by Sharon Adarlo and Tom Haydon/The Star-Ledger Police in Carteret say they are investigating two attacks this month against members of the borough’s Sikh community as possible bias incidents. One of the incidents involved a 10-year-old boy who had his turban ripped from his head and his hair cut, police said. The boy was walking home from Nathan Hale Elementary School at about 3 p.m. Oct. 8 when someone wearing a black mask threw the fifth grader to ground, took off his turban and used a knife or scissors to cut a few inches of hair from his head, according to a police report. Sikh men are required by their religion to protect their hair, which they are forbidden from cutting because it is considered a gift from God. Carteret police are also investigating an attack Monday against a 67-year-old Sikh as he was walking in Carteret Park at 4:30 a.m. A man knocked him to the ground and kicked him in the face, causing multiple facial cuts and bruising around his eye, police said. The attacker did not demand cash and walked away after the assault, police said. The Sikh-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a civil rights advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., has contacted the FBI about the attacks. “It seems like a new trend,” said Linda Singh, a Carteret resident who is active in the Sikh community. “(Sikh) people have been here a long time. So this is new, this stuff happening.” Carteret has become a magnet community for the more than 25,000 Sikhs living in New Jersey. An estimated 1,000 of the borough’s 22,000 residents are Sikhs. http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/10/carteret_police_investigating.html NJ.com
