{"id":75733,"date":"2016-06-27T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=75733"},"modified":"2016-06-27T12:19:13","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T11:19:13","slug":"they-called-me-osama-a-documentary-to-teach-people-about-sikh-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/06\/they-called-me-osama-a-documentary-to-teach-people-about-sikh-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They Called Me Osama\u2019 – A Documentary to Teach People about Sikh Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

22 Jun 2016 – <\/em>A new documentary film, \u201cThey Called Me Osama<\/a>,\u201d released earlier this month seeks to educate people about the Sikh religion and the experiences of Sikhs in America, including\u00a0bullying in schools<\/a>,\u00a0racism<\/a>, and\u00a0hate violence<\/a>. The film, made by\u00a0Maneetpaul Singh Chawla<\/a>\u00a0with funding from the University of Connecticut\u2019s IDEA grant program, aims at preventing abuses of Sikhs and informing mainstream Americans about the centuries old Sikh religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis film was made for people who have never heard of a Sikh before,\u201d Chawla told NBC News. \u201cSpeaking from first-hand experience, it is clear that the majority of the public does not know what the Sikh religion is or why we look the way we do. I hope my film will help spread awareness and answer some of the basic questions people have when they first see a Sikh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 9\/11, Sikhs have been the target of violent crimes, and that troubling trend continues to grow as most Americans are ignorant about the religion, often confusing the turban-wearing Sikhs with beards for terrorists or Muslims. Many Sikh advocacy groups in the U.S. are raising consciousness about their religion, which is considered the fifth largest religion in the world.<\/p>\n

Maneetpaul Singh Chawla of Trumbull, Connecticut, is a 22-year-old Indian American filmmaker, who has created the short documentary which talks about the discrimination and racial abuse faced by Sikh Americans in the U.S. It features firsthand accounts of various victims of hate crimes, cyber racism and bullying. The film underscores the various virtues of the religion \u2013 how it was founded, what it believes in and its ideologies \u2013 in its effort to educate those unfamiliar with Sikhism.<\/p>\n

The documentary features Jagraj Singh, a British YouTuber \u2013 who founded and runs Everything\u2019s 13, a Sikh educational charity \u2013 conducting street interviews at New York\u2019s Times Square, to find out if people know about Sikhs.<\/p>\n

The video opens with a mic-wielding Singh\u2019s seemingly futile attempts to get people to listen to him. When he does get their attention, most of the answers to his question about whether they know anything about the Sikhs end in blank stares.<\/p>\n

Paramvir Singh Soni, chairperson of the Guru Nanank Foundation of America, acknowledged that there is a sense of fear in the community and said Sikh Americans are touched by the steps being taken by Obama.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still looking for stronger actions against hate crimes. I think there we need to do some more work, but we are making progress,\u201d he said. Singh said the community wants to have the next president as one who can address its challenge. \u201cSomeone who is more open to the Sikh community, somebody who is more engaged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rajwant Singh, Washington-based chairman of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education, said the Sikh community is very concerned about the possible backlash from the Orlando killings.<\/p>\n

Chawla, who recently graduated from the University of Connecticut Stamford with a dual degree in business administration and digital media design, obtained funding for the video through the university\u2019s IDEA grant program. The film was shot primarily in New York City, with some scenes in Atlanta and Ohio.<\/p>\n

____________________________________<\/p>\n

Ajay Ghosh is chief editor of<\/em> The Universal News Network.<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theunn.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

22 Jun 2016 – This new documentary film seeks to educate people about the Sikh religion and the experiences of Sikhs in America including bullying in schools, racism, and hate violence. It was made with funding from the University of Connecticut and aims at preventing abuses of Sikhs and informing about the centuries old Sikh religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}