Sikh Harvard student abused, harassed

BOSTON, MS — A 22-year-old Sikh Indian American, studying at the prestigious Harvard Law School, was allegedly abused and harassed at a store near the campus by a man who mistook him for a Muslim.

Harmann Singh, a first-year law student at the university, said he was shopping in a store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while speaking on the phone with his mother, when a man walked in and said to the clerk behind the counter, "Oh look, there’s a (expletive) Muslim."

According to Singh, the man started following him around the store, harassing him and asking him where he was from. Singh, who is from Buffalo, New York, said he tried to ignore the man and continued his conversation with his mother, who was worried.

She could hear the man questioning Singh and told her son to leave the shop. Singh said the man followed him to the checkout counter.

"I told him, ‘Hey I’m actually from New York. I live here now down the street. Is there anything I can do to help you?’" Singh said.

The man did not respond and Singh left the store as quickly as possible.

A bystander who checks in with the person being harassed in any situation can make all the difference, he said.

The owner of the store said that he was going back and forth between the back and front of the shop at the time of the incident that took place on November 11 and saw the man who spoke to Singh come in.

He said he had planned to ask the man to leave, but went to the back of the store when the incident occurred. Both Singh and the other man were gone when he returned.

He said he was shocked and sorry when his clerk told him what happened.