btw for me it’s not the “love trumps hate” thing. it’s the fact that he didn’t respond by transferring the hate onto a different community. this is what the ex president of the united states did – he distanced himself from muslims in order to survive islamophobic attacks. that’s why colin powell became such a hero when he said what no politician was saying: what’s wrong with being muslim? why can’t the president be muslim? and it’s not just jagmeet, a lot of sikhs refuse to defend themselves against islamophobia by saying they are not muslim. i appreciate that solidarity. hence this post.
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Jagmeet Singh: Many people have commented that I could have just said I’m not Muslim. In fact, many have clarified that I’m actually Sikh. While I’m proud of who I am, I purposely didn’t go down that road because it suggests their hate would be ok if I was Muslim. We all know it’s not. I didn’t answer the question because my response to Islamophobia has never been ‘I’m not Muslim.’ It has always been and will be that ‘hate is wrong.’ More here.