A trope of racism is that all members of a racialised group must, at all times, be citizens of the most unimpeachable character. Should any members fail to meet that standard, no matter how big or small the infraction, the whole group and its culture are immediately indicted.
So it is that we find ourselves in a situation where there is a horrific backlash against the British Sikh community, because a member of their community (it’s also worth noting that he was a member of the British community, too) murdered another young man. Who we are supposed to infer was more British than the perpetrator, Vickrum Digwa.
The victim, Henry Nowak, was seen as one of ‘their own’, a Brit. Digwa, on the other hand, is seen as foreign, so too is everything he believes in. And everything foreign is dangerous to the so-called white “civilised” majority.
However, the calls to ban the Kirpan, a small knife carried by Sikhs as part of their religious practice, are not made so that Sikhs will somehow become ‘more British’. Britishness and indeed whiteness are not qualities one can assume by behaving in ways that are vaguely defined by patriots, Brits, and institutions that implicitly exclude ‘us’, the racialised other. They are hard racial categories that are essentialized and inalienable. Which means the demand for unimpeachable conduct was never a genuine offer.
There was nothing Sikhs could have done, and nothing they can do.
The murder, which was tragic to be sure, has now sparked the same kind of racist vitriol against Sikhs that Muslims have become used to over the last few decades. And despite discovering that the weapon Digwa actually used was a dagger about 8 inches long, not a kirpan at all, various fascist agitators are still calling for the religious symbol to be banned.
A long history of racism to rely on
The kirpan worn by British Sikhs is part of their five K’s. Calling for its ban based on a murder by a single Sikh man who used a completely different object altogether exposes, not for the first time, the bad-faith reasoning of far-right British Patriots. This was all too obvious when they also started targeting Muslims through this campaign.
The gap in logic here is exactly where the racism operates, allowed to breed and fester unchecked for over twenty years, longer if we take a more historical view.
Like all racism, it is structurally embedded and therefore unfalsifiable: a challenge to banning the kirpan is a challenge to British institutions as a cultural, political, social and legal idea. This is why it can be dressed up, at face value, as a legal argument for equality when it is anything but. No amount of arguing, placating, cosying up, befriending, genuflecting, or assimilating can appease it.
Without meaning to decentre the Sikh community, we do need to talk about Islamophobia. Not least of all because Tommy Robinson and others at the Southampton riots used this moment as an opportunity to blame Muslims, but most importantly because the rampant Islamophobia we’ve experienced for decades is precisely the structural racism used to justify demonising the Sikh community and their practices.
I am not arguing that Sikhs are now victims of Islamophobia, but that the logic is now being extended to them. Not for the first time, it must be noted. In 2018, after a march in support of Robinson, his supporters attacked a mosque and a gurdwara in Leeds. This is not the only gurdwara to have been attacked; some have had Islamophobic graffiti spray painted on them.
There are numerous other examples of Sikhs being attacked because they were confused for Muslims. In 2015, Zack Davies attempted to murder Sikh dentist Sarandev Bhambra in retaliation for the murder of Lee Rigby. Many Sikh men have had their turbans ripped off. All this tells us one thing: Muslims and Sikhs are interchangeable victims. Islamophobia targets Sikhs for no other reason than that they are brown.
I said earlier that there is nothing that Sikhs can do. Perhaps I misspoke. There is always the choice to resist the narrative, a resistance that we as Muslims must stand in solidarity with. Not only because it stems from the same racism that we are subjected to, but also because standing with the wronged is a duty for us.
After all, there is a history of our communities coming together. The previous generation of violent fascists: the National Front, Combat 18, etc., targeted us all wholesale as well. In those days, instead of being targeted for our Muslimness, we were targeted for being “Pakis”. We resisted together, like in 1979 when the National Front organised a meeting in Southall. But also as recently as 2024, when the Sikh community came and stood guard alongside Muslims at Mosques.
The fascists have always known we are the same enemy to them. It is time we acted like we know it, too. Nadeem Dawud studied History at Oxford and King’s College London, where he completed a Master’s in World History and Cultures. His interests lie in decolonialism, anarchism, and building resilient communities. A long-time activist in the UK Muslim community, he now focuses on grassroots projects that speak locally but resonate globally, and he co-hosts the Boys in the Cave podcast. Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or its staff.