In a campaign ad distributed by mail this week, Donald Trump showed a photo of American man Gurinder Singh Khalsa, labelling him a Muslim supporter of the Republican presidential candidate. But it turns out Khalsa is not Muslim, and is not a Trump supporter. Local TV station WHTR’s Kevin Rader in the US state of Indiana reported the mistake.
Khalsa is Sikh, a group often mislabelled as Muslim due to their South Asian appearance, head coverings and beards. He immigrated to the US from India, and founded the political action committee Sikhs PAC.
Khalsa is angry at the Trump campaign for the error. “He (Trump) is putting my picture, saying Muslims support him and I have nothing to do with it. I do not support Trump. Nobody even asked me to put that picture there,” he told WHTR.
Some Indian media sites, like India TV, also reported WHTR’s story.
Trump has few Muslim supporters, owing in large part to his proposed temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the US.
However, Trump does attract some Indian-American support. While most are Democrats, earlier this month, the New York Times reported that some Hindu nationalists in the US and India are backing Trump.
AL
