In the latest diversity-themed atrocity in New York City, Dr. Prabhjot Singh, a physician whose “life’s work has been to help the underprivileged access quality and affordable healthcare” (go on, let your cynicism out for a run) was badly beaten in Harlem on Saturday.  By teens.

The victim said the group of teens shouted “Get Osama” before punching and kicking him . . . Police are investigating whether an attack on a Columbia professor by a group of teens in Harlem was a hate crime . . . have released surveillance video of the teens suspected in the assault . . .  was attacked by a group of teens over the weekend . . . was confronted by more than a dozen teens on bicycles who shouted slurs before attacking him . . . Singh believes he could have died if passersby hadn’t helped get the teens off him . . .  [“Sikh Professor Who Wrote About Hate Crimes Gets Attacked by Teens,” NBC New York, September 23^rd.]

Latest information on the case is that the teens—gasp!—appear to be dark-skinned:

In his first comments since the brutal attack, Singh tells BuzzFeed that he doesn’t remember much about the suspects—except that most were African-American . . . [“Sikh-American Columbia University Professor Beaten In Apparent Hate Crime As Suspects Yelled ‘Osama’,” BuzzFeed, September 23^rd.]

Here’s the thing I want to know.

Pious Sikh males are required by their scriptures to carry a ceremonial sword, the kirpan, at all times.

During the baptism ceremony the initiate is instructed in the duties and obligations of becoming a Khalsa (one belonging to the Divine). The Khalsa is expected to live by the high moral standards of the Sikh Gurus at all times which includes such things as abstaining from smoking, drinking and other intoxicants, performing daily prayers and always maintaining the distinctive physical symbols of Sikhism on their person. The most noticeable of these being uncut hair and carrying the Kirpan.

This injunction appears in the Rehat Maryada (The Official Sikh Code of Conduct); “Have, on your person, all the time, the five K’s: The Keshas (unshorn hair), the Kirpan (sheathed sword), the Kachhehra (drawers like garment), the Kanga (comb), the Karha (steel bracelet).” (Rehat Maryada, Ceremony of Baptism or Initiation, Section 6, Chapter XIII, Article XXIV, paragraph (p).)  [“Understanding the kirpan for non-Sikhs,” by Sandeep Singh Brar.]

Sure, there’s some stuff later on about the kirpan being purely ceremonial and not a weapon.  That strikes me as boob bait for the infidel bubbas, though, like Moslems telling us that jihad is just a set of spiritual exercises.  Right.

Among those who have been historically acquainted with it, Sikhism does not have the reputation as being a turn-the-other-cheek religion.  I speak as one who spent a fair amount of time in my 1950s childhood sitting in living-rooms adorned with tiger-skin rugs listening to ex-Indian Army types reminiscing.  The Sikhs were scary.

So why did Dr. Singh not whip out his kirpan and ask the teens kiko kissywarsti they didn’t hamsher argy jow?  Have Sikhs now been pussified along with the rest of us?  Is modern Western civilization just a great engine of pussification?  If so, why isn’t it pussifying teens?

In related news:  A reader, commenting on the Kenyan mall-massacre Islamists, writes that they too “appear to be dark-skinned.”

Well, not all of them, Sir.

“White widow” Islamist Samantha Lewthwaite was just an average British girl who was “empty in confidence,” a councillor who knew her as a youngster has said.

But today suspicion is mounting that she was the ringleader behind a bloody massacre in a Kenyan shopping centre in which more than 60 unarmed victims have been slain.

[“White Widow's 85-year-old grandmother is taken to hospital after collapsing with stress as neighbours in her home town speak of their shock,” Daily Mail, September 24^th.]