Hate crimes against Sikhs in the United States soared to a new high in 2025, even as overall hate crimes registered a drop, according to a preliminary FBI report reviewed by the US news portal Axios. Hate-driven attacks on Sikhs rose from 6 in 2015 to 228 in 2025- an increase of 3,700 % over the decade. In comparison, overall hate crimes went up by 88% in the same period. Although 2025 recorded 11% fewer hate crimes compared to the previous year.
The numbers only highlight what the minority communities in the US have been facing for a long. A report by the US-based civil rights group Sikh Coalition last year found Sikhs were the third most-targeted religious group after Jews and Muslims in hate crimes. Experts say hate crimes increase in response to catalyzing events such as elections, geo-political conflicts or terror attacks and do not abate even after the event passes. Post 9/11, Sikhs have faced attacks and discrimination due to mistaken identities. According to a factsheet by the Sikh Coalition, the organization recorded over 300 cases of violence and discrimination against Sikh Americans in the first month after the 9/11 terror attack in 2001. These attacks occurred because the Sikh articles of faith, their turban, in particular, were associated with terrorism.
A 2013 study published by Stanford Peace Innovation Lab found that many Americans associated turbans with Osama bin Laden and that 49 percent of Americans believed that Sikhism was a sect of Islam. Post 9/11, there was an increase in school bullying, discrimination at work and racial and religious profiling of the Sikh community. A 2024 study by Sikh Coalition found that Sikh children continue to be bullied at rates much higher than the national average and that turbaned male students especially remain frequent targets of physical attacks and bullying. FBI started tracking anti-Sikh hate crimes from 2013 onwards. These statistics, the Sikh community hopes, will lead to concrete steps to counter such hate crimes.
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