Prabhjot Singh, Sikh Columbia Professor, Attacked in NYC in Likely Hate Crime

Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a Sikh man who is a professor at Columbia University, was attacked by several young men in what appears to be a possible hate crime, according to reports.

Singh, who wears a beard and a turban, was attacked at 8:15 p.m. while walking near Lenox Avenue and 110th Street in Manhattan. The suspects in the attack shouted anti-Muslim statements before punching him in the face and knocking him down, he told the Huffington Post.

“I saw young men on bikes. I heard, ‘Get him!’ and ‘Osama’ and ‘terrorist,’ not all at the same time,” he told the 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.”

He is a doctor and an an assistant professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.

He told BuzzFeed that when the attack took place, he was walking past a group of 25 or 30 young men, many of whom were on bikes. He said one of them grabbed his beard and hit him on the chin.

“This is my community, I live in Harlem, I see patients here,” he told the website. “It’s not the side of Harlem I’ve come to know and not how I’ve been embraced.”

The New York Police Department said that the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.

“His teeth were displaced, they were dislodged and loose. They suspected that he had a fracture, it turns out he had multiple fractures. He had a small puncture in his elbow as well,” friend Simran Jeet Singh said.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations issued a statement, condemning the attack, noting that Sikh men who wear beards and turbans are often mistook as being Muslim.

“New York’s religious and political leaders must speak out forcefully against the type of bigotry that leads to hate attacks on people of all faiths and backgrounds,” said council organizer Sadyia Khalique.