Source: Los Angeles Times
Balmeet Singh stepped outside a burger shop in a strip mall to wish his 13-year-old cousin a happy birthday when the stranger squared up against him.
“So, you’re going to blow up this country?” the man said. “You’re trying to blow up this country?”
He threw a drink in Singh’s face, his long beard and burgundy turban the intended target. Then the man threatened to kill him.
A dozen people sat in the nearby patio. Singh scanned their faces. No one said anything. Singh had never felt so alone.
The September attack left the 31-year-old real estate agent among the swelling ranks of Sikhs targeted, in many cases, after being mistaken for Muslim — a phenomenon that gained momentum after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.