Romney Honors Mourning “Sheiks”

At a fundraiser in Iowa last night, Mitt Romney discussed the condolences he had offered to the “sheik” people at an event earlier that day in the Chicago area:

“We had a moment of silence in honor of the people who lost their lives at that sheik temple. 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.”

What? ”Sheik” is an Arabic honorific. We’re pretty sure he was just trying to…show respect for the Sikh people? Using a term of honor from a completely different language? To show that the world is united behind them? We got nothing.

To be fair, Romney correctly called them “Sikhs” at the Chicago event earlier in the day.  Romney spokesman Rick Gorka said the candidate had simply “mispronounced similar sounding words.” 

Mitt, for your reference at future events:

 

 

 

 

 

 

/ 

 

/

/

/

Sikh Photo: Joel Frieson/wiki

/