incident to the police authorities on Jan 29, which was the day after it happened. The Sheriff said the Washington Post that he would charge the assaulter with a charge of aggravated assault and further charges by the end of the week, after receiving information that the office of the Sheriff’s office has ordered from Uber through a search warrant. The investigators have examined the driver and a few other passengers who were in the car and more investigations are to be followed, said the Sheriff.
After the investigation, the Sheriff told that the driver after picking up two passengers together from Moline, Illinois at 11pm drove them in the direction of Milan, Illinois which was the passengers destination. After reaching the place, the driver and the male passenger seemed to be involved in a heated argument. The Sheriff Bustos spike that he could not acknowledge the words the argument involved until further investigation. But he said in brief that it was particularly about the loyalties of people and on where people were particularly from.
The Sikh Coalition said that the male passenger asked some questions to Singh, the driver such as “What is your status here? Which country do you belong? Do you serve our country or your own?” The Sikh Coalition also said that as a legal resident of the U.S. Singh couldn't speak English very fluently spoke in return that he served both. After which as Singh said that the passenger pulled out the gun and said that he hated “turban” people. Due to the assistance of the passenger's female companion everything didn't turned out very bad and she forced his partner out of the car. She also apologized to Singh and told him to drive away. The Sheriff in conclusion said that he would solve this case and would do everything in his power do justice.
