LONDON: Sikhs feel "let down" by the British government's failure to tackle race crimes and discrimination, not just at home but elsewhere in Europe, the Sikh Federation said yesterday. In a statement at the start of the National Sikh Convention in Wolverham-pton, near Birmingham in the English Midlands, it urged London to use its turn at the rotating EU presidency to defend the Sikh identity in Europe. "In recent years, the visible Sikh identity has been increasingly challenged and threatened in the United Kingdom and other parts of the European Union," said the federation. It recalled how Sikhs, a faith of south Asian origin unrelated to Islam, nevertheless found themselves victimised after the September 11 attacks in the US in 2001 carried out by Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. It also condemned a French law that bans the wearing of "conspicuous" religious insignia in state schools, such as headscarves worn by Muslim women and turbans worn by Sikh men. The Sikh religion forbids male followers from cutting their hair and obliges them to wear a turban. "Sikhs meeting to mark the fourth anniversary of September 11 feel let down by the UK government in that it has not adequately acknowledged and tackled race hate crimes against Sikhs and their religious institutions," it said.

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