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CNN Live At Daybreak
America's New War: Living in Fear
Aired September 26, 2001 - 07:20 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In the backlash following the terrorist attacks, some Muslim and Arab-Americans were targeted because of their appearance. Some Sikh Americans have also been singled out because of their turbans, a symbol of the religion.
CNN's Rusty Dornin visits one American family living in fear.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Born in the USA, 8-year-old Jajhaar Singh, like most American kids, loves baseball.
JAJHAAR SINGH, 8 YEARS OLD: OK, you really want me to?
DORNIN: But since the attack the only place his parents will let him play is in his own backyard.
JAJHAAR SINGH: I can't play basketball. I can't go on the street. I have to be really extra careful.
DORNIN: Extra careful because Jajhaar and his 6-year-old brother are Sikhs, a religion formed 500 years ago in India. In public, Sikh men and some women wear turbans, turbans that often mean they are mistaken for Muslims.
JAJHAAR SINGH: I usually say it's called a turban and we don't cut our hair because we're Sikhs and we believe in one god.
DR. CHARON KAMAL SINGH, MOTHER: They look different with their little turbans and their dark skin and I just don't want anybody randomly coming by in a car and either yelling out something at them or, you know, my big fear is a shooting.
J.J. SINGH, FATHER: Right now they're not allowed outdoors at all, whether it be basketball or a walk in the park or going to a friend's house.
JAJHAAR SINGH: I went to recess...
DORNIN: Every day, their mother Charon meets them at school on foot and walks them to the car. Then it's off to karate or computer class. She used to run errands during class. Now she parks herself right at the front door.
JAJHAAR SINGH: Now she sometimes stays with us instead of going.
DORNIN (on camera): Do you know why?
JAJHAAR SINGH: Yes.
DORNIN: Why?
JAJHAAR SINGH: Cause somebody might shoot us or something.
DORNIN (voice-over): At home, a well loved scooter stands idle, bicycles hung up indefinitely. The reasons don't make sense to an 8- year-old.
JAJHAAR SINGH: Just because they look different doesn't mean -- or they have a beard or something doesn't mean they're bad. Even if we were Muslims, it doesn't matter. If one person did it, that doesn't mean all the Muslims are bad.
DORNIN: Inside four walls, a family makes the best of it while sometimes imagining the worst.
DR. CHARON KAMAL SINGH: It is claustrophobic, to some extent. It is shocking. It is just unnerving and to imagine it happening here with freedom of everything and liberty, it's scary.
UNIDENTIFIED BROTHER: Hi, daddy.
DORNIN: For the Singhs, it's the current cost of living the American dream in troubled times.
Rusty Dornin, CNN, Menlo Park, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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