At a campaign event in Iowa Tuesday, Mitt Romney bungled the name of the religious group victimized by a mass shooting over the weekend in Wisconsin. From National Journal:
“We obviously have challenges around the country. I was in Chicago earlier today. We had a moment of silence in honor of the people who lost their lives at that sheik temple,” he said, according to pool reports. “I noted that it was a tragedy for many, many reasons. Among them are the fact that people, the sheik people are among the most peaceable and loving individuals you can imagine, as is their faith. And of course, the person who carried out this heinous act was a person motivated by racial hatred and religious intolerance.”
The New York-based Sikh Coalition says the correct pronunciation is ‘sik’ with a slightly aspirated ‘h’ at the end.Group spokesman Amardeep Singh says ‘seek’ is an Americanized pronunciation. He says it’s incorrect, although many members of the predominantly Indian religion do use it for simplification.
Romney’s not the only candidate who pronounces Sikh, “seek”. Here’s President Obama saying it that way this week:
